Category Archives: wrap

PROJECT Decemberist

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Decemberist

Please meet our latest success, Decemberist! I’ve been eyeballing this pattern for a while and figured “What have I got to loose?!” It knits fast with super thick yarn on 9mm/US13 needles (or larger if your yarn is accommodating). We used 3 balls of Drops Andes in colour 8112, an icy blue, so it was a pretty affordable project too ($33). The pattern was straight-forward, and the lace is given in both written instructions and as a chart – it probably fits into an advanced-beginner/intermediate skill level, and would probably make a decent introduction to lace knitting for anyone wanting to expand and explore.

Overall, I think it is a very successful project, and it would make a great holiday gift knit (I kind of like that it looks like a substantial sized gift, even though it’s light on cost and labour). If you know someone with a cottage it would make an amazing wrap to snuggle up in at night or at the end of the season. Women who work in cold offices will also appreciate one of these. I also think that this wrap is so pretty that when your friends/family/colleagues see you wearing this they are going to ask you to make them one, so you might as well get ahead of the curve and start early. Will it look a little strange seeing the women in your office walking around wearing the same wrap in different colours? Maybe, but the Pointer Sisters rocked the look, so I say own it and be your best, favourite you!

Yarn

Drops Andes is a comfortable, lofty 2ply blend of Alpaca and Peruvian Wool. It’s soft to the touch, and kind of feels like what I always wish wool actually felt like – that stage that is just short of the buttery soft texture you normally find with a fine merino or baby alpaca. All of the colours are lovely, but I think the pattern would look especially good in the following:

  • Greys: 519 Dark Grey Mix, 9020 Light Grey Mix, 9015 Grey Mix, 8465 Medium Grey (solid)
  • Neutrals: 100 Off White (naturalish), 1101 White (cream), 206 Light Beige Mix, 619 Beige Mix (oatmeal)
  • Pale/Soft Colours: 8112 Ice Blue, 7120 Light Grey Green, 4276 Misty Rose Mix, 41010 Grey Lilac

Decemberist would also be exquisite knit in a single ply merino like Malabrigo Rasta (5 skeins) and Cascade Spuntaneous (3 skeins). Both yarns can be pushed up to a 12mm/US17 needle.

How to Grow Yours Decemberist

If you want to make yours larger the easiest way is to use a slightly thicker yarn with a larger needle. Malabrigo Rasta (5 skeins) and Cascade Spuntaneous (3 skeins) would both be great yarns to sub, and you can go up to a 12mm/US17 needle with both of them. Unless you are a tight knitter, I would NOT increase the needle size for the Drops Andes; after blocking the fabric flows and drapes, its a beautiful tension (around 9 sts over 4″/10cm).

If you feel confident with your mathimagical abilities, you can also upsize the pattern by increasing the amount of stocking stitch you work before starting the lace. You’ll need to add an extra 36 sts to the stocking stitch section (so you’ll need to do an extra 6 repeats for “Section 1”, which would add an extra 12 rows). Depending on your tension, this should give you about an extra 3.75″/9.5cm of depth and about 16″/40cm in width.

Materials

If you don’t already own 9mm/US13 needles (or larger) this might be a great opportunity to buy some Knitters Pride Interchangeable needles. You’ll need a long cable for this project, which is something you may not get a lot of use out of in the future (unless you’re going to get into making Bulky Blankets, which are awesome things in their own right). With interchangeable needles one pair of tips can become any length of circular needle from 24″ to 60″, and extra cords are a very reasonable $3.97 each (instead of $20 to $35 for a new pair of needles with a different length cord).

Conclusions

This project is a two thumbs up! It’s pretty, fast, not too complicated, affordable, and giftable. I’m thinking about trying it again in Malabrigo Rasta in 429 Cape Cod Grey, but I’ll wait a month or so in case you guys need the yarn.

