Tag Archives: knitted wit yarn

Introducing Cosette

Posted on April 6, 2022 | 8 comments
Cosette

Cosette is a cross between a cowl and a shawlette. A cowlette? It starts out as a round cowl, knit from the top down. After the cowl is finished, knitting continues with triangular shawl shaping in the round. This cowl/shawette combo provides great coverage, and it won’t slip off your shoulders! It’s fuss-free wear.

Here’s Cosette in its unscrunched glory. I really love how this turned out, and I enjoyed all the mathy bits that made it work!

Cosette is knit with 2 skeins of fingering weight yarn. I used Knitted Wit Sock in Kiss and Teal and The Future is Bright (variegated). I love how the quilted lattice stitch shines in a variegated yarn. Other stitches in this pattern include my favorite lacy flower, and a shell lace stitch that uses elongated stitches with extra yarnovers that are dropped on the next round. There’s a video tutorial for the shell lace stitch.

Cosette ends with either brioche rib or k1p1 ribbing; it’s your choice. I love the way the contrast color peeks through the brioche rib. There are brioche video tutorials linked in the pattern, too.

The Cosette pattern is available through my Ravelry shop here, and my Payhip shop here. Use coupon code QUILT for 15% off through April 14 in either shop.

Thanks to tech editor Meaghan Schmaltz, model Sharon Hsu, and test knitters Ann Berg, Debbie Braden, Karen Cunningham, Jesse Hodgden, Jacqueline Lydston, Marilee Reinhart-Davieau, and Andrea Roosth.

Happy knitting!

8 Comments

Posted in Knit, pattern design, yarn

Tagged , , ,

Swatching, charting, knitting

Posted on February 12, 2022 | 2 comments

It was a splendidly beautiful day yesterday; it got up to 67 degrees F (19 C); which is unusual for February in Portland. I took my work outside. My math swatch has paid off, and I’m done with the first section of my new design. The next step required some charting and planning to make stitch counts work out on the repeat (do you sense a theme here?). I want to alternate the variegated and semi-solid, and give the variegated yet another chance to sing. This yarn is Knitted Wit Sock in The Future is Bright and Kiss and Teal.

The book on the table is Lorna Miser’s The Hand Knitter’s Guide to Hand-Dyed and Variegated Yarn. It talks about different dye methods, and how to make the most of them. A lot of the book is about how to recognize if colors will pool, and how to avoid pooling, if desired. There are lots of stitch patterns to play with. I’ve swatched the one that it will be perfect for this project. We shall see.

Sometimes you want colors to pool, and Hunter Hammersen’s Stochastic Hat is an example of that. She worked with Gauge Dyeworks to make a yarn with spaced out color runs, just long enough to knit random color burbles into the hat. (As well as a section to knit a brim all in the contrast color, whoa.) You can use any yarn for this hat, but the thought of knitting it with assigned pooling (the yarn tells you when to make the burbles) is fun.

I was going to knit this hat with Knit Picks Chroma Worsted, but the fuzzy single ply (top) doesn’t want to settle nicely into burbles. The smooth superwash yarn (Malabrigo Rios, below) is much better behaved. I’m not sure I have a hat’s worth in two coordinating colors, though. I’ll poke around a little more. I’m glad I swatched the burbles *before* jumping in and knitting an entire hat brim before finding out my yarn wasn’t going to cooperate! Swatching can be very helpful.

I’m teaching a Zoom class on planned pooling for For Yarn’s Sake on March 6. We’ll talk about planned pooling and assigned pooling. Come knit with me! Register here.

That same weekend I’m teaching Petite Brioche for Twisted (also Zoom). Saturday March 5. If you’d like a jump start into two color brioche in the round, this is it! Register here.

Okay, time to see if my charting made sense, and if my math works out!

2 Comments

Posted in classes, Knit, pattern design, yarn

Tagged , , ,

Mmmm, cinnamon rolls

Posted on January 16, 2022 | 10 comments

I’m deep into cinnamon roll experimentation. My sister gave me some Penzey’s Vietnamese cinnamon, so it’s cinnamon roll season. FIrst I made the recipe that came with the cinnamon; it was a no-yeast version. The dough was really wet and messy, but the rolls were good.

Then I tried the NYTimes no-yeast cinnamon roll recipe. The dough was easier to handle, and they were pretty. A little too salty, but also good.

A friend recommended this yeast cinnamon roll recipe. This version involves pouring heavy cream or half and half over the rolls before baking. Another friend recommended braiding and rolling the dough into knots, which I’ll try next time. I wasn’t sure my yeast was still good (April 2020), so I didn’t want to get too ambitious.

I even iced them. They were fabulous! And the yeast was a little slow, but things turned out fine. Yeast rolls are alway so much better than quick rolls, but they do take a little more effort.

Biscuit approves. Happy Sunday!

I’m still knitting my kep, but it’s not mindless knitting because of the chart. I need some knitting for multi-tasking, so I’ll be designing something a little simpler for this yarn.

Knitted Wit Sock, in Kiss and Teal and The Future is Bright. I have two ideas, so I need to pick one and then swatch a bit. Perfect for a three day weekend here in the US.

What are you knitting?

10 Comments

Posted in foodies!, yarn

Tagged , ,