Welcome to another exciting week here on KNITmuch, where I’ll be exploring Fibra Natura Lina, which combines the softness of cotton with the durability and luxury of linen. Pleasant to work with, Lina is light, lovely, and luscious.
I must admit that I’m a little bias about working with Lina this week because a linen cotton blend is one of my favorites for summer. I have several t-shirts made with a cotton linen blend and I love wearing them. Lina is 68% linen and 32% cotton, is machine washable on medium, and tumble dry on medium heat. What could be better for summer.
Lina comes in 12 colors of which I’ll use 4 different colors: Sterling, Fern, Mineral and Caribbean, all with a lovely sheen.
Lina comes in 12 different colors, both soft and bold, all with a lovely sheen
Lina has a crispness to it, but don’t let that deter you. It knits up unbelievably soft after laundering … soft enough for baby. In fact, it’s categorized as sport weight at 252yds [230m] per 100g skein, and as a baby yarn. Well, if it’s soft enough for baby then it’s soft enough for the rest of the family.
One thing to note when knitting with Lina is that the plies are easily separated. Choose a needle tip that works best for catching all the plies. Some people find that a more rounded tip keeps the plies together, while others find that a sharper point works best. It all depends on your knitting style and preference, so if you find that one is not working well, then switch to the other. If you’re a TV knitter, you should check your work often to see if you have a rogue ply before you get too far to fix it.
The plies are easily separated, so choose the type of needle tip that works best for you … rounded tip vs. pointed.
This week is all about personalizing your knitwear. To illustrate what I mean, picture the following.
You found a sweater pattern that you absolutely love . . . the style, the color, everything about it. So off you go and purchase the yarn, the color, and anything else you may need. You cast on right away and start knitting. You complete it just in time for the next fiber festival and proudly wear your latest creation. All of a sudden, you do a double take. What’s this? Am I looking in a mirror? No. Someone else had the same great idea and fell in love with the same sweater in the same color. Instead of feeling special, you now feel like one of the crowd, or at least you wish you could disappear into the crowd, because somebody just has to comment, “Look, she has the same sweater as you”.
Now, it’s not uncommon to see the sweater or shawl du jour, especially at fiber festivals. The more often I see the same pattern, the less likely I’ll make it, no matter how much I love it. I want my hard work and creativity to reflect me, and not look like it came “off the rack”. That’s why I like to personalize my projects by using a different yarn, or color, or changing up a small detail, something that will make my creation unique to me.
This week, I’m using Lina on three different patterns and adding a personal touch to each. I’ll start off with a little bit, then on to a fair bit, and then, ending in, making it very unique!
The projects I’ve selected for this week include a tank top for a little girl, an adult t-shirt, and a light and lacy summer cardi, all with Fibra Natura Lina.
Join me tomorrow, I’ll knit some swatches to test my gauge and pattern samples, launder and measure them, and then proceed with the projects for the remainder of the week.
This is part 1 of 5 in this series.
Go to part 2: You can achieve gauge without knitting tightly
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