New Design: SIDEREAL CHECK COWL

I have released my new stranded colorwork design, SIDEREAL CHECK COWL as promised. It is a companion piece to my recently released SIDEREAL CHECK HAT.  The pattern is available on Ravelry with a 25% introductory discount through midnight (EST) December 16.

As I mentioned in my last post, I was very fortunate to have my designs selected for yarn support by The Fibre Co as part of Autumn/Winter Yarn Support Programme. Their gorgeous, Arranmore Light is a new favorite of mine. It blends cashmere and silk with merino wool to create an autentic tweed yarn of the highest quality.

The reversible cowl, with one side in stranded colorwork and the other in a two-row stripe, has picot edgings. It begins with a provisional cast on and ends with three-needle bind off.

Finished Measurements 
33” 84 cm circumference and 9½” 24 cm height

Yarn
DK weight yarn 
348 yd 318 m Main Color (MC)
180 yd 165 m Contrast Color (CC)

Note: If making both hat & cowl with Arranmore Light, two skeins of the main color and one of the contrast color will be more than enough.

Thanks for reading!

xoxox

New Design: SIDEREAL CHECK HAT

I am happy to finally introduce my new stranded colorwork hat pattern in two sizes, SIDEREAL CHECK HAT. This pattern is available on Ravelry with a 25% introductory discount through midnight (EST) December 2.

Earlier this year, I was thrilled to learn that I had been selected for The Fibre Co’s Yarn Support Programme AW 18/19. Their Arranmore Light blends cashmere and silk with a fine merino wool to create an authentic tweed yarn of the finest quality. I have always loved colorwork with tweed yarns.

I actually received yarn support for both the hat and a coordinating cowl that will be released two weeks from today, on December 13. These colorwork projects were inspired by high fashion garments featuring graphic variations of houndstooth check. I enjoyed charting some of these checks for stranded knitting.

The check pattern I use here was one of my favorites. I love how the background color appears as a series of four-pointed stars. ‘Sidereal’ means of or relating to distant stars or constellations.

The hat, with optional pompom, may be made in one of two sizes to fit most women (men).

Finished Measurements
18¼ (19¾)” 46.5 (50) cm un-stretched brim circumference and 10¾ (11¾)” 27.5 (30) cm un-cuffed height, will stretch to fit heads up to approximately 22 (24)” 56, (61) cm

Yarn
DK weight yarn
For hat:
152 (178) yd 139 (163) m Main Color (MC)
38 (44) yd 35 (40) m Contrast Color (CC)
For optional 3⅜” (8.5 cm) pompom:
additional 43 yd 39 m CC

Note: If making both hat & cowl with Arranmore Light, two skeins of the main color and one of the contrast color will be more than enough. (Arranmore Light has an amazing 328 yds per skein.)

Thanks for reading!
xoxox

October Class Swatching... The Baable Hat

I will be teaching a couple of classes at Gosh Yarn It! in Kingston, Pennsylvania this fall. The first will be this Saturday, October 22. (I know it is short notice, but there are still a couple of seats left.) The official title of this class is: "THE BAA-BLE HAT: Tips & Techniques for Stranded Knitting with Carolyn Kern".

The project for the class is the Baable Hat which was designed by Donna Smith for Shetland Wool Week 2015. It became the #1 queued pattern on Ravelry last year, with over 5600 projects posted. The pattern is written using an unusually tight gauge for a worsted/aran weight yarn, though; and many knitters ended up with hats that were larger than they expected.

The bad news is that I learned all of this after I agreed to make a GYI shop sample and teach a class. For my sample, I had to go down from the suggested US size 7 needle to a US size 3. The good news is that this gave me a brand new direction from which to teach a stranded colorwork class.

In the class we will be making a colorwork gauge swatch that simulates working in the round. We will review two-handed stranded colorwork technique, and I will demonstrate making a two color pompom with a Clover pompom maker. I plan to suggest a number of choices the students have to modify the pattern (such as those used by Susan B Anderson). There is no doubt that we will also talk about the newly released Baable cowl and mitten pattern by Donna Smith.

My sample colorwork swatch:

For this kind of a swatch (known as a speed swatch*) you knit all rows from right to left like you are working in the round. The yarn has to be carried behind the work for each row. This is what it looks like from the back.