PROJECT Beach Wrap in Cotton

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Beach Wrap in Cotton

We finished up a new store project, our Beach Wrap pattern, but this time we did a little experiment and made it with a bulky cotton yarn, Berroco Estiva. Estiva is a new yarn this year, so we’re still playing around, putting it through it’s paces, but I think it’s definitely reorder-worthy for next spring. It’s soft, 100% cotton, bulky, and not heavy or ropy like most bulky weight cottons. That ticks a lot of boxes for me. It’s also made in Italy (ie. not made by slaves) and is machine washable on cold, which is are features I didn’t expect but please me.

Notes

The wrap came out significantly smaller than our original version in linen, so if you want to make a larger wrap you can cuddle into you should get an extra cakes of Berroco Estiva. I thought it was a teachable moment (at least I got teached), so I’m going into it in more detail in a follow-up post (I actually drafted that post first, so I PROMISE it will come).

Materials

  • Berroco Estiva: 1 cake for smaller version (in the pictures), 2 cakes if you want your wrap larger.
  • 7mm/US10.75 – 32″ circular needles
  • Tapestry needle
  • FREE Pattern

NEW PROJECT Day Blossom

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Day Blossom

When we make projects for the store, I choose them with you in mind. You’ll can probably figure out which things I like to make for myself – mostly sweaters with simple silhouettes, accessories for the family, and quirky little things (mohair tissue box covers, decorative mini-sweaters, tea cozies with limbs growing out of them, etc). Day Blossom is kind of a crossover – I came across it while looking for a store project, and figured I’d take a chance on it. I fell in love with the texture, I love texture and playing with texture. It combines two weights of Quince’s linen yarns, one thicker and one thinner. In the pictures the yellow is the thicker yarn (Quince & Co Kestrel) and the neutral colour is the thinner (Quince & Co Sparrow).

I kind of like the little fringes, they reiterate the changes in the textile and create a bit of visual interest, but you don’t have to make them if you don’t want to. The size is nice too, it’s very comfortable as a scarf and as a shoulder cover. The linen is cool and comfortable, all drape. After a long winter and cold spring it’s nice to wear a garment that’s feels different. Linen and wool are kind of binary opposites; wool is all about warmth, air and body, while linen is cool, dense and drapey.

I like knitting linen with wood needles, but Liane said it drove her up the wall. When I made my first sweater with Quince & Co Sparrow I swatched quite a bit to make sure I got tension, and I tried both bamboo and brass needles. At first I didn’t like the wood, then I tried the brass, and after that I went back to the wood and preferred them. In the end, the needles weren’t really the factor I expected them to be, but getting used to working with the linen was the important part. Once I was accustomed to the fibre I was happy with my regular needles. As for all those swatches, Sparrow is super soft and machine washes beautifully so I use them around the house and the store. They’ve replaced disposable tissues for removing makeup, washing my face, and cleaning up little messes. To my mind, that’s a big bonus – the less I have to send to landfill the better!

The colours shown in the original pattern are Quince & Co Sparrow in Moon (a grey with a blueish cast) and Quince & Co Kestrel in Minos (purple). Their colours are STUNNING, I love them, and for a bit I had a hard time thinking outside of that box. But it’s been such a cold & dreary spring here that I felt I owed it to everyone to come up with something brighter, happier, more optimistic. To pull myself out of that blank mental space I pulled all of the colours off the shelf and shuffled them around on the table. I’m glad I did, the colour combo I came up with is sunny, it has just enough colour to brighten things up without being “HI, NICE TO MEET YOU! I’M YELLOW!” You can’t go wrong with the combo of a colour on a neutral, you just have to make sure that the tones in both shades are complimentary.

Materials

NEW One-Skein Clapo-Ktus Wrap/Scarf

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clapo-ktus shawl/wrap in handmaiden flyss

Clapo-Ktus Wrap

I just finished this Clapo-Ktus wrap and it came out beautifully! I was itching to work with some of the Handmaiden Flyss on our shelves, a Canadian hand-dyed blend of Silk and Linen, and I was looking for a one-skein project that wouldn’t take too long and would show off the textile – I think totally NAILED IT.

