This WIP Wednesday I’m happy to share a project I’ve been hoping to start for a loooooong time: the Artus Shawl by Natasja Hornby. What was stopping me? Well, despite the unforgiveable size of my stash, I could not pull together 5 different colors of sport-weight yarn.
I love the challenge of a wider color palette, which I consider to be 5 colors or more. I’ve been using Pinterest a lot lately and started a board just for aesthetic photos that contain intriguing color combos, and an interesting trend emerged: I’m really into purple and green right now. Not to be all Joker-y about it though.
Golds and oranges have also been popping out to me, and I like the contrast of earthy ochres in rock formations and tree bark and more mystical, mermaidy shades that appear in luna moths (and Cape May Fiber had a Luna Moth colorway!), seashells, and tilework. So when I attended the Frederick Fiber Festival and Maryland Sheep and Wool, I went with a mission to find some of these particular shades. I got nearly everything from these trips, and then rounded our my palette with a purchase from Brooklyn Tweed. BT has recently stopped producing their own yarn (but will still be publishing patterns), and they were running a clearance sale. Their beautiful inky blue-violet color “Tapestry”. was a perfect fit, and I ended up getting enough skeins for this shawl and a future sweater.
The Artus palette: Tapestry (deep purple) in Imbue Sport by Brooklyn Tweed, Luna Moth (light green) in Merino Cashmere Silk Sport, Ochre (gold) and Aubergine in Making Tracks Lite by Junction Fiber Mill, and a mystery stash yarn in a deep blue-green.
Now that I’ve cast on I’m locked the fuck in on this shawl. I’m extremely engaged. There are three small sections of stranded colorwork at the top of the pattern that I was kind of dreading (I’m not great at stranded, and even worse at it on the wrong side)n and Hornsby made these sections mercifully short – my finger joints thank her. I’m now in the mosaic sections, at the trim of the shawl, where I’m only handling one color of yarn at once. Because mosaic stitches tend to be more tense than stitches worked with no slips, there’s a risk that the long side of the shawl will bend downward instead of maintaining a triangle with straight, defined lines. To avoid this, I’m stretching the slipped stitches in the mosaic charts to the absolute maximum to.keep a similar gauge to the stitches in the waffle stitch section. And I think it’s working! I won’t be able to tell until it’s completely off the needles and blocked, but I’m feeling optimistic.
Now that all five colors have been worked into the project, I’m excited to share a photo that really shows how the palette works.
You know, now that I look at this diamond motif, it vaguely reminds me of someone…
Lol whoops
What I’m Listening to
I got to see one of my favorite bands last week, Amyl and the Sniffers. They’re an Australian punk/pub rock band whose latest album has a little bit of glam, although they haven’t lost a speck of their edge; their single “Jerkin’” is about as catchy and contemptuous as can be imagined. But among their harder, nastier songs like “GFY”, they have plenty of tracks that are deeply heartfelt and earnest, like “Knifey”, which is dedicated to victims of femicide, and “Big Dreams”, which offer words of encouragement to anyone struggling to figure out their life’s trajectory. That sincerity feels like a binding element of the band, judging by the ease of their on-stage banter with each other (which includes some great, groan-worthy dad jokes). Amyl and the Sniffers offers a truly electric live performance, and I can’t wait for their return to the US.
The cover of Amyl and the Sniffers’ newest album, Cartoon Darkness
I’ve talked about my appreciation for Junction Fiber Mill on here before, and specifically their colorway “Constellation”. I picked up a sweater quantity with no plan during the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival in 2024, but when I returned to their booth last weekend I was proud to show them what I had made with it: Andrea Gaughan’s Junco Sweater.
I was first turned onto Andrea Gaughan from knitwear designer Ellen Coy of Knithow, who is a knit-fit expert and part of a network of designers committed to size and shape-inclusivity. While I was going through Andrea’s portfolio, Junco’s diamond mosaic motif popped out to me immediately. Particularly because the sample in her pattern photos was in black and white natural wool, I was reminded of harlequins.
As striking as the monochrome was, I knew my DK-weight from Junction Fiber was perfect for this project. While mostly purple and gray, “Constellation” has some splashes of ochre and orange, so I wanted to find a rich, warm earth tone to pair with it. I found that at Rhinebeck later in the year from Fiber MacGyver, who was a new vendor at the 2024 festival; their color “Roasted Pecan” was a great complement.
Some wound up cakes of “Constellation” and “Roasted Pecan” sit next to my work-in-progress on Junco
I also adore mosaic knitting; while I want to improve my skill at stranded colorwork, it’s just so nice (and gentler on my knuckles) to only be managing one yarn at a time. Mosaic knitting shows off fractal-spun yarns like Making Tracks so well, and there’s a pixelated, 8-bit charm to the motifs this style creates; I appreciate the juxtaposition between my digital association with mosaic knitting and the millenia-old tile art that it’s named for.
For this project I sized up because I wanted this sweater to be roomy. As I have a 48″ bust circumference, this meant a big investment in the amount of yarn I was using and the time it would take. I also knew I wanted to add length to the body so the sweater would at least hit my hips. This bottom-up design uses an tubular long-tail cast-on for the hem and sleeves, and unfortunately my tension for this part was kind of loose, resulting in a flared silhouette. Instead of redoing it all, I sewed some elastic thread into the wrong side of the hem and sleeve cuffs, which both neatened up my ribbing and provided a stretchy edge, so I can it wear down at my hips or tuck it up under itself at my waist for a cropped look.
