Junko Okamoto is one of the most exciting knitting designers for me of the last few years. Her designs feature explosions of old techniques taken to new places, and she is also the kindest person. If you’re interested in knitting one of her designs, I highly recommend Rug as a starting point.
Rug is a free pattern on Ravelry, and introduces you to elements that are essentially Junko- garments written for one size, inventive colorwork, and incredibly long floats. It’s also written for bulky yarn, so when I had a Rug KAL with my friends last year, I knit mine in about four days. They weren’t amused. I used Lettlopi for my Rug, which resulted in a very economical and lightweight sweater. I think I spent something like $40 on yarn. Which is CRAZY.
Look at cutie Jenna with her long hair, in her Rug.
While I want to knit every Junko pattern, the Bouquet Sweater, which came out last year, was something special, something that I didn’t think I’d seen before. It was an asymmetrical colorwork sweater (unique enough) that also used floats carried on the outside of the garment as part of the design. There may well be other designs that have incorporated floats carried on the outside of them before, but this was a first for me. It was also knit using A Verb For Keeping Warm Horizon, a yarn I dearly love. Verb is my local yarn store, and I also worked at Verb for about a year when I was in-between things. Horizon is the yarn that every time I skeined, I thought, “I need a sweater in this.” Horizon is made of local wool from Sally Fox raised on her bio-dynamic farm in the Capay Valley.
When I left Verb in September 2018, I put in one last order using my employee discount—a sweater’s quantity of Horizon. I asked that it be dyed with Marigold Petals, and gave a time frame of sometime in 2019. My yarn stash is plenty big, and I wasn’t exactly sure what I wanted to knit with my marigold speckled Horizon just yet. By April I knew, it was Bouquet. And I added two skeins of contrast color to my order—requesting another colorway unusual for Horizon—Aura, a deep purple with red undertones. Sarah even dyed two batches for me to choose just the right shade.
So pretty, hi!
But, I had to wait. I had said anytime in 2019. And Sarah, the lead dyer at Verb, took me at my word. By July, I let her know I’d like this to be my fall sweater, and perhaps I could have my yarn by September? Right before Ashwin and I left for our 3 week vacation in South East Asia, Sarah dropped the yarn off at my house. It took all my patience not to cast on then and there. But, I didn’t think a worsted weight sweater was quite the right project for heat and humidity. And my grandmother had requested a colorwork vest for her birthday, October 3.
The promised colorwork vest—Bruntsfield from Ysolda Teague
So I set the yarn aside in my cedar box, and left. And when I got back, the real fun started. Bouquet is written in one size…and I had some modifications to make. Part 2 soon! Have you knit any Junko patterns? Which is your favorite?