The Pattern

Clapo-Ktus (terrible name, but the pattern is free) is actually a combination of two popular patterns, the Clapotis scarf/wrap, which involves dropped stitches, and the Baktus scarf, which is knit from side to side. The dropped stitches are gorgeous and make great use of the yarn’s natural drape (linen and silk are both fibres that are ALL drape, and have zero body). The Baktus part of the design give it a triangular shape, and allows you to use exactly as much yarn as you have on hand (hence a one-skein project).

The Finished Product

I wasn’t initially sure the one skein would be enough, but as I dropped the stitches it expanded beautifully, and after blocking it was magnificent. If you are interested, I would definitely also recommend making a Clapotis with this yarn, it would be a stunner! I originally envisioned this project as a wrap for the spring and summer, and I think it will hold it’s own in this department, but when it was finished and I tried it on I actually ADORED wearing it as a spring scarf. The fabric isn’t heavy or dense, and the textile is soft but has just enough texture to make it interesting. The Handmaiden Flyss is definitely knit-worthy, I’d like to make a sweater with it next!

Just one caveat – I ended up with these weird open stitches on one side, where the dropped stitches were initially created (you can see them in the picture below with the hanger). I thought I followed the pattern, so I’m not sure what went wrong or how I ended up with this. With all the dropped stitches in the fabric I don’t think it’s a big deal or unsightly, but if you have any idea what I’ve done please leave a comment!

clapo-ktus shawl/wrap in handmaiden flyss

Materials

clapo-ktus shawl/wrap in handmaiden flyss
clapo-ktus shawl/wrap in handmaiden flyss
clapo-ktus shawl/wrap in handmaiden flyss

clapo-ktus shawl/wrap in handmaiden flyss

NEW Bio Balance Wrap

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Grrovy shawl/wrap in BC Garn Bio Balance

Groovy in BC Garn Bio Balance

We just finished another Groovy wrap (when something works well, I tend to go with it). The last time we made it was a few years ago with Quince & Co Sparrow, and I wanted to try it with a different textile, to see how the fibre behaved.

The pattern isn’t free, but it’s a good pattern, the kind you’ll go back to over and over when you have random skeins you don’t know what to do with, and the price is nominal. It doesn’t take a lot of brain power (which is nice in warm weather), and is accessible to newer knitters. Basically, it falls into the “some things are worth paying for” category.

The pattern isn’t free, but it’s a good pattern, the kind you’ll go back to over and over when you have random skeins you don’t know what to do with, and the price is nominal. It doesn’t take a lot of brain power (which is nice in warm weather), and is accessible to newer knitters. Basically, it falls into the “some things are worth paying for” category.

This time we used a new yarn, BC Garn Bio Balance. It’s a deliciously soft blend of organic cotton and organic wool, an all year yarn that’s especially great for people who run warm. The company is Danish, the yarn is milled in Turkey, and the fibres are from Argentina. It’s definitely an idea yarn for wraps, sweaters, baby and child garments, etc. The fabric turned out soft, light, and cozy, and pretty, and our wrap is a perfect little something to throw on in spring and summer. Not too big and not too small, you wan wear it around your neck or your shoulders. If you want to make one larger, just get an extra skein and keep knitting. I loved this dark blue, it’s very denimy (without feeling or knitting like denim), but now that all of our stock of BC Garn Bio Balance has arrived I’ve re-confirmed that all the colours are delicious!

Materials

NEW FREE PATTERN Beach Wrap

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Beach Wrap

This wrap was created with accessibility in mind – I wanted it to be simple to knit, and incredibly wearable. It’s made with Quince & Co. Kestrel, a 100% organic linen that’s easy to knit with, comfortable to wear, and super easy to wash (throw it in the machine in a delicate bag). The linen is heavy enough to keep you warm on spring and summer nights, but will never leave you sweating.

