The Pippa Toque

I’ve decided to start hosting the Pippa Toque pattern on my website. The pattern is still the same, it’s just downloadable from here now. Scroll down to the bottom of the post for the download link.

Pippa Hero cropped

The Pippa Toque is a cute little hat to keep heads and ears toasty and warm on cold winter days. The close stitches and stranded colour work make this a nice thick fabric for great insulation.

You can find a photo tutorial for making pompoms here in the Tutorials section of the website.

Suggested Yarn
Jil Eaton Minnow Merino; 100% Extra Fine Superwash Merino; 77 yds 70 m / 1.76 oz 50 g.
MC: 2 skeins of Mango (4751).
CC’s: Less than 20 yds each of Elderberry (4727), Snow White (4701), Pinque (4789), Light Blue (4747), and Peacock (4709).

Needles
US #8 5 mm 16” (40 cm) circular and DPNs, long circular for magic loop or two circulars—or size needed to obtain gauge as listed.
US #6 4 mm 16” (40 cm) circular—or 2 sizes smaller than that needed to obtain gauge.

Notions
Stitch marker, tapestry needle.

Gauge
23 stitches and 26 rows / 4 inches 10 cm in Chart 2, blocked.

Sizes
Finished measurement: 13.5 (15.75, 18, 20.25, 22.5)” / 34.5 (40, 45.5, 51.5, 57) cm circumference. Intended to be worn with 1” 2.5 cm of negative ease.
Note: Sample is shown in 18” 45.5 cm.

Skill Level
Intermediate: requires ability to work in the round, stranded colourwork, various increases and decreases.

Click the link below to download the pdf. I hope you enjoy the pattern and the hat!

Pippa Toque V3.1

Or maybe this hero

Introducing the Mount Rundle Mittens

Hello! Long time, no see! And boy, has life been happening since I last posted. Most of the radio silence of late was a result of a move to a new continent. My husband’s office in Calgary was closed down, and he was lucky to get an offer to transfer to the office in London. Three months later, here we are.

In order to focus on the logistics of moving a whole family across an ocean, I put designing aside until we got here. I gotta tell ya, that was not easy! Ideas were festering in my brain and I so itched to get at my yarn and spreadsheets. But there was so much else going on, I knew it had to wait.

Luckily, I had a pattern that had been completed back in June that was waiting for the right season for publishing. As the days have started getting shorter and colder here, I’m feeling confident that now is the time. So, I present the Mount Rundle Mittens.

IMG_1955

These mittens were originally designed for an event at The Loop, my local yarn store in Calgary. They had a Craft Cruise coming through and wanted some patterns and yarns from local artists and I was fortunate that they asked me. These mittens are my homage to the tall mountains and sunny skies of Alberta.

Hero Square

The original sample was knit in my own hand-dyed yarn. I loved how it looked in the navy blue and silver. But, when moving, I decided that the yarn-dyeing operation was best left on hold. Then I was left not wanting to have a pattern only suggesting a yarn that wasn’t commercially available. So, I picked up some incredible Mrs. Crosby Trunk Case from The Salty Sheep while on vacation in Swansboro, NC. The new sample is knit up in Hollywood Cerise and African Grey – both stunning colours with such depth and subtle variation.

IMG_1953

The pattern is now available for purchase on Ravelry and Love Knitting. I hope you like it, happy knitting!

Re-Introducing the Pippa Toque

Check it out folks, I re-worked the Pippa Toque!

Or maybe this hero

The previous version was written with yarn that had been discontinued. Although most people are comfortable with substituting yarn, others like to use the exact one called for in the pattern. I have recently fallen in love with the vivid, saturated colours of Jil Eaton Minnow Merino yarn and thought it would be perfect for this project. I was right!

New Pippa Hero

I also wanted to update the pattern for more sizes and lay it out in my new pattern format. The pattern is now available in 5 sizes, from baby to adult.

So cute

All of this updating happened in a bit of a rush because I needed to have it ready for a fun event that’s happening tomorrow. I’ll have a booth (for the very first time) at the Calgary Fibre Arts Fair! If you stop by you can see all of my samples and even grab a free print copy of the Pippa Toque pattern.  There will lots of other vendors and classes going on, and I’ve heard there’s some great door prizes! Please stop by and say hi if you’re in the area!

To find the free digital version of the pattern, click here! I hope you like it!

Introducing the Sunshine Fingerless Mitts

It’s time to release the second pattern in the Powder Day Collection – The Sunshine Fingerless Mitts.

anne hero uncropped

The Sunshine Fingerless Mitts feature a long cuff and gusseted thumb. The back of the mitt features a figure-eight cable pattern flanked by two sets of straight slipped stitch columns (those skiers were just bombing the run).

anne smiling with mug

The mitt pattern alone is available on Ravelry for $5. It includes written and charted instructions so you can work this pattern no matter which you prefer.

Chamonix2

Or you can buy it as part of the Powder Day e-book. With the release of the Sunshine Fingerless Mitts, the price of the e-book goes up to $9, which is still a steal of a deal (you eventually get 4 patterns). You can read more details about the book here. Or you can just go ahead and buy it now…

cover

Thank you again to Eleanor Dixon for technical editing, and to my wonderful testers. And a huge thanks to my friend and skiing buddy, Anne, for being a great model (and having the perfect shirt for the shoot!)

Powder Day Sneak Peek!!!

I’m so darned excited to be putting together my very first collection of patterns, and can’t wait to tell everyone about it.

As you can tell by the name, the Powder Day collection is inspired by those epic days of deep, fresh snow. You know, when a couple very lucky people are the first ones to the top of the hill after a big dump, and they get to make fresh tracks. If those skiers are going for extra cheesy, they can make tracks that look just like this…

figure eights inspiration

I wanted to mimic those figure-eight lines in the snow with a cool cable pattern, so I did. Then I fell in love with the cable and wanted to put it on everything. So I did! Fingerless mitts, a hat, full mitts, and a sweater.

It’s tricky to photograph something with a snow and ski theme when you’re limited to being in the city in October. But that’s what we tried to do this morning. I enlisted the help of 4 beautiful ski buddies, those very same ladies I used to ski with before we all had kids*. We gathered up some vintage skis, hot coffee and warm knits and headed down to an old barn in the middle of the city. I was hoping to pull off an apres ski feel, a bunch of friends hanging out at the lodge and warming up after a great day on the hill.

I will be releasing the patterns one-by-one over the next few months and will eventually group them all together in an e-book when they’re all out. For now, here’s a look at what’s to come.

Group Shot

* We called ourselves BOS back then – Bitches On Skis.