Birds and Turtles

Sometimes you just need a quick and easy knit. The Sunday Cardigan fits the bill.

The Sunday Cardigan is knit from the top down with one strand of Inca Wool and two strands of silk mohair held together throughout the work. The yoke is knit back and forth in rib and shaped with increases. The button bands are knit simultaneously with the rest of the cardigan, so you do not have to pick up stitches at the end. The body and sleeves are knit in stockinette stitch and are finished with a wide rib edge. The sleeves are extra-long. The neckband is folded in and sewn to the wrong side. The button holes are constructed at the end by widening up a hole in the knit fabric (and are thus not worked as you knit the button band); they are secured and shaped by sewing along the edges of the button holes with buttonhole stitches (sewing).

Photos © PetitKnit

The cardigan is knit with one strand of worsted weight yarn and two strands of lace weight mohair. Your options are endless.

Here are all our worsted weight yarns and mohair.

Sarah has knit many PetitKnit patterns and has great success with them.

The one question I am asked about their patterns is figuring out how much yarn you need.

400 (400) 400 (500) 500 g Inca Wool from Hjertegarn (100 g = 160 m)

This is for the worsted weight. If you are making the first three sizes you need 640m of yarn (4 x 160). The next two sizes are 800m of yarn (5 x 160).

125 (150) 150 (175) 175 g Soft Silk Mohair from Knitting For Olive (25 g = 210 m)

This is for the mohair.

For the smallest size you need 1050m (5 x 210). The next two sizes 1260m. The last two sizes 1470m. It looks like more yardage for the mohair - it is because you are using two strands. You need 525m per strand for the smallest size. 

I hope this makes sense. If you are ordering yarn and having problems with the amount of yarn to purchase, please email me and I can help you.

I added some Birds of a Feather kits to the website today. The kits are Soul Single and Soul Mohair from Old Soul Fiber Co.

The yarn from Turtlepurl is on the way to us. Once it arrives in the store I will post about it showing all the colours. I will also give the time when it will be live on the website. We have 50 sets on the way so I want to give everyone the same opportunity to order.

Winters Beach

I was talking about Hedgehog Tweedy yesterday and then this morning there was an email from Andrea Mowry. She designed a new cardigan in Tweedy. I would have ordered a lot more Tweedy had I known this was coming out. The cardigan is gorgeous!

When it comes to tweed yarn, I immediately begin dreaming of cables. I wanted to create a cozy cardigan with a no-fuss style. Winters Beach is worn open and is the perfect layering sweater - complete with pockets, of course. This sweater is knit from bottom up to the shoulders, then sleeves are picked up around the armholes and knit down. Pockets are placed while knitting the body of the sweater and finished at the end.

You can purchase the pattern for the Winters Beach Cardi on Andrea’s website. 

Photos © Andrea Mowry

We went through the store today and came up with some substitutions for the cardigan.

Arranmore Light from The Fibre. Co would be a great choice. Above is St. Clair and below is Ailis.

Deluxe DK Tweed from Universal Yarns.

I nearly tripped over a basket of this yarn and it hit me that it would work great for the cardigan. We have enough ecru (Porcelain) in stock for one cardigan. I quickly placed an order today and more is on the way.

-Garnet

-Porcelain

-Denim

-Charcoal

-Cloud Blue 

Loch Lomond from BC Garn.

Lovely, Scottish 100% wool yarn in an exclusive, soft quality and with exactly that authenticity and roughness a tweed yarn should possess. Comes in beautiful tones perfect for colourwork or textured patterns. Pretty sweater, mittens, scarfs and much, much more can be produced with this lovely yarn.

Patagonia from Juniper Moon is another option.

This tweedy yarn is humanely grown in Argentina and spun from Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) certified, sustainable, non-mulesed, pesticide-free organic merino wool. It is both hearty and soft and has a lovely bloom after it is washed.

Andrea always gives yarn substitution ideas. One yarn she suggests is Rowan Felted Tweed.

I made a chart this afternoon with different yarns and how many balls or skeins that you would need. I am a believer of purchasing extra yarn just in case. By yardage you need 6 balls of Felted Tweed for the smallest size. I would suggest 7.

PSA - make sure you do a tension swatch.

