Tag: colourscape

Is it a skein of yarn?

Rowan Colourscape

This beautiful yarn, sparkling with water droplets, used to be my Colourscape Cabled Jumper.

The yarn was a gift from a friend, and I loved it so much that I invented a jumper pattern for it almost straight away. However, over the last two years I’ve kept taking it out of the wardrobe and then putting it back in again, because the pattern wasn’t quite right. The body’s a little bit too short, and I always end up with a draughty gap around the top of my jeans. The sleeves are very wide, and I always end up dangling them in my dinner.

While I was in hospital, I was reading Knitting Rules! by Yarn Harlot. There was a section on what to do if the hat you’ve been knitting turns out not to be a hat after all. There’s a list of suggestions… is it a bag? a tea cosy? but the last of them asks is it a skein of yarn?

That might seem like a bit of a weird question, but it did serve to remind me that what I have in my wardrobe doesn’t have to be a badly-fitting jumper in the most beautiful colours. It can be five skeins of yarn. Which means that eventually it can be something else.

I do have something of an emotional difficulty with unravelling something that I’ve spent hours and days and weeks making, but it turns out that two years of stuffing the jumper back in the wardrobe creates enough distance for me to be able to manage it. Mind you, I’m also having something of a practical difficulty with unravelling this particular jumper, because once I’ve knitted something, it’s really not designed to come undone. Not ever.

So, I’m taking it slowly. I’ve undone the giant polo neck, and one of the sleeves. Those two skeins of yarn are now wound around a clothes-airer in my sunny back garden, drying gently. (I did briefly consider not wetting-and-drying the yarn, but it unravelled looking like a telephone cord, and whilst I might be lazy I don’t want my next jumper to be crap.)

I can’t quite face tackling any more of my own indestructable seams today, so once these skeins are dry I can wind them into balls and start knitting the next jumper. I’ve found a terrifically 1980s pattern, knit sideways on one 4.5mm and one 12mm needle. That should give me vertical stripes and a nice airy jumper, which is what I fancy this time around.

And if I fancy taking it all apart in another two years’ time and starting again? That’s fine.

Finished jumper, and a free pattern!

 Colourscape jumper - finished!

I finished the Colourscape jumper yesterday, deciding that a big polo neck was just the thing to use up every last inch of this lovely wool.

I’ve written up the pattern, which is now available for free in the shop!

I’ve only written the pattern out in the one size for now – it fits up to 40″ chest, which you can make from 5 x 100g balls of Colourscape.

It’s a very simple pattern – no shaping, and perfect for getting the hang of cables and rib.

It should also work in any chunky weight yarn that calls for 6.5mm needles. Give it a try!

Colourscape jumper – finished?

Colourscape jumper

I sewed up the Colourscape jumper and wore it to Progress Theatre on Thursday, but I’m not entirely sure that it’s actually finished.

I have about three quarters of a ball of wool left over, which is tempting me to make a big cowl or polo neck in the same 2×2 rib as the hems and cuffs.

When I’ve decided for definite that it’s finished, I’ll write up the pattern. This would be a great jumper for beginners who want to try out cables. All four pieces are rectangles, with no shaping anywhere, so all you need to concentrate on is which way your cables are facing. Easy!

Rowan Colourscape

Nicola came to visit yesterday, to try on the mock-up for her wedding dress. Thankfully it all went very smoothly, and tomorrow I can start cutting silk! She also came bearing Christmas gifts, which turned out to be a bag full of Rowan Colourscape Chunky. The colourways are designed by Kaffe Fassett, and mine is “Cherry”.

I had a look online to see how it would knit up, and it makes nice wide stripes. My immediate thought was to look for a pattern that’s knit sideways, so you can make vertical stripes with it. Apparently Rowan had the same idea, as this is what’s on the cover of the pattern book that goes with this yarn:

After a quick look through my mountain of knitting magazines, and a few doodles of possible shapes and patterns, I decided to just start knitting, and see what happened.

Colourscape jumper

I’ve decided to go for a very boxy shape, with a minimum of shaping that might disrupt the stripe pattern. So, it’s going to be a drop-shoulder jumper, with a deep rib and a cable up each sleeve. This is about two-thirds of the first sleeve, and I plan to keep knitting it until this ball of wool runs out. Then I can make another one the same, and work out how to distribute the three remaining balls of wool around the rest of the jumper.

The fabric in the background is a silk skirt that I bought years ago. It was on all the advertising for the La Redoute catalogue at the time, so I signed up for the sole purpose of buying this skirt. Unfortunately it’s too small for me at the moment, so I won’t be able to wear it with my new jumper. Shame, as the colours are absolutely perfect together!

I might take my knitting on a fabric shopping this week. Perhaps I can make a new skirt or a pair of trousers to wear with it instead. Of course, that means I have to finish the jumper in time to wear it to the wedding… so perhaps I’d be better off concentrating my time on the wedding dress instead!