Friday, October 23, 2020

Monticello

I knit and designed my first mosaic shawl! I've knit one pair of mosaic socks before but never a shawl, what an adventure and undertaking! Monticello is so fun and easy, between each mosaic section is simple garter with only a bit of shaping. I used a single ply fingering weight yarn for my main body and a multi-ply for the contrast. 

That means use any fingering weight yarn you want! With a shawl, I have no problem mixing blends and plies I don't think it changes the integrity of the shawl. Shawls don't receive the same amount of wear and tear as a sweater, that is where I would watch mixing my blends/plies. 

Monticello is long and wide, so it's perfect to wrap around your neck a few times and let the colors peak out. My tester knit hers opposite and used a gradient for the body and solid for the mosaic and it looks so cool! I'm excited to see what other color combos knitters come up with! 




Friday, October 16, 2020

Grant Socks

 I haven't published a sock pattern in a bit and I'm excited to introduce Grant to you! Grant is very similar in knit style to my other sock patterns, easy to memorize and looks good with different dyes. 

I knit my Grant Socks with a speckled fingering weight, 80% Superwash Merino/20% Nylon, so any basic fingering weight you have in your stash would work great! My testers used a variety of dye styles so you should go check out their projects for color inspiration! 

I added a contrast toe to my sample socks from heels/toes/cuffs stash but you definitely don't have to if you don't want to. This sock is designed for sizes 56, 60, 64, 68, & 72 so they can pretty much fit any adult in your life. I used between 60-70 grams of yarn so even if you won't have a full ball you should still be able to make these! I hope you enjoy knitting my new sock pattern! 


Wednesday, October 7, 2020

Scales Cowl

It's not a secret that I like to reuse stitch patterns in my designs. There are just so many different ways and opportunities to use the same stitches/techniques. That is exactly what I've done with the Scales Cowl. This design didn't so much come from inspiration but one of my knitting friends/student asking if the Scales shawl could be made into a cowl instead. So this is for you Shauna! 

Of course that was super simple, but then I had to complicate things a bit by making three sizes and changing the yarn weight and needle size. 

Scales Cowl features the worsted weight yarn Rios by Malabrigo, but any worsted weight yarn will work! I had Malabrigo in my stash but my test knitters used a variety of different bases including hand spun and acrylic! 

The sample is Size 2 but one and two use the same amount of yarn, Size 3 uses double the yarn. I find that this pattern nicely breaks up variegation so there is a lot of potential! Take a look at tester photos to get an idea of what different yarns and dye styles look like in the pattern. I hope you enjoy my new cowl pattern!