Bláklukka

December 2016

This was a very enjoyable knit, when I needed a quick and easy Christmas present for a little girl. Although I originally bought Védís Jónsdóttir's Knitting with Icelandic Wool collection intending to make myself this dress, it's full of little gems like this one, and I expect I will return to it again and again.

The pattern was very well written and I didn't feel inclined to modify it at all. There was an option to include some vertical lace stripes on the plain part of the body but I was in a bit too much of a hurry for that. Most of the knitting I do is with 4-ply and so this being worsted it seemed to knit up very quickly. Just as well, though - I only managed to post it off a couple of days before Christmas.

I don't normally use acrylic yarns for colour work, due to the fact that they're not as easy to block into a nice neat, flat fabric as wool is. This yarn, Pacific, is an acrylic/merino blend by Cascade, and I was really pleasantly surprised by how tidy it looked after blocking. It was also great to be able to combine solids, like the white, and heathered shades, like the green, from within the same palate, as I love the way they look alongside each other.

Pattern: Bláklukka by Vedis Jonsdottir
Yarn: Cascade Pacific in Spring Green, Blue, Red and White
Size: 6 years
On ravelry: here

Freddie

December 2016

Marie Wallin’s designs for Rowan have been amongst my favourites for some time, and there are several sweet ones in the vintage inspired “Once Upon a Time Collection” for children. Freddie grabbed me straight away, as I love all-over fairisle projects and this is such a pretty one.

I did modify the pattern in several respects - it was written to be knitted flat, as seems to be the house style at Rowan - but I worked it in the round as far as the armholes as it tends to give better results with stranded colour work and even if it didn’t it saves a bit of sewing up to do it that way.

Secondly I played around with the colour palate quite a lot. This is about the fifth or sixth fairisle I’ve knitted using felted tweed, so I have a big bag of leftovers to plunder but not necessarily all of the recommended colours. I’m firmly of the view that all shades of felted tweed go with all other shades - it’s such a beautiful yarn - but as ever with fairisle you do need to think about what degree of contrast you want. I tend to favour medium or high contrast and Freddie was a bit subtle for me at times. The one stripe which I did use the suggested palate is the broadest one featuring beige/green/orange and to my eye the pattern gets a little bit lost there.

The third modification was that I added about 2” length. If you study the pattern pictures closely you can see Freddie is designed to be fairly short, which is fine as long it’s worn over a shirt that stays tucked in. Having a son myself, though, I couldn’t overlook the potential for a longer top worn underneath it to come untucked hang down below the hem of the vest and spoil the look completely. It was easy enough to add some length though. Just a matter of unpicking the ribbing, putting the live stitches back on the needles and knitting downwards for a little while until it felt right.

I was really pleased with the end result - virtually all of my most beautiful projects have been knitted in felted tweed and this is definitely one of them!

Pattern: Freddie by Marie Wallin
Yarn: Rowan Felted Tweed dk in Pine (dark green), Avocado (light green), Clay (white), Camel (beige), Bilberry (purple), Ginger (orange), Watery (blue/green), Mineral (yellow) and Treacle (brown).
Size: 7-8 years
On ravelry: here