*There is a reason for the name "speed swatch". Please join me in class this Saturday to learn more.
☺️

Design Release: Floribunda Mitts

 

Even before I designed my Floribunda Cap (with a brand new yarn that was then soon to be available at my LYS, Gosh Yarn It!) I knew that I would also design a companion mitt pattern.

The yarn, Knit One, Crochet Too Après Ski, is a soft blend of wool and nylon featuring really bright colors.

 

With GYI's request for a new colorwork class project using this outstandingly brilliant color, I immediately thought of flowers.  The mitts have an optional rose in duplicate stitch on the back of each hand.  The pattern has two sizes to fit most girls (women).

The hat is a great beginner two-handed stranded colorwork project.  The rolled stockinette edge goes quickly to get right into the stranded colorwok.  The leaf border is the simplest kind of stranded colorwork... limited to three stitches between color changes, it requires little attention to the lengths of floats.  When you get to the rose motif rows, I recommend "trapping" some of the floats.  For more information on all this, please see my popular blog post, Two-Handed Stranded Colorwork Tutorial.

Any two 100g skeins of worsted/aran weight yarn should be plenty to make both the cap and a pair of mitts.

Details
Finished Mitts Measurements

5¾ (6¾)” [14.5 (17 cm)] hand circumference (measured around palm) and 8¼ (9)” [21 (23) cm)] long when unrolled

Yarn Required 
Worsted weight yarn 
50 (60) yd [46 (55) m] Color A 
50 (60) yd [46 (55) m] Color B 
Shown in: 
Knit One, Crochet Too Après Ski (70% wool, 30% nylon; 197 yd [180 m], 100 g) 
Color A:  #238 Cherry Bomb, 1 skein 
Color B:  #589 Colorado Spruce, 1 skein 
Needles (Adjust size if necessary to get correct gauge) 
Size US 7 [4.5 mm] needles (two circular or set of double-pointed).  Adjust needle size if necessary to obtain the correct gauge.

The Floribunda Mitts pattern is now available for a limited time at a special introductory price of $2.50.  This discount ends midnight Sunday, April 24.  The regular price of the pattern will be $5.

Thanks for reading and happy knitting!

♥♥♥

Related Post:  Just Adorable -- Models, Hats, Hats on Models 
 

Just Adorable -- Models, Hats, Hats on Models

I was extremely fortunate to have had the opportunity to photograph the design samples for my newly released Floribunda Cap pattern modeled by the beautiful and awesome (she even knits!) Lyla, and her lovely mom, Kami.

I really enjoyed the time I got to spend with both of them one morning back in November.  I am grateful that they have been patient in their wait to see this design actually being published.  (Good things take time.)

Aren't they absolutely the best handknit hat models ever?

The Floribunda Cap is a two-color stranded colorwork cap in two sizes to fit most girls (women).

Details
Finished Hat Measurements
18¼ (20½)” [46.5 (52) cm] circumference and 8¼ (8¾)” [21 (22) cm] tall when unrolled

Yarn Required
Worsted weight yarn
80 (90) yd [73 (82) m] Color A
80 (90) yd [73 (82) m] Color B
Shown in:
Knit One, Crochet Too Après Ski (70% wool, 30% nylon; 197 yd [180 m], 100 g)
Color A:  #238 Cherry Bomb, 1 skein
Color B, Size 18¼”:  #762 Borealis, 1 skein
Color B, Size 20½”:  #589 Colorado Spruce, 1 skein

Needles (Adjust size if necessary to get correct gauge)
Size US 7 [4.5 mm] needles: 16” circular (cir) and set of double-pointed (dpn) 

The Floribunda Cap pattern is now available for a limited time at a special introductory price of $2.50.  This discount ends midnight Sunday, April 17.  The regular price of the pattern will be $5.

Thanks for reading and happy knitting!     
♥♥♥

Colorwork Meditation #14

“The snow goose need not bathe to make itself white. Neither need you do anything but be yourself.”  ~ Lao Tzu


“I don’t know about black or white magic I just know one type and that is your magic.”  ~ M.F. Moonzajer

“All Heaven and Earth
Flowered white obliterate...
Snow...unceasing snow”
  ~ Hashin, Japanese Haiku

 

"Snow" Geese Photo Credit:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/johnanes/14649250626
Snow Covered Alaska Photo Credit:  NASA Goddard Space Flight Centers photostream https://m.flickr.com/#/photos/gsfc/22387064306/ 

Previous Colorwork Meditation: #13 (Black)
Related Post: Midweek Meditation -- Churchill Style