The Treehouse patterns

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These two sweet little patterns are my newest contribution for the 6 bits storybooks magazine, issue 2, Dwell. I cannot tell you how much fun it was to create this set of pattern, and how much of my soul has been captured into them (aka my horcruxes).

A couple of months ago, Melissa shared her idea of having a photoshoot in the woodsy state of Oregon, and I remember precisely the expression on my face, and how much I wanted to cast on for this project. As soon as the yarn arrived in the mail, I immediately cast on for the hat and used the Stonehedge Fiber Mill, Shepherd's wool in the sage colorway. Designing this pattern was a lot of fun, and to be honest I don't really remember the creating process. It happened very suddently and I don't have very clear memories of sketching or doing anything else than knitting cables to create the branches of the tree. It's as if my mind was in pilot mode, and the only thing that I had to do was to coordinate my hands.

When the hat was done I cast on the mittens. This part was a bit more challenging because I already had a pattern in my mind. But I guess the tree stitch that I repeated so many times on the hat hadn't left me completely, and I happened to be craving for more. So I reused the pattern and adapted it for the mittens. Oh and did I mentionned that the yarn used was Camelia Fiber Company, merino sport in the Sylvan colorway? It couldn't have been more appropriate than that.

As for the naming, the patterns for this issue are named after specific places. Melissa has been living all around the world, and so she used that as an inpiration for her own patterns. For my patterns, I tried to imagine what my perfect place dwelling would be. And my answer for that is either a hobbit hole or a treehouse. Since the photoshoot took place in the middle of the woods, I thought that the treehouse was more appropriate, and who knows, maybe next time we will be shooting in hobbitown!

Yarn review & giveaway: Blacker Yarns, Tamar

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Today I'm so excited to share a yarn that will very soon be available.

I've been a huge Blacker Yarns fan since their very beginnings. I have tried a couple of their yarns in the past including the Organic Wensleydale and also the Westcountry Tweed that I actually used as a sample for my Woodland Tales mittens submission.

This new edition of Blacker is a lustrous blend of British wool, all blended together to create the most luxurious fiber. When I first discovered the yarn, I honestly thought that there was a tiny bit of silk in there. How could the yarn be so shiny without silk? - that is what I thought when I first touched the skein and held it close to the light.

As I was swatching with the yarn, I tried to imagine what I could create with such a beautiful fibre, and the only thing that came to my mind was a shawl. It must be a shawl. A long and drapey one that would mimic the movements of the water and river which gave it its name.

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“Tamar is a lustre blend yarn with a fluid sheen, reminiscent of flowing water and the river which gives this blend its name. This luxurious lustre yarn has been worsted spun to enhance the fibre’s inherent drape and shine.
Tamar is made from historic Wensleydale, Cotwold, and Black Leicester Longwool, which are the most distinctive British breeds. Tall and elegant with long lustrous ringlets of wavy fleece, the fibre is smooth and sleek with a distinctive silky sheen.”

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Tamar is available is 15 different dyed shades and 3 natural ones in a 4ply (fingering) weight or a DK weight. Blacker was generous enough to offer one of you lucky winners a skein of Tamar 4ply in the Tresillian colorway. To enter the giveaway follow@blackeryarns on Instagram, and tell me in the comments below what you would like to create with this yarn (make sure to include an email address in your comment).The giveaway is open internationaly until Friday (25th) 2016, 11pm GMT+2. Good luck!

The giveaway is now closed, congratulations to Claire!

Swatches diary: Selkie swatch in Jamieson & Smith

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It's been quite a while since I shared a swatch diary entry in here. Since Selkie has been released, I thought I could share the little swatch that led to create the pattern. This swatch is the first one that I made for the pattern, but I think that in total, I have probably knit five or six of them. I usually have a very clear vision of what I want the pattern to look like but this time around it was a bit more foggy in my head, so I let the swatch "speak to me" and give myself some time to consider all the different possibilities. I think I started swatching for the pattern back in May and only finished the shawl in November. From all the swatches that I made, I felt the more confident with my first choice, and picked the original sample for the pattern. I really liked its simplicity and the delicate aspect of the lace.

The yarn used for the pattern is the Jamieson&Smith 2ply jumper weight. I don't think that I could have choosen any better yarn for a pattern that is inspired by the Shetland Isles. for the main section of the shawl, I knew that I wanted to use a cream/ off-white colorway, and I actually had some leftovers from the Shwook hat that I made last year. The 2ply jumper weight come in so many different colorways, and the color combo for the shawl can be infinite really.

Selkie

“‘I am a man, upon the lan, An I am a silkie in the sea; And when I’m far and far frae lan, My dwelling is in Sule Skerrie.’”

Have you ever seen a seal bobbing in the water, watching you? If you have been to the north of Scotland you may have. Seals swim in the Pentland Firth, to the north of Caithness, and out to the Orkney Islands. They catch fish and lie basking on the rocks. The stories tell us that sometimes they shed their seal skins and walk on the shore on two feet as selkies! A fisherman might fall in love with the soft brown eyes of a selkie woman, hide her seal skin and make her his wife.

