Tag: rowan

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!

Sublime Brocade

Today I had a Day Off. I didn’t sew anything for anyone, I stayed in bed and read a good book, and I sat on the sofa and began to knit a new cardigan.

Oh, and my credit card may have accidentally fallen down in the general direction of some new wool.

Sublime Brocade

My copy of Rowan magazine number 38 arrived in the post this morning. I’ve been putting off buying this for ages, because I balked at the idea of paying £10 for yet another knitting magazine. (Believe me, I have many.) What I didn’t realise is how completely amazing it is. More than sixty patterns, each one more beautiful than the last.

Obviously the magazine is a showcase for Rowan’s range of yarns, but of course you’re not morally obliged to use the yarn that’s specified for the pattern. Which is just as well, as this particular book is three years old, and the yarn used for this jumper has now been discontinued.

Thankfully, the lovely Mim shared a link to a website which was having a clearance sale, and I am now anticipating the arrival of fourteen balls of Sublime, in black and pink. It’s 100% merino, but it’s machine washable, which means that this jumper will actually stand some chance of being worn, rather than staying hidden in the wardrobe because I’m too afraid of ruining it in the wash.

I’ve never tackled an intarsia project quite this ambitious before – my only other attempt has been the pirate jumper, which I wear a lot. I’m a little bit intimidated by the enormous chart, but at least I don’t have to deal with any shaping until I get up to the armholes. That gives me 96 rows to work out what I’m doing. Hopefully that’ll be enough!

Baa Baa Black Sheep…

Ever wondered what an entire kilo of Colinette Point 5 looks like?

Colinette Point 5 - black

Well, now you know!

Colinette Point 5 jumper 

It used to be the most enormous jumper, one that I knitted for Paul a few years ago. It’s hardly been worn, so I decided it was time to reclaim the wool and turn it into something else. I’ve promised to sew a fleece for Paul instead, so at least he won’t get cold!

His main complaints about this jumper were that it was:

  1. Too heavy. Well, it did weigh an entire kilo! The style is supposed to be a funnel neck, but the sleeves are so heavy that they pull out the neckline sideways.
  2. Too hot. I suppose you would be hot, wearing half a sheep…
  3. Too cold. Yes, really. Colinette recommend that you knit this wool using 12mm needles. That’s fine for the thicker parts of the yarn, but wherever you get a thinner strand you also get a looser knit. This makes the resulting fabric a bit draughty in places, and Paul complained that the wind got through!

I must admit that I prefer to knit most Colinette yarns using smaller needles than suggested. I’m going to try a swatch of this on 10mm needles, and see how it comes out.

I’ve been looking for the perfect shrug/bolero/cropped cardigan pattern which would work in either Point 5 or Rowan Big Wool (which I also prefer to knit on smaller needles than recommended), and I haven’t found it yet.

I think it’s time to sit down with Ann Budd and a piece of graph paper, and work something out.