Whenever we introduce a new yarn with long color repeats, I’m always curious to see how it works up in long rows. So when Super Kid Mohair Loves Silk Print landed on my desk, I knew I’d be knitting something pretty from it as soon as possible.
Color 008 Retro
I chose a basic knit/purl design, to really show off those color changes. Here it is in progress, at about the time I was thinking, “surely, this must be a full ball I’ve used.” Nope, this yarn kept giving.
The WIP rode around in my purse unprotected and came out looking great. There was no matting or damage from the wear. It speaks well of the yarn’s sturdiness!
One ball of Rico Design Essentials Super Kid Mohair Loves Silk Print went a long way. Even though it’s a laceweight yarn, when it’s worked on larger needles or hook, the mohair halo fills in the spaces in the stitches. On a US size 7 (4.5mm) needle, it was light and airy, but not overly loose-looking. The stitch definition was just fine, even at that gauge, and it was pleasant to work with. And check out the fabric it made!
With beautiful bounce and stretch, this is an easy cowl to wear long and loose, or to wrap for a different style. Alternating sections of knit and purl work with the 70% mohair content to let the cowl curl up into little ridges, but the yarn’s 30% silk adds extra drape to allow the piece to expand into a beautiful, wide fabric.
The purl ridges push different bands of color forth, so while this piece is reversible, you’ll get an ever-so-slightly different effect based on which side you have facing out.
So if you’re looking for a really simple project with striking color, that only requires you to knit and purl in the round, here it is. Beautiful, basic, and bold, the Wind Song Cowl in Super Kid Mohair Loves Silk Print has your back.
We hope you have a wonderful weekend, full of ease and joy.
Sometimes the simplest things are the sweetest. Such is the case with today’s free pattern, Cotton Candy Swirl. The open, boomerang-shaped shawl is a lively accessory to brighten up any day.
I feel pretty… oh so pretty…
A field of triple crochet creates this colorful, fun accessory. One big beehive-style ball of soft, variegated Fibra Natura Cobblestone does the colorwork for you!
I’m such a fan of blues and greens that I think my personal shawl would be in color 106 Meadow, shown above. This would be such a great project for a crochet neophyte, or for anyone who wants to crochet while their attention is divided by good conversation.
Lovely, simple, and sweet, this free pattern is pretty and perfect.
Today, the Bonfire Scarf in Nordic Tapestry (free pattern link here).
It doesn’t get much sweeter or simpler than today’s free pattern. Take one ball of self-patterning Nordic Tapestry. Cast on. Knit every row.
Voila! A gorgeous scarf that’s suitable for beginners, or for those who want to make something pretty while chatting with their friends or watching the Great British Baking Show. (Our house is rooting for Crystelle.)
The secret is the yarn. Nordic Tapestry has varying lengths of coordinating shades, broken by shorter runs that mimic the look of Fair Isle. It makes a simple project look colorful and dynamic. Just cast on, and then knit until you’re done!
On the last Friday of the month, we take a beautiful paid pattern and set it free for a limited time on Ravelry. Today, it’s Calm Cardigan in Dona (Ravelry link)!
This yummy design was released as part of the Elegant Ease Collection, a set of seven cozy projects perfect for mornings in and evenings out.
Worked with two strands of 100% superwash extrafine merino Dona held together, this duster-length cardigan is luxurious, warm, and incredibly comfortable.
A wealth of thoughtful details, like pockets, belt with belt loops, and coordinating solid colored cuffs and edging make this a perfectly polished design.
To get the Calm Cardigan free, use the buy it now or add to cart links on the Ravelry pattern page. Then enter coupon code FLASH where you see the “use a coupon code” links that appear during purchase. Not a Ravelry user? Drop us a line by the end of 10/31 and we’ll get you taken care of.
We hope you have a safe and festive weekend. Happy crafting!
This is a fun and fast project that you can work up in a matter of hours! Using our super chunky Be Wool and Be Wool Multis always leads to full, soft, and quick work.
I recommend this as a great beginner crochet project! This cowl features V stitches, and a faux ribbing created using front and back post work. If you haven’t tried these stitch techniques a go before, definitely jump in. They are easy-peasy but look somewhat complex. It will be sure to have your friends asking the fun question “Oh my gosh, did you make that!?”
The Kobuk Cowl is named after the Kobuk Valley National Park in Alaska. The natural colors featured in this design reminded us of the cool blue waters, arctic chill, and rusted golden landscape seen in this majestic place. The second I tried in on I, was itching for some colder weather adventure. Granted, I may not make it all the way to Alaska this season, but I’ll be dreaming about it when I hike around the beautiful mountains in North Carolina!
Well there you have it! Have you ever been out to a National Park? Which one? I’d love to hear about your experience! That’s all for now, Happy Stitching! AJ
October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. It’s a moment to recognize the toll that this disease has taken, and continues to take. According to cancer.org, about 1 in 8 U.S. women and about 1 in 833 men will develop invasive breast cancer over the course of their lifetimes.
