Hello, dear knitters. The Bridgetown Cowl pattern has been published and is now available on Ravelry! This link gives you 25% off the regular price of $5.00 through Friday, June 8th (11:59 pm Pacific Time): Bridgetown Cowl.
The show-stopping Bridgetown Cowl is characterized by movement, color, and grace. This is the perfect pattern for that special skein of speckled or variegated yarn.
Make the two-color cowl for a color block effect or the four-color cowl for a stacked effect. The cowl is knit in the round from the bottom up, and the colors are worked by slipping stitches, so you only work one color at a time. This is one of those “bang for your buck” patterns!
Yarn:
• Use yarn with low to moderate twist, such as a single-ply yarn. The slipped stitch pattern works best with yarn that has some give and will relax in blocking.
• Use variegated or speckled yarn as the Background Color (BC).
• Use solid or tonal yarn for the Contrasting Color (CC) or Colors A, B, and C.
For Two-Color Cowl:
Background Color (BC): 1 skein Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light (Fingering, 100% Merino, 420 yds/100 g) in Beautiful Liar. If substituting yarn, 190 yds (174 m)fingering weight yarn.
Contrasting Color (CC): 1 skein Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light (Fingering, 100% Merino, 420 yds/100 g) in Coquette Deux. If substituting yarn, 145 yds (133 m) fingering weight yarn.
For Four Color Cowl:
Background Color (BC): 190 yards (174 m) fingering weight yarn.
Contrasting Colors:
Color A: 65 yards (60 m) fingering weight yarn.
Color B: 20 yards (18.3 m) fingering weight yarn.
Color C: 60 yards (55 m) fingering weight yarn.
I hope you will come check out this fun knit. This makes a great gift – but you should make one for yourself, too! Don’t forget to check out the knit-a-long while you’re at it.
Hello, dear friends! Easter is nearly upon us, and Holy Week is here. This means choir rehearsals and much singing for me over the next six days. It also means many happy memories of coloring Easter eggs, egg hunts, dresses made by Mom…
Every year Mom made me an Easter dress. I always loved the pretty fabrics and the pretty dress designs. Looking at the fabrics she chose – maybe she influenced me in my love of color. Did anyone else have this Easter tradition in your family? What other Easter traditions did you or do you have?
Speaking of Easter, my friend Torunn designed this adorable Easter egg hat pattern.
Good news, the Willamette Valley Tee is in testing!
After much thinking and problem-solving – and practically throwing in the towel – I realized that the pattern was already nearly written for size 38 – and I was confident that it would work in this size. So why not move forward and write the pattern for sizes 35 and 38?
Therefore, this design is available for sizes 35 and 38. The actual measurement of the sweater is 37 ¾ in. (39 ½ in.) at the bust, and could also work for those in the 32-34 in. range, if a looser fit is acceptable. The pattern uses fingering weight yarn on size 4 needles. It is written to use 10 colors, but fewer colors may be used. It also could be a stash buster.
A couple of people are testing the pattern, but I could use a couple more experienced colorwork testers. If you would like to test this sweater in one of these two sizes please let me know. I expect the test knit to run about 2 months.
Here’s the pre-blocking photo:
Thanks for stopping by, and have a wonderful Easter!
Dear knitters, I’m thrilled to introduce the Color Bliss Sweater! The pattern is on special for my blog readers and Facebook, Twitter and Instagram followers through the end of June: 25% off the regular price of $5.50. Follow this link; no coupon code is necessary: Color Bliss Introductory Sale.
This pattern was a joy to write – because it’s all about color!
Scott Webb – Waterloo Region Museum, Kitchener, Canada, via Unsplash
Color is its defining element: beautiful, happy, joyful color. You can go bright, muted, multi-color, monochromatic, just a few colors or lots of colors! The pattern includes suggestions and worksheets for creating your own palette and stripe sequence. Here you will find a Pinterest board with lots of different palettes I’ve collected over the years. Use them as a springboard for your own imagination.
The pattern is written for 10 sizes: 36 (38, 40, 42, 44, 46, 48, 50, 52, 54) in. /91.4, (96.5, 101.6, 106.7, 111.8, 116.8, 121.9, 127, 132.1, 137.2) cm Bust. Sample shown in the pattern has zero ease at bust and 4 1/2 inches positive ease at waist.
