Ensata Revisited

Brooklyn Tweed are launching a new yarn this month, and they’ve knit up a new sample of my Ensata Scarf to show it off! I love the fun, juicy-looking colour and the slightly softer, plump texture in this yarn. Tones Light will be available to purchase from the 17th of August, with more details and colour-reveals coming soon.

The Ensata Scarf & Cowl pattern includes directions for knitting the scarf in either fingering or laceweight yarn, plus directions for a fingering-weight cowl knit in the round. During the month of August, Brooklyn Tweed are offering a rare $1 USD discount on the pattern on their website, with no coupon code needed.

Photo: ©Brooklyn Tweed

Photo: ©Brooklyn Tweed

Photo: ©Brooklyn Tweed

New pattern: Beanstalk Cowl

The Beanstalk Cowl is a one-skein fingering-weight cowl featuring the same columns of lacy leaves and twisted ribbing as my Beanstalk Hat and Beanstalk Shawl patterns. This is my first cowl design with a tapered shape, which is created by working occasional increase rounds to add extra twisted-rib columns between the ‘beanstalks’. The wavy edges are created by the lace pattern, and add to the cowl’s general prettiness.

The pattern includes instructions for one size: 11”/28cm high, 22”/56cm circumference at the top, and 32”/81cm circumference at the bottom.

A few notes on potential modifications:

• Adding a 24-stitch repeat will increase the circumference at both top and bottom (remember to allow for the extra yardage)

• The height can be altered by working a different number of 6-round repeats between the increase rounds

• If you’d prefer a slightly chunkier look and a stiffer fabric, you could substitute 200g of DK or worsted-weight yarn and cast on fewer 24-stitch repeats on larger needles (I would try US 6 / 4mm or larger). You might also wish to work fewer repeats between increase rounds.

The Beanstalk Cowl + two of my Beanstalk Hats

I had a bit of a journey settling on the right yarn for this design! At first I had my heart set on using my gorgeous skein of Farmhaus Fibres Grounded Twist (a BFL/nylon blend) in the Copper Red colourway. Unfortunately, as you can see from the swatch photo below, the stitch pattern just isn't shining like it should, and for a design sample I really need to showcase the stitch pattern. So I switched to the gentle grey colourway Perfect Day on Farmhaus Fibres’ non-superwash base Homestead Merino, and it was indeed perfect.

Unfortunately this yarn is currently unavailable (its creator is on a dyeing hiatus), but hopefully I’ll be able to give you enough detail on its special properties to give you confidence in substituting a different yarn.

First of all, it’s a fingering-weight yarn with two twisted plies, composed of non-superwash fine merino, with 437yds/400m per 100g skein. My Beanstalk Hat and Shawl samples were also knit in non-superwash yarn, which I find helps to highlight the texture of the lace and ribbing in these designs. Colourway choice is also important for this pattern, as I discovered when swatching - the stitch pattern stands out the best in a solid or very-nearly-solid colourway. A number of my preview knitters also made beautiful cowls using subtly-variegated yarn. I think the problem with my Copper Red swatch lies with the tiny golden flashes which are much lighter than the base colour. If you do choose a semi-solid or variegated yarn, go for one that is low-contrast.

Comparing two yarn options - the stitch pattern is much clearer in the near-solid Perfect Day than the Copper Red

I blocked my cowl very simply by soaking it in warm water with a little wool-wash, rinsing and gently squeezing, and spreading it out flat on a blocking mat. I decided not to use pins or wires to avoid flattening the texture too much (and because skipping them makes for a much quicker blocking session). This method also preserves the naturally wavy edges - I decided to embrace them this time, rather than flattening them out as I did when I blocked my Beanstalk Shawl using wires.

Carefully spread out to dry on a blocking mat

Admiring the pretty edges

Beanstalk Cowl features:

• A tapered cowl knit in the round from the top down, with alternating columns of lacy leaves and half-twisted ribbing

• One size is included in the pattern, which uses only a single 100g skein

• Requires 417yds/381.5m of fingering-weight yarn (shown in Farmhaus Fibres Homestead Merino)

• Choose a non-superwash wool yarn in a solid or near-solid shade

• Cowl dimensions, relaxed after blocking: 22”/56cm narrowest circumference, 32”/81cm widest circumference, and 11”/28cm height

• Charts and written instructions are both provided in full.

