Stylecraft Blog Tour - Scallop Scarf and Mittens

I'm delighted to be participating again in Stylecraft's annual Blogtour. For this tour I chose the Autumn Leaves yarn pack which includes 5 shades of the newly released Bellissima. It's a DK weight yarn in 100% acrylic. The image below shows the 5 shades I've been working with (there are 14 shades in the new range).

Left to right: mellow yellow, sugar snap, clotted cream, ash rose, rio rose.

One of the many qualities I like about Bellissima is the good stitch definition.  I had the idea to make a long scarf, using an all over lacy pattern called "scallop" with bands of colour separated by the neutral cream. The bold colours increase in length from one end to the other.

Knitted on straight needles, the lacy bands of colour increase gradually in length along the scarf beginning with 3 pattern repeats and ending with six repeats. The generous length allows for a wrap around the neck and plenty for an extra tie in a knot, if required.

When I decided the scarf was long enough, there was about half the yarn left over in each colour. 

After debating what to do with the surplus yarn, a pair of scallop cuff mittens were developed. These mittens are knitted flat on straight needles. I started off making a pair in mellow yellow. 

But given I like the  other colours too! It's always useful to have a spare pair or two...

The Scallop Scarf pattern is free to download until 15th October 2018.

Scallop Scarf Download

Scallop Mittens Download

Image courtesy of Stylecraft

Thank you everyone who entered the giveaway.
The giveaway is now closed.

You could win a yarn pack of Autumn Leaves by clicking on the link below

Autumn Leaves Yarn Pack Giveaway

Begins 10am BST Monday 8th October 2018
and ends  
10am BST Tuesday 9th October 2018

Thank you to the wonderful Catherine's Crochet Corner for yesterday's stop off. Tomorrow the tour visits Sarah from Annaboo's House, check out her fabulous crochet blog. To round off, here's a list of all the blogs on this years tour...

Crystals and Crochet
Josie Kitten

Crochet Between Worlds

Cherry Heart

The Twisted Yarn

Polly Plum

Emma Varnum

Lucias Fig Tree

Catherines Crochet Corner

Hand Knitted Things

Annaboo's House

Crafternoon Treats

The Patchwork Heart

Get Knotted Yarncraft

Zooty Owl

Stylecraft

Jane Crowfoot

Stylecraft Blog Tour

If you haven't been following the tour so far, let me tell you a few details.  The tour features Batik DK yarn and the new Batik Elements. There are four different colour packs: Country Garden, Desert, Lagoon and Rain Forest. Each day from 16th - 31st October a different Stylecraft Blogstar talks about the knit or crochet design they have created using one of the yarn packs. 

Thank you to Phil from The Twisted Yarn for yesterday's stop off on the tour. Tomorrow it continues with Catherine's Crochet Corner.

Today it's the turn of Hand Knitted Things. The lovely "Desert" colour pack was my selection which includes the shades iron, graphite, cherry, heather, rose, coral and gold.

Inspiration for my design came from waves on the seashore in Scotland and a blanket I made previously using a stripy contrasting stitch pattern. Some experimenting with colour combinations and stitch patterns followed,  eventually a sample knitted swatch was produced. 

The wave pattern is based on the Shetland lace stitch "Old Shale" (Old Shell), usually knit on a stocking stitch background. For this project, however, all rows are knitted, so it's garter stitch all the way. The shawl is knit from the centre line in one direction from a provisional cast on. 

A provisional cast on allows cast on stitches to remain "live" and be worked on later. There are various methods to achieve this technique. My preference is to create stitches on the knitting needle using a crochet hook and some scrap yarn. There's a very good video I found which demonstrates this - click here.

After casting off the first half of the shawl, the "live stitches" from the provisional cast on are placed back on the knitting needle. The other half is knitted outwards, again from the centre line of stitches. This results in two halves running parallel with each other. 

Now, you may have noticed a shade missing from the original line up, which is the golden yellow. After completing the swatch and getting started I realised the golden yellow did not appear in my design. Following much consideration I decided to proceed with the predominantly plum, cherry, pink and mauve tones and think about adding another complimentary project using the yellow. 

Using some of the graphite and cherry with the yellow, "Parallel Lines" gloves were devised, incorporating pattern stitches from the shawl. The gloves are knitted in the round with purl rows and colour changes.

Gloves matching the shawl were also made using some of the remaining yarn.

The gloves and shawl patterns are available from Ravelry with 

a 30 % discount until the end of the blog tour.

(Offer ends 31st October 2017 - Midnight BST)

Parallel Waves Pattern 

Parallel Lines Pattern

Batik DK colour pack "Desert" - x4 Iron, x1 each of graphite, heather, cherry, rose, gold and coral

Stylecraft yarns are offering the chance to win one of the yarn packs of Batik "Desert". There's enough yarn to make the shawl and two pairs of gloves. 

Click on the link below to enter the giveaway

*****

Stylecraft Batik Yarn Giveaway

(Opens 10am BST on 25th until 10am BST on 26th October 2017)

*****

Update 26th October 2017

Thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway, it's now closed.

There were 1496 entries.

The winner is Alison Dibdin.

Thank you!