The pattern says 5mm needles for the main body of the cardigan. I think that might be too big and you will need a 4.5mm and some knitters will have to go to a 4mm. Swatching is important. If you aren’t familiar with making a tension swatch, take a minute to read Kate Atherley’s blog post about swatching. And then read this blog post.

Painting Waves is finished so I needed something to knit last night. I picked up my Rock It Tee by Tanis. I am past the armholes so it’s just knitting around and around. This will keep me busy for a few days waiting for a shipment to arrive from Spincycle.

We have a new colour coming. This is Good Omen in Dream State (above) and Dyed in the Wool (below).

What a nice rug

Painting Waves is almost finished. I’m halfway through the I-Cord Bind Off. It would have been done except for a migraine that knocked me out yesterday. I’m better today and should finish it tonight.

What’s next? I have been thinking about Pressed Flowers (pattern purchased on Ravelry) for some time. I know that I will be using Dyed in the Wool for the flowers. The colour? I think Midsommar. The background? I’m not sure. Maybe Rowan Felted Tweed. Maybe Tosh Sport.

Ms. UPS was at the store early this morning with our Hedgehog Tweedy. The black Tweedy might make a great background for Pressed Flowers.

Fortune Cookie (free download on Hedgehog’s website) is knit with 4 skeins of Tweedy.

Large, generous wrap to keep the chill off on cold nights. Beautiful knitted lace motif that is lace on both right and wrong sides, but it is not too difficult. Finished off with a ribbed edging.

It’s a very generously sized shawl. You can make a smaller version easily by omitting a repeat (or two!) from the body section.

Happy Saturday

Churchmouse Yarns has reworked their popular Shoulder Cozy pattern in Rowan’s Soft Boucle. You need to purchase the Shoulder Cozy pattern and then download the free addendum.

Part capelet, part poncho, part cowl, our Shoulder Cozy is so quick and easy to knit in all garter stitch! It has a wide, bell-like shape that slips comfortably around your shoulders or scrunches cozily around your neck. Whether you’re cuddling up at home or bundling up to head outdoors, this is a perfect piece to keep close.

For this version of our Shoulder Cozy, we used fluffy, fuzzy Rowan Soft Bouclé! A clever concoction of cotton, alpaca, merino wool, and polyamide, this chunky-weight yarn is soft on soft on soft. It brings furry oomph to even simple garter stitch!

I was talking with the lovely ladies at Spincycle today and we should have more yarn by the end of the month. This is a brand new colour coming in Dream State and Dyed in the Wool. Teal, blue, wine, purple and fuchsia. Just in time for me to start a new project 😘

The first NFL game is over. It is the first intermission in the Maple Leaf game so we are watching golf until the next NFL game. I have 5 more rows on my shawl and then the I-Cord bind off. The bind off looks great but boy does it take a lot of time.

If you aren’t familiar with the I-Cord Bind Off, here is Andrea Mowry’s video.

Now back to my knitting. 

Hello Pretties

Mr. UPS came by today with 2 boxes from Madelinetosh.

This is Twist Light and the colour is Mars in Retrograde. Lynn knits a lot of socks and is a huge fan of Twist Light. She said it is one of her favourite sock yarns. There will be more colours coming in about a month.

I was in the store this morning to meet the driver and now I am home updating the website. All the Madelinetosh is online except for a few new colours of tosh merino light that I need to add. 

Dinner is finished, the dishwasher is going and now I can finish my post. 

Spincycle posted on Instagram today that Cheryl Faust is going to have a new pattern soon. I really like Cheryl’s patterns. This is Aves (pattern purchased on Ravelry) Somehow I missed this when Cheryl released it in October.

Photos © Cheryl Faust.

Cheryl used a worsted weight yarn for the body and Dream State for the contrast. In yesterday’s post I paired Tosh Vintage with Dream State - any of the pairings would work great for Aves.

You could also use Cascade 220, Cascade 220 Heathers or Woolstok for the background yarn.

The Aves Shawl is a gorgeous mosaic colorwork triangle shawl.

If you aren’t familiar with Mosaic Knitting, Interweave Knits has a great article about it. The technique might look intimidating but if you can knit stripes then you can do it.

Now onto my shawl. I need to wind another skein of merino light - I’m just a bit short for my shawl. It’s another football weekend so I should will finish it. There are a few sweaters living behind my knitting chair that are close to being finished. I must finish them. Okay. I must finish one and then I can start a new project. 😘