It’s worked in the round, top-down and seamless.
When my youngest son was in high school, I found a sweater for him that I absolutely loved. It was your basic seamed, striped sweater, but the colors and order of the stripes made me happy every time I saw that sweater. I mimicked that stripe sequence in the gray/orange/blue/red version of this sweater.
I like to design things that I want to wear myself, so this sweater was designed with a round yoke. I like the way that the round yoke hangs on my frame and I feel like a million bucks every time I wear either of my Color Bliss Sweaters.
Here are a few of the finished sweaters. You can see all of the Color Bliss Sweaters, finished or in progress, here.
WillowandTwist made this lovely for her daughter. Beautifully made, and a wonderfully cool palette!
I love the modification MsMEdge made to her sweater, which was to make the striped section mimic short sleeves rather than 3/4 sleeves. It’s perfect on her!
Melanie modified her sweater by lengthening it. This is easy to do if you get some extra yarn. Just keep on knitting until you reach the length you like. I am thinking of doing this with one of own my Color Bliss Sweaters. If I do, I’ll add an addendum to the pattern, and if you have purchased the pattern through Ravelry or through the links on the blog, you’ll receive an update at that time. Here’s Melanie’s gorgeous sweater!
I think Patricia may have lengthened her sweater as well. But, these colors! This sweater makes me smile every time I see it. Must be the happiest color palette ever!
The pattern also includes a hand-drawn schematic (the measurements are computer-typed, however, for easier reading). This is just a little gift from me to you.
I hope you’ll come join the fun and make your own Color Bliss Sweater. Playing with color really is tremendous fun and is another way that Knit Equals Joy!
And just for fun, a couple of photo shoot outtakes…
This challenge really struck a chord with me. The evanescence – fleeting existence – of the tableaus I find on the beach is part of their charm and attraction for me. Here are a few more Oregon Coast still lifes:
Greetings, dear knitters and creative friends! It has been a while since I’ve posted, and that’s because I’ve been working madly on the Color Bliss Sweater design.
Color Bliss is a seamless, top-down yoked sweater. Color is its defining design element: beautiful, happy, joyful color. The pattern is written for 8 colors, but any number of colors may be used. The colors in this first version were inspired by a ready-to-wear sweater I bought for my son when he was in high school – I just loved these colors in this order.
I’m now making a second Color Bliss, using a palette of greens, purples and blues. I’m loving this palette and can’t wait to finish this one!
The pattern is written for ten sizes, for chest measurements of 36-54 inches. It has been tech edited and is now being test-knit. We are testing through the end of April in my Ravelry group, and it’s a bit like a knit-a-long. I am looking for a few more testers; let me know if you are interested.
Check out #colorblisssweater on Instagram to see the great sweaters that the amazing testers are knitting and to check out their gorgeous palettes!
This week, we’re challenging you to think ahead and show your work in a representative photo. If you set New Year’s resolutions, give them some thought a few weeks early. If resolutions aren’t your style, show us something that you want to achieve — it could be setting a new goal, making plans, or even tackling that pile of laundry waiting by the washer. The goal is to get out of the busy “now,” and imagine your new horizon. Go!
The photo:
I am excited about new horizons in 2017! My hope is to change all of my design monikers to knit equals joy. This will include my designer name and my Ravelry group. The beautiful gold and blue colors you see on this page consistently and constantly call to me, so I foresee them as being front and center in my branding palette (not necessarily in my design palette, although they certainly crop up a lot!).
I enjoyed pulling together the yarns and other items for this still life. Photography continues to be a love of mine, and I look forward to improving my photography skills in 2017 by taking classes and getting in lots of practice!
Rhinebeck, as the New York State Sheep and Wool Festival is known, is now a distant memory, but the yarn I brought home with me is a concrete reminder of a lovely weekend spent with friends. I wrote about the weekend here, and now I’m writing about the yarn I chose and why.
