Mary Jane Mucklestone

Hand Knitting Blog & Knitting Patterns

Mary Jane

Fly Away – Flying Geese!

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I’m off to the big city soon, New York, New York for Vogue Knitting Live! Woo hoo!
It will be so much fun – making new friends and knitting up a storm.

Before I fly the coop I’m leaving you a new pattern for fast, fair isle knitting fun! Flying Geese – inspired by the quilt pattern – turquoise geese fly against a gradient neutral background. Bright and subdued at the same time.

liz_4983 Demi_4914_crop

A stellar first stranded colorwork project! Fun for the experienced too!

I used Harrisville Highland a worsted/aran weight yarn I fell in love with all over again last year when I taught my Color Immersion Weekend right there at Harrisville Designs in beautiful Harrisville New Hampshire. Their color range is sensational. If you order full skeins you’ll have enough yarn to make a few cowls. I’d get some of their hot pink or marigold to change it up a little. Of course a single cowl doesn’t require a lot of yarn, so you could easily go stash diving, the gradient needn’t be grey – as always the possibilities are endless!
Find out all the details and yarn amounts here.

10 patterns will fly away for free! Leave a comment from now through Thursday – I’ll be gifting Flying Geese to a random 10 of you who leave a cheery comment and your Ravelry ID! Spread the love, spread the fun!

ps. if you’re not on ravelry…you should be…but you can send me your email when I announce the winners on Friday.

Thanks everyone. The comments are closed.

Bressay Dress

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It’s fun to poke around Ravelry and see different versions of favorite patterns. I love the dress Gudrun Johnston designed for my book Fair Isle Style, Bressay Dress.

photo: njstacie
photo: njstacie

This yoke really caught my eye. Don’t you love the color choices that Stacie made? She used Rowan Felted Tweed which gives a nice fuzzy halo. Take a look at her Ravelry page (she’s njstacie) for all the details. She’s got some more really cute happy-making shots of the dress. Kick up your heels!

Denise Bell of Lost City Knits is still working on her Bressay Dress. She used five colors from her own yarn, Foothills Fingering. The body color is River Mud and the colorwork uses Rumplestilskin, Vintage, and Burnt Earth. Don’t you love the great color names? She’s got a wonderful blogpost about the making of her dress. Be sure to check out the rest of her website and all the other lovely yarns she makes while you’re visiting.

Bressay-Dress

Ravelry’s motherbunch of the Enchanted Bobbin Blog is participating in an Instagram Bressay Dress KAL. She’s using scrumptious Madeline Tosh Merino Light using silver fox, logwood, victorian gothic and well water. Don’t you like the use of a dark dark main color? Jennifer’s planning to make hers long-sleeved, so be sure to watch her progress.

photo: motherbunch
photo: motherbunch

Here’s Gudrun herself modeling the original sample a year and a half before publication – that is how long it takes to make a book! Having braved frigid temperatures in Scotland to take pictures of it before it was sent off on it’s journey to the world of publishing, she was chagrined to find one of the sleeve cuffs was rolled up and it was way too cold to go back out and take more shots. I love how cute it looks with her furry boots.

Finally here is that same sample on our beautiful local model Sunny, who admitted that she wouldn’t mind taking the dress home with her. I have to say I wanted to keep it myself. I think I should make it and hop on the Instagram Bressay Dress KAL! #bressaydress

Fair_Isle_Style_-_Bressay_Dress_beauty_shotBut lets see … what colors would I choose….

Brooklyn Tweed LOFT
100 % targhee-columbia wool- Fingering weight yarn – Grown and spun in the USA
275 yards / 50 grams I’d choose Birdbook for the main color….

Birdbook
Birdbook
Thistle
Thistle
Hayloft
Hayloft
Camper
Camper
Long Johns
Long Johns

That’s one idea.

You can pick up a copy of Fair Isle Style at your local yarn shop – or here.

Here’s what you do….

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For a chance to win my new book 150 Scandinavian Motifs and my new Muckle Toque knitting pattern, zip on over to Susan B Anderson’s blog!   You’ve just got a day left to leave a comment for the WIN.

150Scandi MuckleToque_Side_320

I’m sure you know Susie, she’s an amazing designer, superb knitting instructor – I watched her Craftsy class to gear up for filming my Fair Isle class– she’s a spinner, a prolific author, an expert darner – darn it! – and a maker and inventor of cute things – the list goes on. I love her plain and simple. What a sweetheart to host this giveaway. Good Luck all!

Muckle Toque Now!

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Just in time for some last minute holiday knitting.  A deeply ribbed slouchy hat with a snappy fair isle pattern, topped with a dashing dotted pom-pom.  Available now in my Ravelry Shop.

MuckleToque_sm

The first half is quick and mindless knitting, a perfect take along project. The colorwork requires a little more attention but by then you’ll welcome the challenge.

MuckleToquewithdog

My dear darlings Sophie and  Leelee modeled for the photoshoot. Here they are on the ice at the pond.

Inspired by the classic toques of Quebec, Muckle Toque is worked in the round from the bottom up beginning with a deep 1×1 rib for a folded brim followed by a bit of stockinette stitch and a stranded colorwork pattern.

The sizing is very forgiving and will fit many different heads. You’ll notice that I’ve made it in different weights of yarn, Dale of Norway Heilo (pictured), which some say is sport weight but in my opinion it’s more of a DK…and a worsted weight Stonehedge Shepard’s Worsted. Both are lovely hats. The one made with DK is a little…ummm…squishier…the worsted weight one a little …denser… but they share the same gauge. The wonder and mystery of knitting! What it means: you can attack that stash!

MuckleToqueRear

 

In the pattern I’ve included photos of how I make a Giant Spotty Dotty Pom pom.

More information and pictures of the light blue worsted weight sample on Ravelry.