You found the most luscious hand dyed yarn ever online.  And ordered it right away, yay!  Then comes the day that your new yarn arrives and – oh boy – you spend hours trying to wind it.

Full of knots and tangles, your yarn looks like a hot mess!  You keep trying to wind it into a center pull ball using your nifty swift and winder, but finally have to give up and wind it into a ball on your own, untangling knots as you go.

Unfortunately, this is a true story.

Yes indeed, this has happened to me.  More times than I can count on two hands.  It’s heartbreaking when that gorgeous colorway ends up being a nightmare.  And hand winding, while untangling, 400+ yards of fingering weight is an even worse nightmare.

Above is a basket filled with yarn waiting to be reskeined.  (I reskein all of the yarn I dye, because I don’t want you to go through this nightmare!)  It looks pretty messy, doesn’t it?

This yarn was kettle dyed, which means that I dyed it in a big pot of hot dye solution.  Because I wanted to ensure random variegation, I manipulated the fiber quite a bit as I added different colors.

The result, after drying, is a dyed skein, but not an appealing one.  In fact, I tried to twist a hank of that freshly dyed yarn into a skein.  As you can see (directly above), this isn’t a skein that you’d ever want to buy!

I could have spent some time smoothing out the odd bits and then twisting into a skein.  Many folks do.  But you’d very likely run into knots and tangles.

You might be wondering how  I reskein that yarn.  I’ll show you in the next post later this week!

What about you?  Do you run into tangled skeins and if so, what’s your favorite way to untangle?

It’s no secret that I love (LOVE) knitting with handspun, thick and thin (slub) wool or wool blends.  Nothing makes me happier than to kick back with a beautiful wool / silk blend, though I’m just as happy with 100% merino wool.

I’ve talked with you a lot about handspun yarn, and shared a few of my patterns that are perfect for handspun single ply yarn.  Now I’m sharing a super simple and free (yes, free!) pattern with you for handspun thick and thin wool.

Again, this is super, super simple.  Nothing fancy.  Pure stockinette and no buttonholes – the button just slips between stitches.  The beauty is in the wool’s texture and color.  And in how you variegate the thick and thin bits.

I’ll write more about this soon, but there is an art (not really a science, just an art) to ensuring that you don’t end up with big pools of thick vs. thin OR color. Sometimes, it’s very difficult to achieve and other times super easy.

You can see a perfect example above for non-pooled or -striped color and/or thick and thin sections (that gorgeous wool/silk handspun is from Naomi on Etsy).  How did I do it?  I most likely used at least two sizes of knitting needles, maybe three, sometimes slipped a stitch to break up a stretch of color and sometimes adjusted my tension by other tricks and feats of magic.  (Not really, no magic involved, but LOTS of frogging when I haven’t been paying attention.)

On to the knitting pattern!

Rustic Capelet Knitting Pattern

Materials:

• At least 90 yards handspun thick and thin (slub) wool or wool blend yarn (shown above:  Knotty Naomi “Sqoosh Monsters” in plum honey, 100% merino wool, approx. 90 yards)
• Size 17 and 19 US knitting needles (keep a 15 on hand, just in case)
• Tapestry needle or crochet hook for weaving in ends
• One or two 1.25-1.75″ buttons (maybe from Phydeaux Designs?)
• Sewing needle and thread in color that matches your wool

Gauge:  Honestly, gauge doesn’t matter that much – adjust the number of CO sts based on your own tension and how wide you want your capelet.  Knit as long as you want/need.

Dimensions:  Shown here:  36″ (91 cm) long x 10” (25 cm) wide

Abbreviations:

BO:  bind off
CO:  cast on
RS:  right side
st(s):  stitch(es)
WS:  wrong side

Capelet

With size 19 needles, CO 20 sts.

Row 1 (RS):  Knit, using size 19 needle.

Row 2 (WS):  Purl, using size 17 needle.

Rep rows 1-2 until desired length reached.