Selkie has been greatly inspired by the Shetland haps, from the shape to the garter section, the lace to the yarn choosen, and its name.

The pattern is a delicate triangular shawl that features a squishy garter stitch center that is worked with increases. It is a very entertaining knit that features different techiniques like picking up stitches, lace, color changing and a Latvian braid.

Selkie is accessible to adventurous knitters and will be a relatively quick knit to more advanced knitters.

The pattern is also a wonderful stash burner as a very little amount of yarn is required both for the lace and the braid.

Selkie is discounted 50% until Sun. 31/15 midnight Riga time.
Just enter the code "SONGOFTHESEA50" at checkout.

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Yarn
• 4 skeins of Jamieson & Smith 2 Ply Jumper Weight in the 202 colorways --> garter section
• 3 skeins of Jamieson & Smith 2 Ply Jumper Weight in the 61FC OR 072 colorway --> lace section
• 1 skein of Jamieson & Smith 2 Ply Jumper Weight in the 002 colorway --> braids section

Needles
A pair of US8 or needle size to obtain gauge

Notions
• 2 stitch markers
• stitch markers for the lace section (optional)
• tapestry needle to weave in the ends.

Gauge
15,5 stitches and 37 rows= 4”/10cm in garter stitch, or needle to obtain gauge.

Finished Measurements
57”(145cm) long and 21,6”(55cm) deep

Thanks to Jamieson&Smith for providing yarn support for this pattern!

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More printed patterns

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More printed patterns have now been made their way to the Mandarine's printed patterns collection! Canopy, Blóm and Goldenwood are now available as printed copies! I just received them this morning in the mail, and I'm in awe with how they turned out!

The patterns are now available for purchase in the shop. The printed copies also come with the digital version of the pattern. A code will be included in the printed patterns, so you can enter it in Ravelry to get the digital version downloaded to your library!

ChiaoGoo circular needles kit review / Small

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A couple of days ago, two wonderful ladies started chatting about their favourite circular needles on Instagram (here and here). The topic is something that I'm really interested in since I use circular needles on a daily basis. We all knit differently, some people prefer using metal needles some other will prefer wooden, bamboo, round neeedles or cubic ones! There is a lot of different needles on the market nowadays and I thought it could be interesting to share my own preferences.

Having good tools is really important and can greatly impact on the knitting.
When I very first started knitting, I, like many others, started with straight needles. They used to belong to my grandmother and I keep them preciously in a jar on my bedside table at my parents. I don't really have any use for them anymore, but they have a sentimental value. And I'm sure they will someday find their purpose again if I ever want to knit a very large project like a blanket for example.

But let's go back to the circular needles. I was introduced to circular needles by the French ladies that I was meeting every other week when I was still living in Paris. And I must say that circular needles revolutionized my knitting experience! I first acquired a kit of knit pro circular Nova. These are the needles that I have used over and over for a couple of years now. I was really pleased with them until I started to have unfortunate misandventures with the cables that started to break from the join. It's something that is very annoying, especially when working on a lacy project with a lot of stitches as you can imagine.

I haven't tried any other needles until very recently actually. Despite the fact that the cable broke a couple of times, I was very pleased with my first set of needles. Last Christmas I was gifted another set from knit pro: dreamz. I was supposed to keep these in France so then I wouldn't have had to carry needles in the plane with me anymore. But I brought them back to Latvia with me. I use them from time to time, mostly when I don't have any other needle size available. I really like knitting with them, but I have the feeling that wooden needles are really slowing me down. The stitches don't fly as easily on the needles as they do with the metal ones.

Since then my fingers have been itching to try new needles. I had heard a lot of good things about ChiaoGoo needles since the very first meeting with the ladies in France, but wasn't experienced enough to know the difference between one set of metal needles to another. The difference can actually be quite significant and as I mentionned it at the beginning, material can really impact on the knitting.

The set that I own comes in a little zipped pouch that can contain needles from US2 (2,75mm) to US15 (10mm) plus 16 other needles! The pouch is really small and can easily fit in a handback. There's another little zip on the outside of the pouch to keep the stitch markers, the cables, the cable blockers and the gauge measurement that came in the kit.  The set comes with seven needles sizing from US2 to US8 . The tips of the needles are not extremely sharp, but quite long compare to the knit pro ones and they are absolutely wonderful for working with lace. The biggest difference that I have noticed from the knit pro are the cables. They are absolutely brilliant. They are very sturdy and don't roll on themselves as you knit (no memory!), which is something that I found really annoying when working back and forth on a project. They also seem to be very well fixed to the part where the needle is attached.

I have noticed quite a difference in the way I knit with these needles. The cable is really doing its job, and I've been able to work way faster on my projects since I've been using them. All in all I'm very pleased with the set, and I will definitely add the remaining sizes needles to have a full kit.

Which circular needles do you enjoy using?

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