Breton

Another Ravelry find, an oldie but a goodie!  I love Breton’s simple lines and attention to detail in the tailoring – to me that means a great fit. If you take a look at the pictures below – the shoulders are designed on the back of the shoulder, just like the sweaters you buy in a store. The neckline is also rally nice (it’s Brooklyn Tweed, I wouldn’t expect anything less).

The pattern is made with a fingering weight (sock weight) yarn, some great options for semi-solid or veil dyed colours include Manos del Uruguay Alegria Watercolours, Malabrigo Mechita, and of course Madeline Tosh Tosh Merino Light. If you want to use a variegated yarn you might want to skip the stripes and use Manos del Urugay Alergria or Koigu KPPPM.

 

Knit Hack

Each skein of hand dyed yarn, even if they are from the same dye lot, are slightly different. The only way to ensure a consistent colour distribution in your work is to work with two skeins at the same time, and alternate the skeins every row or every other row. It isn’t hard to do, you don’t ever need to cut the yarn, you just carry the yarns up the side, like when you make stripes (instructions: http://www.vogueknitting.com/pattern_help/how-to/beyond_the_basics/horizontal_stripes).

If you don’t alternate skeins you are liable to end up with blocks of colour that are slightly different. This technique can also be helpful if the colours in your hand painted/dyed yarn are pooling and you want an even colour distribution.

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Yarn Options

Manos del Uruguay Alegria Watercolours: Background Colour 2(3, 3, 3, 3, 4) skeins and 1 skein Stripe Colour (more colours are on order)

Malabrigo Mechita: Background Colour 2(3, 3, 3, 4, 4) skeins and 1 skein Stripe Colour

Madeline Tosh Tosh Merino Light: Background Colour 2(3, 3, 3, 4, 4) skeins and 1 skein Stripe Colour

Manos del Urugay Alergria (no stripes): 3(3, 4, 4, 4, 5) skeins

Koigu KPPPM (no stripes): 7(7, 8, 9, 10, 11) skeins

 

Other Materials

• Pattern via Ravelry
• See pattern for needle sizes