A boring hat? Never again with this easy knitting pattern

I was thrilled that Red Heart already had a pattern for a Messy Bun Hat! These hats have been all the rage lately; Pinterest, Etsy, and Ravelry. With winter hats, your hair is always messed up. It’s either crushing your ponytail or unraveling your bun and when you re-do your hair indoors, it’s static and frizz city! This hat is the perfect combination of ease and style. 

The Messy Bun hat knitted in Baby Hug Medium with the color Aloe

Since we talked about changing the needle sizes yesterday, this is the perfect pattern to try out with those new skills. The pattern is written for an Aran weight yarn, or medium weight. If you’re looking to simply knit the pattern with no fuss, you can start knitting straight away with Baby Hugs Medium.

If you want to see how needle size changes you gauge, pick up a skein of Baby Hugs Light and start swatching.

Baby Hugs Light in the colors Shell, Frosting, and Dolphin

Usually, when I pick up my needles to knit samples I choose another color from the yarn used in the pattern photo. However, in this case, I printed off the pattern earlier in black and white. When it came time to knit my own hat, I just picked up my favorite color of Baby Hugs Medium and cast on immediately. It was not until I was taking pictures later and pulled up the pattern on my computer screen that I realized I had knit the Messy Bun Hat in a very similar color to the pattern picture!

The pattern picture from the Red Heart pattern. The model can display her beautiful ponytail and the features of this hat much better than I can.

Red Heart’s Messy Bun Hat is such a nice pattern to knit. This style of hat is a garment that I could knit forever, it boasts clean lines and Baby Hugs yarn adds to it a polished look.

The crown decreases create this beautiful swirl effect that adds a little bit of interest leading up to the top of the hat. Let’s be honest here, the real focal point of this hat is supposed to be your own hair! A messy bun or a pony tail through the opening left at the top of this hat.

You can see the crown decreases in this photo. They are on a bit of a diagonal and swirl up to the top of the hat.

The Messy Bun Hat pattern is very easy to follow, there are no instructions that would trip up a novice knitter. Advanced knitters, this is the perfect palate cleanser if you have just come off a very large and intricate project.

I like to knit a nice easy pattern between large and intricate works. It helps to keep my mind and fingers fresh. In addition to keeping your mind in the present moment, there's definitely someone in your life who could use a hat like this. I’ve already received several orders from my younger cousins.

This is the best ponytail I could do on short notice. While my ponytail may be lacking, you can see the crown detail at the top of the hat.

It’s still cool enough to warrant wearing a hat outside, but that doesn’t mean we must continue the season of hat hair. Flaunt your ponytail or messy bun and knit Red Heart’s Messy Bun pattern. Don’t forget to knit a version with Baby Hugs Light on larger needles for a more open knitted fabric. It’s the perfect winter-spring transitional headpiece. 

How to create gauge that works for your pattern

Imagine: you go into your LYS and you have a pattern in mind. It calls for Baby Hugs in Medium, and when you get there, you see the most stunning color. You pick it up and curse your bad luck because it's in Baby Hugs Light. The same color isn't available in the Medium -- it’s sold out because it’s the most popular color! What are you going to do?

Baby Hugs Light yarn in the colors Pinkie and Frosting being knit in the round on double pointed needles

A lot of knitters would put that skein back on the shelf or buy it to use on another pattern, but today we're going to go over one of the skills needed to substitute a different yarn weight in a pattern. There are several ways to do this, but we're going to look at one of the easiest; changing needle size.

I'll put a disclaimer here: always verify your fiber choice! Just because you can make socks out of fun fur, doesn't mean that you should. Ensure that if you're making an item that will get a lot of wear and tear, the fiber will hold up. Alpaca might feel luxurious, but 100% alpaca socks aren't going to last long. In the same vein, make sure the washing instructions are going to fit in with your lifestyle. If you never have the time to hand-wash, make sure you are either producing a garment that doesn't require a lot of washing or you're prepared to commit to washing that garment every time you wear it! 

Make your fiber choice the right one for your lifestyle!

Let’s go over the needle difference first, because that's going to be the easiest way out of changing your pattern or yarn. Check your pattern gauge; there will be a needle size, along with a gauge that will make a square 4" x 4". This is the gauge you want to get with your yarn and needles. For the sake of this example, let’s say you want to get 20 stitches to 4".

Take the recommended needle size for that yarn and make a swatch. No cutting corners either, you need to make that swatch at least 4" x 4", this does not count borders. This isn’t a beauty contest, we just need to know what the gauge is going to be. If you don’t get 4" with 20 stitches right on, adjust your needle size up or down until you have it.

