15% Off all Yarn orders of $50 or more from Friday March 29 to Monday April 1. This discount is available online AND in-store, and will be automatically applied at check-out (you don’t need to enter a code, our system will do it automatically). Discount can not be combined with other discounts or free shipping.
Spring Chick by Fuzzy Mitten
If you’re looking to make your own little Spring Chick I’d try using any of the following:
Drops Melody (colour 14) and 6mm/US10 needles (or 5.5mm/US9)
Drops Air (colour 40) and 3.75mm/US5 or 4mm/US6 needles
Laine is an international knit and lifestyle magazine. In issue 20 (Spring 2024), they showcase ten beautiful knitting patterns as well as interesting articles from the world of fibre.
The lovely spring issue Laine 20, Waterways, invites you to spend a day by the sea with us. The issue includes ten beautiful and unique knits perfect for the season: the kind that will keep you warm on the first spring days when you can’t get enough of the outdoors but still need that extra layer to keep you warm.
Designers featured in this issue: Rebecca Clow, Lily Kate France, Eliza Hinkes, Susanna Kaartinen, Marzena Kołaczek, Marion Mursic, Joey Poh, Olga Putano, Qing Studio and Thea Vesterby.
Issue 20, Spring 2024, includes:
10 knitting patterns (both charts and written instructions provided): 5 sweaters, 1 cardigan, 1 tee, 2 shawls and 1 pair of socks.
An interview with the Afro-Finnish knitwear designer Jenny Ansah who wants to bring a stronger sense of community to the world of handicrafts.
The results of our first-ever Laine Knitting Survey, with 4,433 responses from knitters from all over the world. Read what knitting looks like in the 2020s and how knitters hope to see it evolve!
Jeanette Sloan’s Fibre Talk: a regular article on Jeanette chatting with interesting people. In this issue, she meets Maria Zeb Benjamin from The Wool Library, a grassroots organisation that celebrates British wool.
Five Ways by regular writer Päivi Kankaro, who explores how artificial intelligence might change knitting in the future.
Where I Knit: a regular piece that pictures people knitting in their favourite spot. In this issue, we meet Sascha Faxe, a Danish MP who likes to knit in Parliament meetings.
This easter you can add an Emotional Support Chicken to your family … or a whole clutch! Use Berroco Vintage or Drops Air for a slightly fuzzier, cuddlier chicken. I’ve suggested a slightly smaller needle size for this project because stuffies always benefit from being knit at a slightly tighter tension.
Yarn Options
Berroco Vintage: 1 skein of MC, 1 ball of CC, and 9m each for wattle, crown and beak.
Drops Air: 2 balls of MC, 1 ball of CC, and 9m each for wattle, crown and beak.
The array of icons includes authors such as Beatrix Potter and Virginia Woolf, the musicians Cyndi Lauper and Kate Bush, as well as activists, artists, garden designers and more.
This versatile collection features a variety of styles and techniques. It includes cardigans, sweaters, vests, jackets, and a dress, as well as shawls, socks, hats, mittens, and even a tie.
Susan created the designs to resemble heirloom pieces, well-loved and handed down through generations, with stories interwoven into their fabric.
The book showcases the continuing impact of others on each of us, and how inspiration often works: creating layers within layers, echoes within echoes.
“Every piece of this collection is carefully intertwined with the next: stories, inspiration, colours and yarns are all different yet connected, creating a knitted tapestry, echoes of each one woven together. I hope you enjoy knitting them as much as I have done!”
Susan Crawford is a British knitwear designer, fashion historian and author, known for her work on modernizing vintage knitwear patterns.
She lives in the Lake District in North West England — an area with stunning landscapes that also impact her work. Susan is particularly inspired by the stories carried within textiles and the intertwining of history and stitches. Echoes is Susan’s eighth book.
Satawal is a cropped tee with a simple lace pattern around a boat neck, which looks a bit like a Macramé texture. You can use various weights of yarn, from fingering weight for airy and transparent texture to worsted weight yarn for mid season garment (we used Berroco Modern Cotton on 6mm/US10 needles).
Our Project
We made the second size (size small) with 2 skeins of Berroco Modern Cotton in colour 1648 Abbot Run). It measures approximately 20″ wide (40″ bust circumference) and 20″ tall from top of shoulder to hem (you can of course make it longer if you want to). If you feel like the neck is too wide you can always seam it and make it a closer neck. The fabric has a lot of stretch, and at this tension you’ll probably want to wear it over a light camisole. It’s meant to be worn loose and oversized, with lots of ease!
Modern Cotton is a soft, easy to knit, and very machine washable blend of cotton and Modal Rayon (which is viscose, a plant based cellulose fibre, much like bamboo). It’s easy to wear in warmer weather, and it’s also great for people with allergies to wool or other animal fibres, or who knit vegan.
Many thanks to Erica for whipping up this beautiful top!!! And many thanks to Gru for sitting for photos without having to be bribed or making a mess.
Construction
The pattern is worked seamlessly from the top down. The lace pattern for the yoke is worked in the round with increases at the both right and left shoulders, then the body is divided into the front and the back and worked flat separately to the underarm, where they are joined again. The lower body is knitted in one piece in the round. Sleeve stitches are picked up along armholes and worked in the round.
Estelle Breeze is a deliciously soft chunky,machine washable cotton yarn. Made using one thicker ply and a finer thread combined, the texture makes this yarn perfect for baby items, blankets, slippers, or quick and comfy sweaters! It’s very affordable, and works up relatively quickly on 6mm/US10 needles.
The weather is warmer than normal this year, and if you’ve started bringing out your spring clothes that means its time to start cleaning and storing your winter woolens! We’ve restocked Eucalan in both the 100ml and 500ml sizes so you are good to go to start your spring cleaning.
Yup, the weather is warm, the windows and doors are open, and the bugs are breeding again. My calendar just reminded me to change my moth traps, so I thought I’d send a gentle nudge that you need to make sure you have put all your woollens SAFELY away for the season. I’ve written a lot about this in the past, so instead of reinventing the wheel, I’m just going to refer you to read our past care and mainenance info .
Camilla Vad (designer of Magnolia Bloom) has come out with another simply and beautifully textured pullover, Field Sweater. Field Sweater is made top-down in the round with a lighter DK weight yarn, making it a great spring knit and wear. The texture will pop with a merino wool like Sandnes Garn Double Sunday, but the project can also be made well within the realm of affordability with a yarn like Berroco Vintage DK (the heathered colours will be especially beautiful and give it a depth of colour.
Size
Circumference under armhole: 37.5(40, 42.5, 44.75, 48, 50.5, 52.75, 55.25, 56.75) inches OR 94 (100, 106, 112, 120, 126, 132, 138, 142) cm
Length from armhole to bottom: 12.75 inches/32 cm
Sleeve length from armhole: 17.5 inches/44 cm
Full length: 56 (57) 58 (59) 60 (61) 62 (63) 64 cm
I kinda love an all-over mesh lace sweater (like Look at My Holes or Menden – it’s pretty but also mod and and very retro, all at the same time. The Corran Cardigan is an all-over lace cardigan, knit seamlessly from the bottom up with drop shoulders (this means you’ll be picking up stitches for the sleeves). There are two neckline options: round and V-neck and two sleeve lengths. This pattern can be knit in a wide variety of fibres making it a perfect transitional piece. To see the Corran knit in a variety of yarns and with various modifications, please see the #CorranCardigan on Instagram.
Corran is knit with worsted weight yarn, giving you lots of options for fibres suitable for cool or warm weather (I HEART pragmatic designers, they really understand knitters).
