Mona's Knitting Room

I had the hardest time getting started on my CBJ -- six months with the yarn and pattern. After posting my frustration to the CBJ yahoo! list, many people sent me e-mails commiserating with me. However, after taking a class, I realized that the problem preventing me from getting my head around the design was that I had too few yarns for the pattern and that some of those I did have weren't going to work well. So, after completing a whopping 3 squares, I have the audacity to publish a "how to" list for selecting yarns for this project. Of course, many of these tips came from the class instructor. I hope these suggestions will help those of you who are stuck in the starting gate, too.

1. Select your color theme. This can come from a combination of your favorite colors, your favorite color + basic color like black, navy or cream, or an inspiration yarn that you absolutely love. I decided to use cream as the basis for my first CBJ -- a monochromatic masterpiece (I hope). I've never seen a photo of this design made up in a single color theme but it's stuck in my head. When I think of this color theme, I think of creme brulee or white russian drinks. Hmm, now yarn is reminding me of food and alcohol. I am beyond help.

2. Buy a minimum of 3-5 base yarns. These are smoothish yarns that knit to gauge (4-4.5 stitches per inch) and are typically wool or a wool blend. By "smoothish" I mean relatively evenly spun fibers, small scale boucles, or yarns with a bit of fuzz to them like a wool/mohair blend. Try to avoid 100% alpaca yarns or chenille and the like for your base yarns as they stretch too much; the finished sweater is heavy and these yarns do not maintain their shape well. You should also be careful in selecting mohairs for the base yarns. Mohair blended with another fiber into a smoothish yarn will probably work well for a base yarn. However, the standard mohair yarns that have a nylon wrapper may have a stated gauge of 4 sts per inch or so but the resulting fabric will probably not have the same amount of body as a 100% wool yarn like Manos. If this is the case, then use the mohair as a "special" yarn.


The base yarns can be solids, say one or two shades of each of the colors in your theme, or variegated. The base yarns will be used in many of your squares for the starting rows and to provide support and structure to the squares that are embellished with your "special" yarns. The fact that your base yarns may not all knit to exactly the same gauge doesn't matter; the squares will all adjust in size as they are joined by other squares as well as when they are stretched when the jacket is worn. Here's a picture of my base yarns. I think I will add a mohair blend to the selection.

3. Buy as many "special" yarns as possible. My guess is that a dozen gives you a good working palette and it only makes your jacket more unique if you add more of these yarns. You will be making over 70 squares and you'll want a nice variety. Of course, you can repeat the same yarn combinations many times and just vary the pattern. This will provide a nice look as well. The special yarns can be anything from metallic glitter to eyelash to chenille to mohair to yarns with globs and squiggles. The scarf bar of your lys is a good place to shop. The special yarns can also include the combo yarns (strands from multiple yarns held together) that you've purchased or combined yourself.


The gauge of these yarns isn't really important but they shouldn't result in stitches that are larger than 3.5 sts/inch when knit with the needles that give you the proper gauge with your base yarns. The colors should be in your selected theme and one or two "bling" colors will add pizzazz. For example, if you go to Chris Bylsma's website and click on the photo of the pink and black CBJ, you can zoom in to see the yarns used in this sweater. A bright gold yarn was paired with the black and it really stands out and draws your eye to these squares. This is the bling yarn. In addition, if you look at the close-up of the sweater you can see that many of the squares are repeated often but even with that, I count about a dozen different "special" yarns.

4. If you purchase one or more thinner special yarns, buy one or two fingering (sock) or dk weight yarns to combine with them to give them enough body. Alternately, you can double/triple the thinner yarns or combine them with other special yarn(s) to get close to gauge.


5. Spread out all of your yarns in front of you. Do they look pleasing to your eye? If so, then it won't matter which combination of yarns you use for a square or which colors you put next to each other. If one or more in the pile just don't "go", then set them aside for another project or carefully use them in a combination you find pleasing. I feel this way about the Katia Tango ribbon yarn in the upper left corner. I'm not sure whether I will actually use this yarn or not. Perhaps this will be my bling yarn.

6. Find some sort of box or basket in which to store your yarns. You want to keep them clean and safe and all together. You'll also want to be able to see all of your yarns as you work on the project so if you have something large enough to keep most of the yarns in a single layer, that will work great. Otherwise, you will need to constantly paw through your stash or spread it out on a working table. I found a Rubbermaid tote that's large and shallow for my stash.