One 4" X 4" swatch in Baby Hug yarn in Lilac. This swatch was knit with the recommended needle size of 9 US [5.5mm] needle.

If you’re not sure if you should go up a needle size or down a needle size, just remember that the needles control the size of the space in-between your yarn. If you go up a lot, you're going to have a breezy garment, if you go down a lot, it's going to be very warm and dense. Once you’ve arrived at the right needle size and your gauge is right on, see if you like the fabric. Imagine your whole garment being made like this swatch. Have you gone down so many needle sizes that the sweater would stand on its own like a lampshade, or have you gone up so many sizes that you would be able to see right through it?

The top swatch was knit with an 11 US [8mm] needle, can you see how much larger it looks from the picture above? The bottom swatch is knit with a 5 US [3.75mm] needle, there is barely any space between the stitches.

When you're substituting a yarn that's close to the pattern yarn (say the pattern calls for DK, and you have a worsted yarn) changing needle sizes offers a great chance for success without a lot of re-calculating.

If you’re not happy with the fabric, you can do the math. If you're picking a drastically different yarn weight, for example if you're going from a Medium to a Super Fine, that's something you'll have to figure out with a calculator. The most important thing when you’re going through this process is that you be 100% happy with your finished object. When you can pair your perfect yarn with your perfect pattern, it’s a recipe for knitting ambrosia.

Knit the best wrister pattern EVER!

In yesterday's post, we talked about yarn weights, today we're going to put that knowledge to work with Red Heart’sSleek Striped Wristers pattern. Wristers are one of my favorite things to knit! They can be used on their own or in tandem with a heavier mitten for those really cold days. Plus, they cover the space between your mitten and coat; no more cold breezes!

I love the play between the colors Dolphin and Pool! This is definitely my color palette.

This is a very easy pattern that's perfect if you’re thinking about attempting something made in the round. It’s a stockinette stitch pattern and you switch up colors every two rows. If you're nervous about the color changes, just leave them out and make your first pair all one color. These wristers are the very essence of "potato chip knitting": you just can't stop at one pair!

Work in progress, everything is striping up nicely!

The medium weight of Baby Hugs the pattern calls for works very well with wristers. The yarn stretches to fit over your hands but has the durability that acrylic is known for. One of the most problematic things about wristers is they go over the palms of your hands. Your finger tips are the area that gets the most wear and tear, but second in line are heel and palm of your hands. With this yarn, there's no pilling or felting, which makes it great for garments that get a lot of wear.

Baby Hug yarn comes in 18 colors, so the possibilities for color combinations are almost endless. If you really want to get technical, the number of color combinations is 306, (when you have made all 306 combinations, please send me a picture!) If you knit the pattern with a three color stripe the math gets beyond me. 

So happy with my Baby Hug Wisters in the colors, Pool and Dolphin!

If you're looking to practice knitting on double pointed needles, give this pattern a try. I remember making it a personal challenge to like double pointed needles. I used to hate them and would use all sorts of interesting methods to get around using them. I bought a set of double pointed needles to help myself learn the technique. If I owned the needles I would have to use them, or my investment would have been a waste. Shaping a thumb gusset is something that is awkward to do on magic loop or two circulars, so I'm glad I took the opportunity to learn a new skill.

I'm completely in love with my Baby HugSleek Striped Wristers. They’re fabulously soft and warm, perfect for when the chill of winter is still in the air, but your fingers can tell spring is coming up fast!

What you need to know about yarn weight

I'm working with Red Heart’s Baby Hug Light and Medium yarn this week and thought it would be important to go over yarn weights. This is one thing new knitters -- and not so new knitters -- struggle with. When a pattern calls for medium yarn, what does that mean? There's a standardized yarn weight system so you can confidently interchange yarns. 

The Craft Yarn Council keeps everything standardized to very explicit criteria, this is a link to their page about yarn standards, but below is an image with specifications normally found on ball bands. 

All the categories of yarns weights there are out there.

Lace

The kinds of yarn in this category are things like 10 count crochet thread or very fine yarn. Mohair would also be in this category, not mohair spun with another yarn, but strands of mohair itself. Things that would commonly be knit with yarn this weight are projects that include lace work; shawls, scarves, intricate light sweaters.

Super Fine

This category includes fingering weight, sock yarn, and baby yarn. As you can guess, socks are one of the more common products of this type of yarn. There are many things that can be knit with this weight of yarn, including more durable shawls, baby clothes, sweaters, and color work mittens. This weight of yarn has been picking up in popularity because of the intricacy that can be achieved and the fact that most of it has nylon in it to add durability. Heart and Sole yarn is an example of this weight.

