New from Stephen West

June 18, 2011 2 min read

Those of you who are already big Stephen West fans probably know about his latest design, Spectra,  worked in beautiful Noro Silk Garden Sock.  Like most of Stephen's designs, Spectra has a geometric, almost architectural feel.  There's a rhythm and a logic in the knitting of his patterns. As garments, they're appealing because they have interesting shaping that allows them to drape beautifully and look fabulous worn several  different ways. 




Photo courtesy of Westknit
Photo courtesy of Westknit
























Spectra uses short row shaping and intarsia to create little wedges of the self-striping yarn bounded by a smart garter stitch border. 






Stephen West started blogging about his knitting in 2007.  One of his first patterns, and his most popular to date is Daybreak, published in August of 2009, which has more than 2200 current projects on Ravelry. 


Photo courtesy of knittingowl

Most of the world first discovered West when Knitty published, Colonnade in September 2009.  This gorgeous wrap, worked with three skeins of beautiful Manos del Uruguay is currently his fourth most popular pattern on Ravelry. 


Photo courtesy of Knitty



Photo courtesy of Knitty


Multiple increase points give Colonnade it's great shape and allow it to be worn as a scarf, a shawl, or buttoned as a capelet.  We've been playing in the shop with different colors of Manos and Malabrigo, both of which would be fabulous in Colonnade. It's all about the colors you like and the way you want them to play against one another.  It's 400 yards on a size 10 needle - have fun with it!  It would even be great in Taiyo. Wow - that's something to think about!

A smaller version (Little Colonnade) that uses a fingering weight yarn can be downloaded for $6.00 from Ravelry.  Colonnade is free on Knitty.  

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