I’ve knit bottom-up patterns before, but this was the first raglan I knit bottom-up instead of top-down. At first I wondered what the benefit was, but I have to say it was nice getting the sleeves done before the yoke. It really felt like I was approaching a finish line when I was casting off the collar, with the rounds getting shorter and shorter as I went.
A close-up of the sleeve in progress. I think the increases look particularly cool.
From cast-on to blocking, Junco took me about 6 weeks to finish. The way the motif creeps from the increases of the sleeves and disappears again into the raglan decreases in the shoulders is psychedelically eye-catching, as is the shifting of colors in the yarn. I really couldn’t be happier, and I think it’s one of the projects I’m most proud of.
Apologies for the awkward/poorly-lit photos. My partner usually photographs my modeled pics and he’s out of town, so I had to take selfies.
Yarn
Junction Fiber Mill, Making Tracks in “Constellation” (MC); I used the leftover yarn in my Bookkeeper Cardigan
Fiber MacGyver, Merino Alpaca in “Roasted Pecan” (CC)
Mods
Added 3 repetitions of the chart to the body
Sewed elastic thread into the hem and sleeve cuffs for fit and stretch
Did a flat collar instead of a folded collar
What I’m Watching
*CW: I discuss medical procedural shows in this section, and they deal with plotlines involving overdose and addiction, suicide, gun violence, and transphobia.
I binged The Pitt in a day and loved it. The performances from the entire ensemble were outstanding, and I’m not surprised Noah Lyle is getting Emmy buzz. Because the season takes place over the course of a single ER shift, there’s an equally compelling supporting cast of patients and visitors who enter the ER, leave, move to other hospital wings, or tragically pass.
Once I finished the season I caught the bug for medical procedural. My family used to watch House every week while it was airing so in addition to the exciting tension of a medical mystery, this genre is also pretty nostaligiac for me. So I started ER, which also stars Noah Wyle, de-aged from traumatized ER chief to wide-eyed intern.
Watching the two shows back-to-back is an interesting way to compare the cultural attitudes and anxieties of today versus 30 years ago. In ER‘s first season, the writers include with gang-related gun violence perpetuated by teenagers and younger, patients with AIDs and HIV, and crack cocaine addiction. The Pitt handles a mass shooting, the fallout of Covid-19 and the collective trauma of healthcare workers, and accidental opioid overdose. ER has a recurring beat cop who flirts with one of the nurses and endearingly rushes a dog he accidentally hit with his cruiser to the OR, adopting the saved dog afterward; in The Pitt, a positive relationship with police is never guaranteed – some are helpful, some are patients, some are active obstacles to the doctors’ jobs. The Pitt portrays anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers with no patience for their nonsense, and explores a vignette of an aunt trying to secure an abortion for her niece before being interrupted by the pro-life mother; we watch the doctors perforate contemporary abortion restrictions and try to honor the pregnant patient’s choice to terminate while contending with the guardianship of her mom.
One of the hardest ER storylines to watch was that of a transgender woman being treated for injuries following a car crash, which is later revealed to be a suicide attempt. As soon as Rena’s doctors learn she is trans, they treat her with obvious contempt: nurses jokingly use slurs, and Carter, Lyle’s character, refuses to even speak to her if not necessary. Not one character on the medical staff ever challenges these attitudes, or treats Rena with dignity.
Rena speaks about her life experience as a trans person, describing the treatment she now faces from her doctors, but in the end she is written as a lurid interest story and not as a person. The character is played by a cis male actor, a miscasting problem that persists today – it privileges cis actors for roles when trans actors are already marginalized, and reinforces the idea that trans women are just men in women’s clothing. None of the doctors are shown to be even compassionate, let alone understanding, to her physical or mental health. At the end of episode, Rena completes suicide. Instead of coping with the fact that his mistreatment exacerbated Rena’s dysphoria, Carter is comforted by his supervisor and told that it was a simple oversight that they didn’t flag her ideation earlier. Then they go have Thanksgiving dinner together.
I understand that this episode is 30 years old and I’m watching it with a very different perspective on sex and gender. Apparently there are other instances of transphobic writing still to come. I also know that this kind of horrible treatment is commonly experienced by trans people in real life. But this is TV, and it’s not reality, it’s not real people making real decisions. It’s writers making the conscious choice to convey something to the viewer, and in this instance, it’s that trans people are inherently tragic, doomed, and unworthy of time and attention.
The Pitt also features a patient who is trans. Tasha, played by Eva Everett Irving, comes to the ER for a deep cut in her arm. She’s misgendered when her deadname is called to be seen, and corrects the ward clerk before going to get stitches from Dr. McKay and intern Javadi. As they clean and stitch her wound, they ask Tasha medically necessary questions, but also make small talk about her job as a high-end sommelier (Tasha’s cut is from a broken decanter). It’s cordial, relaxed, and friendly. At the end of the treatment, Javadi corrects Tasha’s medical record to reflect her name and gender so she won’t be deadnamed at future appointments, and apologizes for the error. Tasha thanks her for this, and Dr. MacKay praises Javadi’s attention to detail and empathy.
Here, the writers want to show a trans woman who is successful and content while representing how medical settings can be fraught settings for trans people. Tasha’s medical record outed her, which can be very dangerous if she was treated by a transphobic doctor – it was fixed. There was deadnaming – Tasha didn’t stand for it. Speaking of the writers, this episode was written by Noah Lyle. I don’t know if he included this patient interaction because of ER‘s track record of trans representation, but it was good to see the 180 turn in an episode that was already very personal for him.
Smitty is Knitting 