Month: July 2016

It’s a 2-Pattern Kinda’ Day

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This is a big day Chez Cowtown Knits. I’ve been working on two collaborations with Third Vault Yarns, and both have just been published. Lola and I chatted about working together on some kits while sitting at Knit Night a couple of months ago. She has dyed up some gorgeous yarn and I designed a couple of patterns that I hope do the yarn justice.

The first pattern is Lambton Panes. This is a top-down shawl featuring garter stitch stripes in a gradient (Cowtown colourway!!!) and a semi-solid, with slipped stitches travelling down to make a lattice pattern. The way the gradient changes through the background makes my heart sing!

Spread out

The pattern has both charted and written instructions, and a photo tutorial for the two-colour Cast On. And because I have a technical-editor-extraordinaire (aka Eleanor Dixon), the pattern is easy to follow. All of this is to say that there’s no need to be intimidated.

front cover

The other new pattern is for the Chainlink Mitts. These are a simple, fun little fingerless mitts with a touch of stranded colourwork. These were designed to highlight Third Vault’s Gytha Worsted yarn and look great with the variegated (Drink Me) colourway as the MC or the CC. If you grab two skeins, you can easily get a couple of pairs of mitts out of it – one for you, one for someone on your gift list.

Hero uncropped

From now until August 13th, if you purchase both patterns at the same time (both must be in your Ravelry cart at the same time) you’ll get £1.00 off the pair.

Lambton Panes Kits, And How to Get Them

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There’s something new and exciting coming soon! I’ve been working on a collaboration with Lola from Third Vault Yarns to bring you a pattern that’s going to knock your socks off. But first, a bit of backstory.

Lola and I go to the same southwest London knit night, hosted by the lovely Rachel and Allison from Yarn in the City. I’ve been attending this weekly get together as much as possible since moving, as it’s been a great way for me to meet like-minded people in the new city/country/continent. I’ve gotten to know Lola and admire her mad yarn-dyeing skills over this time.

Recently, Lola mentioned that she was going to have a stand at the upcoming Fibre East in Ampthill, Bedfordshire. We started discussing working together to come up with some new patterns and colourways to package into kits to sell at the show. After brainstorming, we came up with the idea of a shawl using two skeins of Third Vault Yarns Companion 4ply, one in a gradient and one in a complimentary neutral shade. I left that knit night with some of that buttery-soft yarn and started swatching, and Lola went to the dye pots and got to dyeing.

What we’ve come up with is the Lambton Panes shawl. It features traveling, slipped stitches over a background of garter stitch stripes, creating a diamond lattice effect.

Hero

The sample is knit with one skein of Blue Steel as the neutral stripes and traveling stitches, and one skein of Cowtown, a custom gradient using my brand colours, for contrast stripes. I’m so excited that Lola created such a cool colourway using the shades of salmon, wheat, and aqua from my brand.

So, where are we going with this? Lola has been dyeing yarns in some gorgeous gradients and semi-solids. She’s made up some of the Cowtown gradient as well as The Poisoned Apple (left) and Hawkeye (right). I’ve seen them in person and I must say, they’re even more gorgeous in real life.

I’ve been working through the editing, testing, and printing process. I’ve already had one tester finish and it’s so pretty!

So here are the important details. The pattern will be released to the general public on Friday, July 29th, for digital download either through Ravelry, LoveKnitting.com, or here on my website. If you’re lucky enough to be attending Fibre East, you can get your hands on a kit (one gradient, one neutral, 8 stitch markers, and a print copy of the pattern) in person on July 30th or 31st, while supplies last. Or, you can visit Third Vault Yarns starting Wednesday, July 13th, and pre-order your kit for delivery after Fibre East.

That’s all the details for now. Stayed tuned here for more news on another collaboration to be unveiled at Fibre East.