Find out more about my Beanstalk Cowl pattern, including Ravelry and Payhip purchase options.

It's Giftalong time!

The ninth annual Indie Design Giftalong has just begun! If you haven't joined in before, here's a quick introduction: the Giftalong (or GAL) is a multi-designer craft-along held in a Ravelry group with dedicated threads for different project types, chat threads, games, and more. You can also join in on Instagram by taking part in our photo-prompt challenge and/or using the event hashtags - @indiegiftalong on Instagram has all the details.

Each designer has a selection of their patterns on sale during the first few days of the GAL, but projects made using any and all of their patterns can be entered in the project threads and FO thread. Just be sure to use a paid-for pattern if you have your eye on the grand prizes.

The GAL runs from now until midnight on the 31st of December. It's a big, busy event but you can participate as much or as little as you like - enter a project (or several!), discover fabulous new patterns and designers in the searchable bundles, dip in and out of the chat threads, play the games, join the Instagram challenge, etc etc. I’ll be co-hosting the Hats thread in the Ravelry group as well as making a project or two - this year I'm going to try to stick to smaller things instead of adding to my collection of large WIPs, but temptation may strike! We have a number of new-to-the-GAL designers this year with really spectacular patterns, and I’m having such a hard time deciding what to make first.

New pattern: Heartwood Hat

It’s one year to the day since I released my Heartwood Cowl design, and at long last it has its companion hat! Introducing the Heartwood Hat, a cosy, deeply-textured beanie in DK-weight yarn featuring an all-over pattern of cabled hearts entwined with ribbing.

I actually started working on the hat design long before the cowl, but got bogged down in puzzling out the crown decreases. After a lot of unsuccessful swatching I put the hat to one side and concentrated on the cowl, and just before that pattern was ready to publish I was struck by a new idea for the hat! Sometimes sleeping on a puzzle takes rather a lot of sleeps before the brain spits out a solution. And here it is: some ribbing, a few twists, and some petal shapes in between.

The Heartwood Hat sample blocking over a balloon.

A tip from my fabulous test knitter Myriam (strickeyhands on Ravelry): if you find your stitches look a little sloppy in the crown decreases section, switch back to your smaller needles.

The yarn I used for the sample is once again from the fabulous Aussie dyer Happy Hank Co. To knit the larger size I used one 100g skein of Classy DK, but you could also use fingering-weight yarn held double, as one of my test knitters did to great effect. Classy DK is a smooth, multi-plied, superwash merino yarn, and the colour, Soba, is a very gentle pale pink. To really show off the complex cables I recommend choosing a solid or near-solid colourway, or some subtle speckles.

Two sizes are included in the pattern, and the larger size is comfortable and slightly slouchy on my 22”/56cm diameter head. It’s long enough to wear with the brim pulled down for cosiness or with a short turn-up.

Skills needed to work this pattern include the Long Tail Cast On (or your favourite for 2x2 ribbing), working in the round, working 2-over-2 cables and a few six-stitch cables, and working decreases. Both charts and full written instructions are included.

Heartwood Hat features:

• a beanie hat knit in the round from the bottom up, with an all-over texture of cabled hearts and ribbing

• two size options are included in the pattern, each using only a single 100g skein

• requires 167 (200)yds/153 (183)m of DK-weight yarn (shown in Happy Hank Co Classy DK)

• choose a smooth, multi-plied, worsted-spun yarn in a solid or near-solid colour

• hat dimensions, relaxed after blocking and unstretched: 15 (18)”/38 (46)cm brim circumference, and 8.5”/21.5cm length from cast-on to crown, to fit 18-20 (21–23)”/46-51 (53.5-58.5)cm head circumference. Sample shown in larger size on my 22”/56cm head

• charts and written instructions are both provided in full.

Find out more about my Heartwood Hat pattern, including Ravelry and Payhip purchase options.