Stylecraft Special DK Blog Tour

If you follow Let's Knit Magazine you may remember the Stylecraft Special DK Colour Competition from earlier in the year. Readers were asked to suggest a new colour for the yarn range (which already included sixty shades). A shortlist of ten colours were made and a winner chosen by public vote.

The Winner
The overall winner was Duck Egg, however, Stylecraft liked all the shortlisted colours and has put together limited edition 50g packs to be showcased at the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace 7th -11th October 2015. 

As part of the promotion Stylecraft asked a number of bloggers to try out sample packs of the yarn and to come up with creative ideas. (See the links at the end of this post to view all the participants in the Blog Tour and for the chance to enter a yarn Giveaway).

What did I do with my samples? 
I'd recently designed a hat pattern called Pathfinder using a Fair Isle style motif. The pattern uses four colours but I wondered if I could instead use three colours to showcase the Stylecraft yarn. There were endless lovely combinations. After some time grouping different colours together I came up with the following three combinations to make three hats. I used 8 out of the 10 new colours from the range.

Duck Egg being one of my favourites, I had to choose this. Another favourite was Pistachio,  this was used in two of the hats, as a contrast colour and once as an accent colour.

I thoroughly enjoyed working with this yarn and the vibrant new colours. 

Click here for details of Pathfinder on Ravelry.

Here's a full list with links to the participants:
Jane Crowfoot 
Josie Kitten 
Emma Varnam
Crafternoon Treats 
The Twisted Yarn 
The Patchwork Heart
Le Monde de Sucrette 
Hand Knitted Things
Cherry Heart
The 8th Gem 
 
Hope you enjoy browsing the creative projects!

 

 

Pathfinder

This is the Pathfinder hat. Inspired by maps and fair isle motifs. Grid lines and squares represent the distance measures on a map and diagonal directions on a compass. The repeating fair isle style design uses four colours. A contrast colour is used part way through the pattern to create additional interest. Concentric rings reminiscent of contour lines rise up the crown, topped off with a colourful pom pom. Shown above and below in wool from Jameson's of Shetland DK, accent colours are Pumpkin and Caspian.

The pattern also includes instructions for a thee colour version. Shown below knitted in West Yorkshire Spinners Bluefaced Leicester DK - colours, Burnt Orange, Honey and Olive.

Full pattern details for Pathfinder can be found on Ravelry. 

Shetland Wool Week 2015

Shetland Wool Week is 26th to 4th October 2015. Again, I'm not able to attend this event. As a substitute, as such, I ordered a copy of the Shetland Wool Week Annual: Volume 1 which arrived in the post at the weekend. This is a new publication full of patterns, inspiration and essays. Designers and contributors include, Ella Gordon, Hazel Tindall, Kate Davies, Outi  Kater, Gudrun Johnson, Donna Smith and others. Donna is this years patron and designer of the hat on the cover, the very popular 'Baa-ble Hat'. I'm enjoying reading the articles about knitting and it's importance in the Shetland Isles and browsing the knitting patterns for future projects.

I first picked up a copy of the pattern for the Baa-ble Hat at the Edinburgh Yarn Festival in March. It's also included in the Shetland Wool Week publication and is available to download free via their website. 

A few weeks ago I made a start on the hat project. I had a selection of un-dyed yarn from our Shetland sheep and wondered if I could use the colours to make this hat. Black, grey, brown and white provided enough substitute shades and contrasts. This is a lovely pattern and easy to knit. It's a fun hat for both adults and children. The instructions are for the adult size but you can find a guide to knitting a child sized version on Donna Smiths blog.

Here's a few images of my Baa-ble Hat project...

Travelling Yarns Collaboration

Way back in the summer I met with Catherine Sclater of Travelling Yarns. We discussed the possibility of a knitting/yarn/pattern collaboration. Catherine has been working with the new Uist Wool Spinning Mill and has developed her own artisan hand dyed yarn. She is using fleece from a breed of sheep called Zwartbles and it has a rich dark brown/black colour. Catherine has named this yarn Black Beauly, a reference to the area where the fleece was sourced. Some of the dark yarn is spun with white Cheviot fibre which takes up the dye. The result is a lovely rich two tone colour effect, this hand dyed yarn she has named Machair.

The image shows sample skeins of the Machair hand dyed with one skein of Black Beauly. My brief was to design a hat pattern using one skein of the dark yarn and one of the hand dyed. Also there was to be a Fair Isle influence to bring out the contrast between the two yarns. 

I came up with, 'Stellar', a beanie style hat, suitable for men or women, with a Fair Isle style design made up of intersecting triangles and a solid colour crown with an optional tassel. I made the first sample using the yellow colour element forming the pattern and the darker contrast on the crown. This is shown in Catherine's Autumn Yellow hand dyed. Stellar hat pattern is now available via Ravelry.

 

Modelled here (reluctantly) by Mr Hand Knitted. He likes the hat but not being photographed.

The second hat sample was knitted with the darker colour forming the pattern element and the colour on the crown for contrast, shown here in Catherine's hand dyed Teal.

Catherine will be exhibiting her Black Beauly and Machair yarn, 'Stellar' hat knitting kits and a vast range of other knitting yarns at the Highland Wool and Textile Fair, Bishop's Palace at Eden Court, Inverness, on 18th October 10am - 4pm.