Happy Holidays!

Hello!!

How are you? I love Christmas and am now in full holiday mode, but I do have a ton of exciting plans for 2017 that I can’t wait to share with you. Until then, I hope your holidays are wonderful and here is just a peek at what is coming up:

This January, Craftsy will have a new class in machine knitting! Stay tuned for announcements and special discount codes!

If you are still looking for a holiday knit, I might have just the thing for you: the Boreal Hat and Cowl patterns are now available for individual purchase!

Happy Holidays to all and to all a good knit!!

Rx

Angeli Novi

Hello!

Winter has made an appearance and it is finally a multi-knitwearing temperatures, appropriate to the season. I am excited to be going along on the Yarn in the City Bath Christmas Craft Crawl to get into the spirit! Bath is a beautiful city with a great Christmas Market–if you haven’t been it is definitely worth the trip. My first port of call upon arrival to the UK was Bath, where I spent a blissful year as an exchange student many years ago. It will be great to see it again, this time with added yarn gorgeousness courtesy of A Yarn Story!

I would like to thank all my amazing test knitters for the Angelus Novus cardigan. They provided great feedback and I am really pleased to share with you some of their beautiful finished objects:

In order of appearance: amsa2000, mskgb, ros61, Adiantum, wool4willow, and Thewoolkitchen

Finally, I choose the winner of my final Instagram give away in just a couple of hours. Thanks so much to everyone who played along!

Happy knitting,

R.

Great Balls of Hallowismas

Hello!

This month I was so close!  The pattern is written, knit up, tech edited and almost ready to go.  The thing is, I going to spend Halloween with the lovely Kettle Yarn Co., and October’s pattern is knit in her gorgeous yarn. I really can’t resist taking knits and camera along for a little photo shoot. It would be rude not to.

But I really couldn’t stand the fact that I am so close to actually achieving a New years resolution.  A whole year of doing what I resolved to on in those first hazy days of the year.  Only 3 months to go.  And even if I was just a couple of days late and could have overlooked the discrepancy since I am the only one keeping track, I guess I really wanted the prize for ridiculous adherence to the letter of a law I made up.  So here it is it, my pattern for Christmas in October!

Christmas Eve Bauble

The Christmas Eve Bauble is a lovely and quick knit, perfect for using up scraps of 4-ply yarn.  I have listed the yarns used, but any will 4 ply or light DK/heavy fingering yarn will work beautifully. EDIT: I have found out that Rowan had discontinued yet another yarn I have in my stash. I knit up another bauble in scrapes of sock yarn and it works out just fine! Knitable in an evening (or even the night before), these baubles will deck the halls with cosy, handmade style.

MATERIALS

YARN

4 ply/fingering approx; 175 yds/160 m per 50 g ball)

MC: (light grey) 8 g.
CC1 (dark grey) 2 g.
CC2 (blue) 1 g.
CC3 (red) 2 g.

NEEDLES

US #2/2.75 mm double-pointed needles/circulars or size needed to obtain gauge.

NOTIONS

1 Christmas bauble, tapestry needle, 1 stitch marker.

GAUGE

6 sts and 8 rows = 1 inch/2.54 cm in stranded St st stretched over bauble.

SIZE

10 3/8 inches/26.5 cm bauble circumference

BAUBLE PATTERN

CAST ON

With MC, cast on 8 sts.  Arrange sts on dpns or circular needle to join in the rnd.  Keep the cast on loose enough to accommodate the hanging attachment. PM to mark beginning of rnd.

INCREASE

Rnd 1: (K1, m1*) around. (16 sts)
Rnd 2 and all even rounds: Knit around.
Rnd 3: K1, m1, (k2, m1) to last stitch, k1. (24 sts)
Rnd 5: K1, m1 (k3, m1) to last 2 sts, k2. (32 sts)
Rnd 7: K1, m1, (k4, m1) to last 3 sts, k3. (40 sts)
Rnd 9: K1, m1, (k5, m1) to last 4 sts, k4. (48 sts)
Rnd 11: K1, m1, (k6, m1) to last 5 sts, k5. (56 sts)
Rnd 13: K1, m1, (k7,m1) to last 6 sts, k6. (64 sts)
Rnd 14: Knit around.

CHART

Work 8 repeats of chart once through row 1-11.

DECREASE

Rnd 1 and all odd rounds: Knit around.
Rnd 2: K1, (ssk, k6) to last 5 sts, k5. (56 sts)
Rnd 4: K1, (ssk, k5) to last 4 sts, k4. (48 sts)
Rnd 6: K1, (ssk, k4) to last 3 sts, k3. (40 sts)
Rnd 8: K1, (ssk, k3) to last 2 sts, k2. (32 sts)
Rnd 10: K1, (ssk, k2) to last stitch, k1. (24 sts)
Insert the ball into the knitting.
Rnd 12: (K1, ssk) around. (16 sts)
Rnd 13: Ssk around. (8 sts)

FINISHING

Thread the tail through a tapestry needle and draw through the remaining sts twice. Secure top tail to make a hanging loop or weave in end.

At least I know I won’t be last minute with my November pattern! (Or will I?! It is so too early to start with the panto, I know…)

*I use a backward loop cast on as a m1–please see the abbreviations page if that isn’t a familiar one for you.

Happy knitting,

R.