This means most of us know someone who has been affected. For me, it was my friend Pat. She was a fellow crafter, and a beautiful person. She had an easy smile and big laugh. I still miss her.
But while I miss my friend, I still take hope. She passed a long time ago, and survival rates for women over 50 have steadily increased every year since 2000. The increase is partly due to advances in treatment, and to greater awareness leading to early detection. We’d like to do our part to raise awareness by sharing this new design.
Rachel chose Cotton Supreme for this stunning stranded hat. Along with Cotton Supreme DK, it’s an approved yarn for chemo caps, because it’s very soft on sensitive scalps. Its machine washability also makes it a great choice, because if you’re dealing with cancer, or caring for someone affected, you may not want to spend your time and energy handwashing. We love Rachel’s choice of three harmonious shades of pink: 628 Super Pink (A), 510 Magenta (B), and 512 Hot Pink (C). They work very well together!
Because there have been so many advances in the field of breast cancer care, the guidelines for screening can be difficult to keep up with. Personally, I take this as a hopeful sign that we continue to improve our understanding day by day. To help you make your best decision, here is a pdf that the Centers for Disease Control has put together, sharing screening recommendations from six well-respected organizations, to help you decide what’s right for you.
Women of different ethnicities have different considerations as well. For instance, Black women have higher rates of breast cancer mortality in the USA, so a desire for earlier screening may play a role in your health care decisions. The bottom line is, we all need to stay educated, and to take control of our health.
Happy crafting, friends. We wish you good health for many years to come.
Here’s another beautiful and practical sweater from Yonca Ozbelli! We called this Grand Day Out because of how versatile it is, ready to be dressed up or down for your next great adventure!
Yonca loves to knit and crochet. She’s the head honcho here at Universal Yarn, but she’s not officially part of the Design Team. That means when Yonca designs something, it’s because she wants to make something for herself, or someone in her family. Then we here in the office see it, and love it, and Yonca graciously agrees to share her design with us.
It’s no wonder Yonca wanted to create this. Grand Day Out is the slouchy, timeless pullover we all need. It’s worked in Cinema, a soft single with a touch of cashmere. (Tip: Cinema is currently on sale on our site!)
Can’t you just feel it? This is a super soft sweater, worked in the round from the bottom up, with A-line shaping at the waist.
Raglan shaping ensures a smooth fit on the sleeves. When you’re making this sweater, we recommend choosing a size that’s two to three inches greater than your natural bust, for a relaxed silhouette.
Such a great pullover to wrap yourself up in.
We hope you have a fantastic weekend. Happy crafting!
Pilger is part of e-book Rustic and Refined, a collection of classic knits in Deluxe DK Tweed Superwash. There’s a lot to love in this collection, but we picked Pilger for today because the weather has finally turned cooler here, and it’s a classic autumnal look.
Pilger is definitely not a boring project! An assortment of textures at the color-blocked hems become twisted cables in the sleeves and body (no cable needle required) to keep your mind engaged.
In addition to being a pleasant knit, Pilger is very wearable. Sized men’s XS to 4X, the sweater features clever design touches that further elevate the piece, like that handsome shawl collar. Deluxe DK Tweed Superwash provides a the perfect touch of rustic charm, as well as making this beautiful pullover easy to care for.
To get Pilger free, use the buy it now or add to cart links on the Ravelry pattern page. Then enter coupon code FLASH where you see the “use a coupon code” links that appear during purchase. Not a Ravelry user? Drop us a line by the end of 9/26 and we’ll get you taken care of.
Have you seen our recently published free pattern, the extra special Pebbled Pathways in Cobblestone? Well, today we’re going to give it some well-deserved spotlight!
Pebbled Pathways (pattern link) has been in the works since late Spring, and I am so excited to finally be able to reveal this unique, gorgeous pattern! It is designed by Gabi van Tassel, who is known for her stunning pin loom designs. Her work has been published regularly in weaving publications, includingLittle Looms andHandwovenmagazines. We touch base on a semi-regular basis, and she always has wonderful things to say about our yarns and is such an enthusiastic fiber artist. As soon as we received Cobblestone, I knew I wanted to partner with her for a truly special project. I essentially sent her yarn, asked for some kind of wrap, and this colorful stole is the result! But, in addition to asking her to create this design, I asked her to write a guest post for our blog. So enough of what I have to say…let’s hear from Gabi herself!
From Gabi:
“It was a thrill when I received a small package from Universal Yarn a few months ago, with some brand-new Fibra Natura yarn and the question “Would you like to weave something with this?” I sure would!
Cobblestone in #102 Precious Jewels
But let me quickly share with you how we got here: Among other crafts, I like to weave hexagons on pin looms. My first design using Universal Yarn was a Grape Table Topper, published in Easy Weaving with Little Looms 2018. I used Universal Yarn Classic Shades [now discontinued, but Colorburst is a great substitute] at the time, which provided the perfect color run to express grapes.