BO, weave ends in through back of work, leaving short tails.

Wet block, pinning to ensure square, crisp corners. (NOTE:  give your knit fabric good overall tugs to help settle uneven stitches. I usually stretch width-wise, diagonally and lengthwise.) Allow to thoroughly dry. Trim ends.

Unpin and position your button on the BO edge of the fabric’s RS.  Test with CO edge to make sure that your position allows the button to easily slip between or through stitches.  When you have your final position, sew your button into place. Rather than knotting your thread at the end, run several tiny stitches through the WS of your fabric, and just under the button, then break thread.

NOTE:  I know, I know, it seems to good to be true that this is so simple.  And it is.  As you see pooling and striping starting to emerge, you need to change things up.  If your wool is a bit on the thin side, use smaller needles every few rows.  Try slipping a stitch now and then, if needed (don’t go crazy with this – it can really mess with your finished fabric).  If the colorway or texture just won’t behave, divide your yarn in two equal skeins and alternate rows (change skeins every two rows).  Again, this is more art than science, although if someone has the scientific answer, I’d love to learn it!

Now for the legal terms, which allow you to share or adapt this pattern, with attribution to me/link to this post, and even allows you to sell your finished work, with attribution/link, unlike my usual licensing, which doesn’t grant any of the above.  This is an experiment – be cool, follow the license terms, and you’ll see more of these!

Rustic Capelet Knitting Pattern by Brenda Lavell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

I’m often asked for knitting and crochet patterns for handspun yarn, and always think, “someday, I will get to that!”

And realized this week that I do have patterns for handspun yarn.

Soft Acorns (above) is absolutely perfect for handspun yarn.  In fact, the yarn in the photo was handspun by Bobbi at Kitty Grrlz:  single ply, merino wool/silk, delicious.  Hand knit with a simple lace design that you could knit over and over with different weights, fibers and colorways.

Then I have two crochet patterns that are also perfect for single ply handspun: Dentelle (below) and Couronne (above).  And, again, the photos are shown in Kitty Grrlz single ply (she does good work!).

But maybe you’re looking for a pattern for super bulky thick and thin hand spun? Here you go!  Super simple and a fun, quick knit.

I don’t know about you, but my favorite knitting project is usually the one that I’ve just cast on.

I haven’t knit enough of it to be sick of it yet.  :)

And if it’s a brand new to me project, I’m still in awe of the possibilities.  The potential.

If it’s a repeat project, I’m enjoying getting to know it better.  There’s always something new to discover!

I’m working on the pattern for the Asterisque Shawlette right now (about time, right?).  I love the daisy stitch body … up until the 10th stitch pattern repeat.  I know this, because I just counted for the third time, hoping, hoping that I don’t have three more repeats to go.  But, I do and that’s all there is to it.

I’ve knit partial Asterisque bodies about eleventy bazillion times.  (I might not be exaggerating at all …)  But I’m finishing this, do or die, because I’m keeping to a schedule, and have a line up of new patterns to write and test.

Right now, this is my favorite project.  I do love knitting this and can’t wait to finish a solid draft of the pattern.

But I have to admit (in a whisper) that I will happily make the next project I cast on my new favorite pattern.

What about you?  What’s your favorite all time pattern?

After madly dyeing yarn for weeks and weeks leading up to Stitches West, I have to admit I wasn’t very keen to pull out the dye pots right away.  Nevertheless, I had orders to fill, which took a month or more to do so, and since then have been eager to try new colors and techniques each weekend.

And hope to update my NEW website with lots of hand dyed yarn this weekend!

Did I mention that I have a new website?

You may have already taken a peek – I’ve been slowly working on it for months (and months).  But did some Spring cleaning today and am ready to share with the world.  And you.

You can download knitting and crochet patterns directly, similar to my old site.  I’m slowly adding buttons, brooches and (this weekend!) yarn.

And if you want to order a little something for yourself, be sure to join the mailing list for a 30% discount code to use for your order!