Pam Allen Honored as One to Watch in Maine

Each year MaineBiz names a handful of “women to watch” in various categories, including women-owned businesses. For 2012, the woman to watch who owns her business is Pam Allen, owner of Quince & Co. yarns.

The awards presentation is next month, and you can read more about how the business got started and watch a video with Allen talking about why her business is successful (hint: because she is her customer).

If you don’t know about Quince & Co., it’s based in Maine and uses American-sourced fiber to produce its yarn, which is spun in Maine (the story indicates they’re setting up their own dye company, too, which will also be in Maine). The colors are gorgeous — though Allen says she’d only produce neutrals if she were really just making yarn for herself! — and the yarn can be purchased in a couple of stores in Maine and one in the UK and otherwise is available direct from the company.

Allen says this is one way to keep the cost of the yarn low when faced with the higher production costs involved in using American fiber and doing what they can to keep their footprint small. If you’d like to know more you can sign up for their weekly e-newsletter. (There’s a box at the top-right corner of the home page.)

[Photo by Quince & Co.]

Sometimes when I’m scrolling through Ravelry a pattern will catch my eye as much because of the name as the look of the design (which is a little hard to see in those little thumbnails sometimes, anyway).

So it was with the Stellify shawl by Paola Albergamo. Stellify means to turn into a star, and the name and the story behind the shawl come from the story of Ariadne. The better known part of her story is that she helped Theseus escape from the Minotaur, but he then abandoned her. What comes after in many stories is that Dionysus found her, fell in love with her and later married her.

When he threw her jeweled crown into the sky, the Corona Borealis constellation was formed.

What does all this have to do with shawl knitting?

The shawl itself looks like it has a scattering of stars on it, as if it, too, has been stellified. The shawl begins with an I-cord tap and is shaped into a triangular shawl with both lateral and central increases. I-cord edging is incorporated into the sides, and the colorwork is done with mosaic knitting, which means this shawl is easier than it looks.

Mosaic knitting has you working with just one color per row, slipping stitches that appear in the other color to make the colorwork visible. Even better for people new to this kind of colorwork, the pattern includes written and charted instructions throughout so it should be easy to follow along.

The pattern comes in two sizes (the larger one is shown here) and calls for two colors of fingering weight yarn. It looks great in black and yellow, but don’t miss the other projects on Ravelry to see other fun and beautiful color options.

You can find the pattern in English and Italian on Ravelry.

[Photo: Paola Albergamo]

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