knitting pattern – Cowtown Knits

Bergen

May 9, 2018May 10, 2018Leave a comment

Bergen is a beautiful city in Norway, and it’s also the first pattern in Travel Knits for the Family.

The pattern is for a toque/beanie/knit hat/cap/toboggan (choose the name applicable for your region of the world), designed to fit from babies to adults. It features a simple cable pattern that creates a beautiful lattice effect, as well as a ribbed brim that can be knit to your desired length for folding over or not.

The hat can be worked in just about any worsted or aran weight yarn, but I have to tell you how much I enjoyed working with the Gytha Worsted from Third Vault Yarns. The colours are gorgeous and it is so soft and squishy to work with. I chose semi-solid colours to work with here – Inara, and Blue Steel – but I think the hat would also look nice in a variegated colourway.

We visited Bergen in the Fall of 2017, and what a lovely city it was! The weather was dreary, wet, and cool, but that just added to the atmosphere of the fjords. We enjoyed visiting all the little shops in the old wooden buildings of Bryggen, and walking along the harbour and sampling different sea foods at the fish market.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

And of course, there are loads of yarn shops in Bergen. Norway has the most fantastic knitting culture, which seems to be embraced by the entire population. The majority of the tourist shops had racks and racks of hand knit sweaters, mitts, and hats, as well as other woolly goods. I wanted to buy everything, but settled for 3 gorgeous skeins of Rauma Prydvevgarn and a gorgeous wool blanket.

For more information about Travel Knits for the Family, get all the details here.

Introducing Norfolk Boot Toppers

October 12, 20163 Comments

It’s time for another new pattern. This is the first in a 3-pattern accessory set with a British theme, named after British places and using British yarn. (The boot toppers are named after the county of Norfolk as that’s where we were spending the weekend when I first started knitting them.) To celebrate UK Wool Week, I’m offering this first Great British Accessory Set pattern for 50% off until October 16, 2016.

The pattern is knit in Erika Knight Vintage Wool, a 100% British wool which is great for colourwork. It’s a pleasure to knit with, and comes in lots of lovely colours.

I know that some people are intimidated by colourwork, but you’ve got nothing to fear here. The pattern is done entirely with stripes and slipped stitches – you never work more than one colour per round. It’s a project that looks a lot harder than it actually is, so you’re bound to impress when you give these as a gift! The pattern also has photo tutorials for optional tubular cast-on and bind-off, as well as Kitchener stitch for the optional tubular bind-off, so it’s a great one for learning a new trick or two.

You can find the pattern on my Ravelry designer page here. Or just click the “buy now” button below to go directly to the Ravelry checkout.

Don’t forget to keep an eye out for the next two patterns in the Great British Accessory Set!

It’s a 2-Pattern Kinda’ Day

July 29, 20163 Comments

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!

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.

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.

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.

The Pippa Toque

June 22, 2016June 22, 2016Leave a comment

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 Fundy Tides Collection

March 20, 2015Leave a comment

Along with the release of Ribbon Weed, I’ve also published the first installment of the Fundy Tides Collection.

This collection features cable patterns that remind me of the shapes of the sea weeds and you’ll find variations of them on each of the pieces. The Ribbon Weed throw has large cables knit in super-bulky yarn for a dramatic effect. The cables on the Sea Oak pillow are more understated, while the Dulse pillow is a celebration of cables.

All of these patterns will be available individually or together as part of an e-book. The patterns will be priced at $5 USD each.

The e-book will ultimately be priced at $10.50 USD, a savings of $4.50 over buying the patterns individually.

But the book will be available at a lower price while it is not yet full. Each time a pattern is added, the price will go up. The introductory price, available when it only contains the throw pattern, will be $6. Once the 2nd pattern is added, the price will go up to $8. When the final pattern is added the price will be the full $10.50.

Each time a new pattern is released, the e-book will be updated with the new pattern. Customers who have already purchased the book will receive an email notifying them that the book has been updated.

So, my advice is to get it while it’s hot! Click the Buy Now button below while the book is available for the lowest price.