In the first few episodes of the Give Me A Crown podcast I’ve spoken about the process of spinning this merino fibre and knitting it in to a cowl. This post will go in to more depth about the steps as I took photos along the way (in various lighting conditions so please forgive the quality of the shots), and I’ll explain the moment of clarity that I had about ways to spin gradient yarn for one-skein projects to maintain the gradient. Continue reading
I decided to decrease my yarn stash by using up partial balls of Morris and Sons Empire 8 ply merino on this free shawl pattern called Kottarainen by Heidi Alander.
The original pattern uses two colours but I had three shades of green and three lighter colours of grey, beige and white, so I began with the darkest of the light colours and the lightest of the greens and switched colours as I ran out of yarn.
While the pattern was written for 4 ply yarn, this fabric is still wonderfully flexible, soft and cosy, and I now have a large 200cm x 72cm triangular shawl.
If you use the English version of the pattern, note that in the bind-off the k2tog is through the back loop – it seems like it from the instructions but I wasn’t certain until I checked the Finnish version to be certain.
A few more details can be found on my Ravelry project page for the Kottarainen shawl.
While I was visiting my mum for the Christmas break I dropped in to her local craft shop to say thank you to the owner for the free alpaca fleece she gave me the previous Christmas when I was learning to spin yarn on my DIY drop spindle. I told her how much fun I had been having with my drop spindle and that I was hoping to get a spinning wheel at some point when a lady in the shop piped up to say that she knew where I could get a spinning wheel. It turned out that she had a spare wheel that she was looking to sell! Continue reading
Still on my kick from discovering a fantastic and very local indie dyer, I cast on the free Zoolandia shawl by Stephen West and DrawFour Designs with a few skeins of Pinnacle Merino Singles from Atelier Yarn.
I had spent time swatching with the yarns and began a few different patterns before settling on Zoolandia because the main yarn is heavily variegated in very striking colours. It worked up well in garter stitch but I wanted to knit something more dramatic and Zoolandia’s slip stitches and yarn overs was the answer. Continue reading
I’ve been meaning to cast on a Sockhead Hat for a while and, with the weather cooling off here in Sydney, and my new found love of Atelier Yarn‘s Pinnacle Merino Singles, I cast on for the simple but soothing project.
It was an easy project with a long stretch of ribbing and then lots and lots of stockinette in the round before basic decreases for the crown. It gave me a chance to practice knitting-without-looking which is something I plan to master this year.
It turned out perfect!
Needles: 2.5mm circular for a magic loop
Yarn: Fingering/4 ply 100% Merino 311 metres/340 yards
My Ravelry notes: Berry Sockhead Hat