My first yarn purchase at Rhinebeck was from Weston Hill Farm. I discovered Weston Hill Farm on my first trip to Rhinebeck, in 2011. The yarn was luminous, natural, and I had never seen anything quite like it. I returned to their booth several times, finally buying a sweater’s worth of yarn for this Shalom Cardigan using only natural, undyed yarns. Weston Hill Farm’s yarn comprised the bulk of it.
I’ve also used Weston Hills Farm yarns to make this Ebb Cowl (pattern by Susan B. Anderson)
The yarn I brought home this year from Weston Hills Farm is just as beautiful! It is luminous, soft and springy, and I love the colorways – beautiful, pure hues and subtle tonal solids.
Weston Hill Farm – Worsted WeightWeston Hill Farm – Mountain Lake, Pear
Weston Hill Farm is based out of Westerlo, New York. Eileen and I became friends following Rhinebeck 2011 – when I called to order a bit more yarn to finish that Shalom – and I always love to see the pictures she shares on social media of the farm’s sheep: Romneys, Border Leicesters, and long wool cross sheep. This is Ailionora, a registered Romney ewe. Isn’t she adorable?
Ailionora, photo used by permission
Getting back to Rhinebeck – next on my quest for fiber, I picked up some lovely yarn by Solitude Wool.
Solitude Wool is based in Virginia and creates breed-specific yarns. Each skein lists the yarn’s fiber source as well as the yarn character, fiber content/care, length, size, suggested needles, gauge and batch.
Gradient and/or mini skein sets were all the rage at Rhinebeck, but I didn’t find one that I couldn’t pass up until I saw the Llama-rama mini skein bouquets at Solitude Wool. The yarn is 1/2 llama & 1/2 Romney, 2-ply/ fingering, 35 yds per color (210 yards total). The beautiful heathered colors are created by blending natural color llama with natural and dyed-in-the-wool Romney. It’s luminous, too.
Llama-rama mini skein bouquet
I fell hard for this Alpaca/Merino. This fiber is a blend of 80% natural, undyed black and white alpaca with 20% natural and dyed-in-the wool Merino (2-ply/ lace weight, 275 yds, 2 oz). It is amazingly soft, and I absolutely love the muted purple tones. I think they had me at “elegant” in the description on the label. It has a great deal of depth, and I see more to love about it each time I look at it.
Solitude Yarns Alpaca/Merino
The next yarn company that made me stop and stay awhile in their booth was North Light Fibers. North Light Fibers is a micro yarn mill based in Block Island, Rhode Island. We spent a lot of time in their booth just squishing the yarn – it all had an incredible hand. I was tempted by the cashmere – and it was amazing – but ended up with the Atlantic – 100% Falkland Island’s Wool (3-ply/Worsted, 170 yds, 2.5 oz). I snagged the exclusive colorway they created just for Rhinebeck, Blue Moon, a lovely periwinkle – one of my favorite colors ever. It will have excellent stitch definition, and will probably end up as cabled mitts.
North Light Fibers Atlantic in Blue Moon
My final purchase of the weekend was from a Hudson Valley farm, Buckwheat Bridge Angoras. The farm raises Angora goats and Cormo sheep using sustainable practices. What caught my eye, however, were the painterly colorways. Beautiful!
Buckwheat Bridge Angoras 70/30
The blend is 70% Fine Kid Mohair and 30% Cormo Wool. The green colorway is 250 yds/4 oz. and the multi blue/yellow is finer at 200 yds/2 oz.
Buckwheat Bridge Angoras 70/30
I’m always amazed at the wonderful yarn selection now available to fiber enthusiasts. When I think back to the yarns my mother used back in the 1970’s and 1980’s, I am so grateful for the natural fibers we can now so easily find. And now, when there are so many artists hand-dyeing their fibers in gorgeous colorways such as the ones that made it into my Rhinebeck shopping bag – with so many options, now is a great time to be a knitter!
As a designer of knitting patterns, I’m always on a quest for inspiration. I find it in nature, in beautiful things, in the repetition and movement of architecture, and in color. The beautiful vibrancy and subtle nuance of color found at a farmer’s market in Ashland Oregon satisfied a quest for inspiration. Just look at that riotous color! Ah! It sends me following tenuous wisps of dreams of new possibilities.
Ashland, home of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. You’re not allowed to take pictures during the performances, so these are pictures of the color and drama found around town.
