New from Sally Melville

Our good friend Sally Melville has a new pattern. You can purchase the pattern for Divide and Conquer on Ravelry.

This pattern is BOTH knit and crochet. And since crochet is denser, it uses both fingering and DK–the former for the granny squares and the latter for the knitting. 

I originally assumed the assembly would be fiddly, even tedious and annoying. But it was anything but! The assembly was almost the best part of the garment. Although wearing it has been pretty fun too! 

You could, of course, make the Front and Back all in granny squares: you would then use twice the fingering yarn recommended and half the DK. 

And you could forego a garment altogether and make a blanked: you would then use twice the fingering yarn recommended and the same amount of the DK. 

To make the garment, you will need 750 (850, 950) yds (675 730, 810m) fingering yarn and 800 (900, 1000) yds (720 810, 900m DK yarn. 

Finished measurements are as follows: 
Finished circumference 48 (54, 60)” (122 137, 162.5cm) 
Finished front length, shoulder to hem 19½” (49.5cm) 
Finished back length, shoulder to hem 22½” (57cm) 
Finished sleeve length 29½ (30, 30½)” (75 76, 77.5cm) 

There are opportunities to shorten or lengthen built into the pattern.

This is Sally’s Shaped Scarf (pattern free on Ravelry).

This piece is based upon one of my favourites from The Knit Stitch. I knew that beginning knitters needed a simple scarf, but triangles need to be fairly large, and rectangles are awkward to wear. So my plan became to knit a triangle—to sit at the neck—with rectangular tails to wrap. This one is fairly similar with a slight change to the cast-on and to the shaping (to give it a slight curve). 

The original was knit in a no-longer-available ribbon. This one uses hand-dyed yarns, a fingering and a mohair, run together. The result is a lovely fabric in a complex colour. (If you find a single yarn that gets gauge, that will work too! You will only need 310 yds if using a single yarn.)

You might have Sally’s book called The Knit Stitch - the pattern is in the book. The book has been out of print for quite some time so I’m happy to see that Sally has released the pattern on Ravelry. We knit this up years ago and I look forward to making it again.

The scarf would look great with a strand of Hedgehog Skinny Singles or Sock held with a strand of Kidsilk Lace. Or Emma’s Practically Perfect Sock and Suri Silk.

Dad, Beth and the boys went to the dog park this morning. Beth said that Fred loved it. He made friends with a small beagle and they played and ran and had fun.

Dad and Fred brought me lunch. Fred loves the truck. Him and dad spend a lot of time driving around from job to job.

I was able to do a bit more grafting in the store today but not enough for another picture. Maybe I’ll get it done while watching football tomorrow. Hopefully my Fantasy Football goes better than last week.