The simple welted texture is random, completely reversible, and creates a classic, timeless look. The pattern is knitted on the bias, increasing in width as you go, so you can make it any size you like and you never have to worry about running out of yarn. We’ve written the pattern with a line-by-line chart, to help you keep track of your rows (a beneficial thing for everyone, but especially helpful for people with learning disabilities). And the final bonus – it’s a FAST knit on 6mm/US10 to 7mm/US10.75 needles (think quick mother’s day gift)!

Size

  • 82”/205cm long (from tip to tip)
  • 20”/50cm deep (at longest point)

Materials

PROJECT Spring Quaker Yarn Stretcher

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Quaker Yarn Stretcher

I loved out first version of the Quaker Yarn Stretcher that we made a second in a lighter, springier colour. We used the same yarn, one skein of Handmaiden Maiden Hair, but we tried some larger (7mm/US10.75) needles this time and got an even lighter, airier effect. It still makes a great, light-as-air scarf, but you can see in the pictures below it’s a perfect wrap for cool summer evenings and chilly wedding halls everywhere. Or just drape it on things around your hose and enjoy the prettiness all year (I seriously used to have a friend who did this – she used to art-direct her apartment long before blogging and the internet. Her for-display-only yarn basket was what got me into knitting).

The yarn, Handmaiden Maiden Hair, is just gorgeous, I absolutely adore working with it before, during, and after the project. Apparently you do to, so we have ordered more in some springier colours and it is on it’s way!

Notes

  • We accidentally changed the pattern and worked e rows of garter stitch instead of reverse-stocking stitch, but it isn’t highly noticeable (see modifications below)
  • I splurged and got myself a second set of Knitter’s Pride Knit Blockers, because I absolutely freakin’ LOVE THEM. Blocking the shawl was a dream with them, they are my favourite new thing.

Modifications

  • R 1 to 12: Work Rows 1 to 12 as written in pattern
  • R13 to 18: Repeat Rows 1 & 6 three times

Materials

Shop Online Button Turquoise 250w

FINISHED Chevron Baby Blanket

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Chevron Baby Blanket

Mallory finished our Chevron Baby Blanket made with Urth Uneek Worsted and it’s just a beautiful as I thought it would be. Our turned out a bit smaller than expected, but we only used 2 skeins of yarn. I’ve done the math and adjusted the number for larger sizes for you, including suggestions for the yarn required. Urth Uneek Worsted is a really special yarn – it’s a gorgeous, hand-painted, self-striping, machine washable super-soft merino wool, and their colourways absolutely GLOW with life.

Notes

  • The pattern is straightforward (and free), and the yarn is soft and stunning, so I don’t think you can go wrong with this project.
  • If you are looking for a similar look but can’t handle the price-tag, try using Berroco Comfort Print. It’s soft, machine washable, self-striping, costs a third of the price, and the yardage is the same as the Urth Uneek Worsted. If you go with this option be sure to choose the colours that are labelled ‘stripes’ – it also comes in variegated colours.
  • I highly suggest you use stitch markers to demark the pattern repeats, it will make so much easier and hep you keep track of where you are in the row.
  • I also suggest putting in a life-line every now and again, just in case you make a mistake and have to rip a few rows back.
  • We blocked out blanket using the Knitter’s Pride Knit Blockers and I AM IN LOVE with them! They made blocking a million times easier and faster!
  • As noted above, our project came out small, so I’ve laid-out the numbers for larger sizes. I also thought it would make a gorgeous and easy wrap, so I included the numbers for that, as well as for a larger throw blanket.

Size

Our blanket came out 24”(61cm) wide by 28.5″(72cm) long after blocking. The pattern is written for one size, but based on our tension I’ve drafted some suggestions for larger sizes, a wrap and a throw blanket.

