Kairos Cuff: The Story and Technique Behind It!

Have you seen Kairos Cuff July's kit for Lola's Choice? I've actually been working on the concept for this cuff since last winter (I think I first hatched the idea at a Tamale Party at Robin's house). I had a crazy idea that I could design a leather closure that could be used on a cuff (and maybe on other things too!).

I ended up spending a chunk of the winter learning a bit about working with leather (aka learning everything I don't know about leather work). I quickly understood that I wasn't going to be the one to make the clasps and luckily found a leather worker up the hill from me on Seneca Lake who was happy to take on the project. Renee at Uncle Joe's Saddlery makes gorgeous bags, and had all the equipment and know how to make it work! Phew! Renee to the creative rescue! (I even roped in my husband Max to make the technical drawing for the leather die!) This was a community effort!

Besides the leather clasp, Kairos uses a new to me "random" beading technique that allows the beads to POP to the front of the cuff's fabric. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that I'm not that random a designer, I like a PLAN, so choosing beads that allowed for randomness to make a bead stew was total fun. I'll admit that the bead mix had a weight ratio formula to ensure it stayed random. I can't help myself! 😃 The technique I use is easy... you work with randomly pre-strung beads and incorporate them into 1 x 1 ribbing. The pattern includes a link to a full video tutorial that teaches the technique, it takes less than 2 minutes to learn! Here's a little snippet to show you how easy it is!

Oh, and finally? Can I tell you about the yarn? Emma and Laura from Four Purls sent me a few swatches of Emma's Yarn to play with over a year ago... one of them was Bohemian Market on Practically Perfect Sock and when I saw it I KNEW it wanted to be a summer yarn for a Lola's Choice kit... but I had no idea what to design with it. Fast forward to the winter when I learned about Laerke Bagger, a danish knitwear designer, who works with beads in a way completely outside of my wheelhouse. I mashed up Emma's Yarn with Laerke's beading aesthetic, and my new leather clasps for a design completely my own!

Yowsers... nothing like a long winter to inspire, right? Makes me a little nervous for what next winter will bring!

I've been asked if I'll be selling the clasps on their own, as of right now the answer is no, BUT I do have a line of kits in the works (5 colors total),  I'm just waiting on more clasps to be made. For now the only way to get Kairos Cuff is to sign up for my small knitted kit club, Lola's Choice. Working on kits for this club with my crazy alter ego Lola has kept all of my creative juices flowing, and I know you won't be disappointed by the kits coming up!

You can sign up for a 3-kit, 6-kit, or recurring subscription... all the info is right here! Lola and I would love it if you came to play with us!

For those of you who have already received Kairos, don't forget, we have a K(n)it-a-Long happening in my Ravelry group.... come post photos of your Kairos, you can win some pretty fabulous yarny prizes (including some of Emma's Yarn!)

Any questions? I hope y'all are as thrilled about this new kit as I am : )!