Introducing Holt

Posted on August 29, 2012

Whew, where has the summer gone! Since my last post life has been full of travel, change and surprises. I’ve been on several excursions full of knitting and yarny goodness, and have been collecting pictures to share with you, but apparently got too busy to upload them before departing on my next adventure. 🙂 For now, I’d like to introduce you to my newest pattern, Holt:

photos by Kathy Cadigan

This little number was inspired by the lovely Malabrigo yarns and is part of their Malabrigo Quickies series—quick patterns that use only one or two skeins. It only requires 15-20 yards of the contrasting color, so it’s great for using up scraps and leftovers, especially of that gorgeous luxury yarn that you only have a few yards left but can’t bear to throw away. Or use it as an excuse to buy those cute little mini-skeins that you see at festivals but never know what to do with.

I like what Alex (Malabrigo’s friendly Project Coordinator) said about the color combo:

It reminds me of those cool Scratch-Art things I loved as a kid! (You know, where you scratch the black ink off and reveal the rainbow colors underneath?)

Unlike some of my other patterns, this design wasn’t inspired by any particular theme or event; I just wanted to do something a little geometric and play with the colors. So I struggled to come up with a name that wasn’t totally generic (“Linen Stitch Mitts?” “Linen Stitch Quickies?”). Finally circumstance and a deadline suggested the name: the week before releasing this pattern I was in Iceland, and the photos were taken in a tiny town called Holt. It’s so small, Google Maps defines it as basically three buildings (the church plus two caretaker-type houses). Fun fact: Several of the photos from Stephen West’s Westknits Book Three were taken at the same location. I’ll always remember that location when I see these photos, so the name stuck.

I hope you enjoy this pattern, and stay tuned for more photos and stories from my trip to Iceland!