Back to the package that I received: The yarn was a sample of the new Cobblestone yarn, which hit me like a rocket with inspiration. The name reminded me of the old streets in Germany, where I grew up. I always loved the calming geometry of those streets, and I often thought about how each of these stones was carefully put in place by skillful crafty hands. I wanted to capture that meditative thought in a shawl with the new yarn.
In case you are not familiar with pin loom weaving, it is a form of weaving where the crafter uses a small handheld loom to create shaped fabric pieces. Traditionally, pin looms wove 4” squares, but today there are many shapes, including rectangles, triangles, diamonds, and hexagons, in multiple sizes.
Just because these looms are small, doesn’t mean that you can’t craft serious projects. Pin loom weaving is modular weaving. Join the smaller woven units to make any item that you can imagine … for example, Pebbled Pathways!
Hexagon Pin Loom
The shawl is designed to make the best use of two balls of Cobblestone. The put-up is a generous 200-gram ball boasting 612 yards of 2-ply, 100% merino wool. The project requires one ball each of colors 103 Mardi Gras and 104 Tulip, with about 1 oz of each left over in the end. You can choose any other two colors of course. I recommend that you pick colors with contrast, to maintain the cobblestone characteristics in the design.
Weaving is easy. All of the hexagons are plain weave, worked on the Original TURTLE Loom™ in “F-fine sett”. The vivid color changes of the variegated yarn make each hexagon unique. The colors are well-curated and distributed in a way that the hexagons blend in with each other to make a smooth fabric.
The yarn is a delight to weave. It is soft and glides well while pin loom weaving. It has just the right amount of elasticity, not stiff and not too stretchy. The light twist is perfect to gently bloom into a nice, soft fabric with a good drape.
Crafters sometimes hesitate the task of joining pin loom woven shapes. However, hexagons are actually easy to join because they have smooth edgings. The sides are short enough to hold by hand: just match up two hexagons by their sides and sew them together with about 10-12 whip stitches.
If you would like some help with joining hexagons, check out the video “Joining 101: Sewing Two Hexagons Together” (https://youtu.be/PuD2wv1DdIo). Or, if you are interested in the mattress stitch, see the joining part of “Making an Elf Basket”.
If you don’t feel like weaving through two whole balls of Cobblestone, let the modular character of pin loom weaving come to the rescue! You can make a slimmer wrap by weaving only four rows instead of six (blue marks).
You can shorten or extend the length of the shawl by easily adding or subtracting a repeat of three hexagon columns (green marks).
Or – if you wish to make a small project at first – you can make a cowl, two rows high and nine hexagons in the round (yellow marks). Now, if you decide to make a cowl … and you like it … make another one for a friend … make a few as holiday gifts … Did I mention that there is a rabbit hole here?
Sparkle Windows woven scarf by Amy Gunderson
Many of Universal’s yarns are well-suited for weaving, and the Pebbled Pathways wrap just might be the beginning of more “oh, look what you can make” weaving projects. There is already Amy Gunderson’s beautiful Sparkle Windows shawl in Universe.
Next, Bamboo Pop is a popular yarn in the rigid heddle looms community because of its ease to weave, the lovely drape, and the stunning color effects. Then, there is also Ravello for a project with a touch of luxurious cashmere. Or, you could try the very practical Rico Design Creative Bubble that inspires pin loom woven kitchen and bath accessories.
Got a loom? Let’s weave! “
Me again (Rachel)! I’m so glad Gabi was able to share not only this beautiful design, but her thoughts on the inspiration, our new Cobblestone yarn, and even more yarns to explore weaving with! We have a small, square pin loom here in the office, and I am pretty tempted to start playing with it. The idea of a fringed scarf or cute cowl is awfully tempting!
I hope you love Pebbled Pathways as much as we do. Have you woven before, or are you now inspired to? Let us know in the comments!
If you’ve ever needed a quick housewarming gift, this is for you. We’ve created two little scrubbies that are easy, practical, and look cute!
Knitted in Creative Bubble 003 Pink
One scrubbie is knitted (shown above), and the other is crocheted (shown below).
Crocheted in Creative Bubble 003 Pink
We made both of these from a single ball of Creative Bubble, a super-fun yarn from Rico Designs that’s perfect for bath and clean-up projects.
So many colors…
If you’re going to make both of these from a single ball, be sure you get gauge. It wasn’t quite “yarn chicken” getting both from one ball, but there wasn’t a ton left over, either!
We love the cute little double-crochet loop for easy hanging!
Personally, we’d make a couple in different colors and include a bar of handcrafted soap. Such a thoughtful gift!
And of course, there’s no reason you have to wait to give it as a gift. You deserve some fun too, don’t you? Make a couple of Simple Scrubbies for yourself as a treat!