  • Baby Blanket – 24”(61cm) wide by 28.5″(72cm) long: cast on 121 sts
  • Baby Blanket – 28.5”(72cm) wide x 34”(86cm) long: cast on 145 sts
  • Baby Blanket – 33”(84cm) wide x 39”(99cm) long: cast on 169 sts
  • Baby Blanket – 37.5”(95cm) wide x 45”(114cm) long: cast on 193 sts
  • Wrap/Shawl – 19.5”(49.5cm) wide x 60”(152cm) long (or longer): cast on 97 sts
  • Throw Blanket – 51″(129cm) wide x 60″(152cm) long: cast on 265 sts

Materials

PROJECT Brushed Alpaca Nuvem

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Nuvem

I just finished a third Nuvem and it was a total win! It’s light and airy as a cloud and cozy as hell. It’ll be an awesome spring/fall wrap, I just want to cocoon in it. I used Drops Brushed Alpaca and Silk and 4.5mm/US7 needles, so it also didn’t take a super long time (I took about a month, but I totally dawdled because I wasn’t into any tv shows or audiobooks). Anyway, everyone who picks it up says they they feel compelled to make one – especially after I tell them the yarn only cost $36 (total).

Notes

The pattern isn’t very complicated, but it does involve a cast-on that some may not be familiar with: Judy’s Magic Cast-on. It’s isn’t hard, and I don’t think you should let it stop you from making this project. Judy’s Magic Cast-on is a very popular technique for making toe-up socks, and there are tons of videos and tutorials for it online, so if you have a hard time with one just skip to the next.

Nuvem Needle Hacks

  1. The last time I made a Nuvem I came up with an easy Knit Hack to help keep track of my needles on this project!
  2. This pattern is worked on two identical circular needles, which can get unwieldy. After I had been working for a while and my Nuvem had grown sufficiently I found that I was able to transfer all of my stitches to a single 60″ circular needle. My preferred type of needles for this project are interchangeables (I have a set of Addis, but Knitter’s Pride are also a great option, their extra cords and tips are affordable), because if I’m going to buy two identical needles of the same size, they might as well be interchangeable tips.

Size

I always wonder why shawls and wraps don’t come in sizes – people comes in different shapes and sizes, and a person with larger shoulders, back and/or bust will need a larger garment, right? Luckily, this pattern is extremely flexible, so it’s very easy to make this wrap smaller or larger. I cast on 143 stitches, which measured 37”/94cm in length after blocking (the end sections each measure about 17″/42cm). I feel like my wrap would fit up to a size large, but if I was an XL or larger I’d make it longer. If you want yours longer you can cast on more stitches (based on my tension, that’s about 3.85 stitches per inch, so if you wanted your wrap to be 4″/10cm longer I’d cast on an extra 15 stitches). If you want it wider you just have to knit extra rounds (or block it width-wise – I blocked mine length-wise).

  • Width (after blocking length-wise): 23”/58cm
  • Length (after blocking length-wise): 71”/180cm
  • Weight: 150g

You can get an idea about the finished size in the picture below. The mannequin is a size 6 and on the small size at that (no booty whatsoever), so I’d say that this is what it would look like on a small person.

Materials

PROJECT Easy Garter Wrap

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Easy Garter Wrap

We just finished making our FREE Easy Garter Scarfy Wrap with one of the new multi-coloured Handmaiden Casbah 5ply Gradient Wrap Kits – I knew it would come out beautifully! Handmaiden always comes up with interesting colour combinations that I wouldn’t normally think of, and the pop of colour is just what’s needed on dreary winter days.

All of the Handmaiden Casbah 5ply Gradient Wrap Kits are one-of-a-kind so no two colourways will be the same. The pattern is free, VERY beginner friendly, and mostly mindless. I used THIS TUTORIAL for weaving in the ends on garter stitch – it is super helpful. This project didn’t require many notes, but you can find it on Ravelry anyway.

Materials