Red Heart's Baby Hugs yarn in colors Shell, Lilac, Pool, Aloe, and Frosting

Fine

Our next category includes sport weight and baby weight yarn. At this point you’re going to notice there is a bit of overlap between the two weights. Baby yarn is in both Super Fine and Fine. If the lines between the two are drawn thin, there could be a heavier and lighter version of a yarn. Therefore, Baby yarn can be classified as light or heavy and fit into both Super Fine and Fine. Projects common for this weight are sweaters, heavy socks, lighter outerwear, and baby items.
 

Light

In this category, double knitting (or DK) weight and light worsted weight. In here is where Baby Hugs Light and Cutie Pie yarn fit! Common projects for this weight are Icelandic sweaters, hats, mittens, prayer shawls, and cowls.

Baby Hugs Light (left) and Baby Hugs Medium (right) in the same color, Dolphin. See the difference between the two weights.

Medium

Here we find worsted, afghan, and aran weights. Red Heart’s Baby Hugs Medium, Unforgettable Waves, Crème de la Crème, and With Love are all in this category. This is one of the most universal sizes of yarn. The lighter weights of yarn show a lot of detail and intricacy, but knitting the same patterns with a Medium weight yarn shows the complexity of stitches while knitting up much faster. Common projects include heavier outer wear, afghans, blankets, and stuffies.

Bulky

Trucking right along to the heavy end of the spectrum, we come to the category that includes chunky, craft, and rug yarn. Red Heart’s Cordial yarn and Comfort Chunky are here in this category. Typical projects for this weight of yarn are blankets, afghans, rugs, chunky cowls, and market bags.

Baby Hugs yarn in Shell (top), Pinkie (bottom left), and Frosting (bottom right)

Super Bulky

This is where we get into the really heavy stuff, like roving and super bulky yarns. We're talking about using US size 11-17 needles on this stuff. Projects for this weight of yarn are the same as above, but you get a much thicker fabric.
 

Jumbo

This is a new Craft Yarn Council designation, implemented because of the growing trend in arm knitting and super-bulky knits. For arm knitting you need really thick yarn, or roving, and there wasn't a term for yarn that thick. Now, for your arm knitting pleasure, Jumbo yarn is here!

Baby Hugs Medium weight yarn in the colors Ladybug and Dolphin

That's yarn weights in a nutshell. There are a lot of intricacies within yarn weight, but you can feel confident that when you're looking at a pattern calling for a medium yarn, you'll be able to find that designation on the label of Baby Hugs Medium and know what it means! Join me tomorrow for more fun with Red Heart's Baby Hugs yarn.

1 knitting pattern to show someone you love them

This week we're working with two yarns by Red Heart -- Baby Hugs Light and Baby Hugs Medium.

Red Heart paired their Baby Hugs yarn with a pattern for called Valentine’s Day Mug Hug which I believe isn't just for Valentine's Day. This is such an adorable knitted pattern to show someone they are dear to you, all year 'round!

What better yarn for a mug hug than Baby Hugs yarn? This pattern calls for a medium weight yarn, however I wanted to small-size my mug hug, so I used the thinner yarn, Baby Hugs Light. If you wanted a normal sized mug hug, then you would use the recommended yarn, Baby Hugs Medium.

Baby Hugs yarn in Ladybug colorway

The Valentine's Day Mug Hug pattern by Red Heart! Change the colors up to suit your kitchen, or make it in pink for a friend going through cancer treatment.

I started off knitting this pattern exactly to specifications. I'm a notorious pattern adjuster, but this time, I set out to knit it exactly as written. I suppose it would have helped if I read the instructions carefully. I assumed this pattern was knit in the round. It isn't -- it's worked flat. You rib to the end of the row and turn to continue this rib pattern all the way back. Going through this whole pattern it never dawned on me that if I made it in the round, there wasn't going to be space for a handle, and most mugs have handles.

Knitting up my heart applique for my mug hug. Make sure you leave long tails at the ends to shape the top of the heart and sew it onto the rest of your mug hug!

I continued knitting along until I arrived at the end of the pattern and the instructions said to make a button loop. “A button loop?” I thought to myself, “what good is a button loop going to be?” I looked at the picture. I looked at my own version. I looked at the picture again. Then, bam, like a bus, it hit me all at once. The handle! I'm lucky because in my house I have a plethora of mugs without handles. 

Finished Mug Hug with a hand made pottery mug! Handles are really overrated!

When first looking at this pattern I thought the heart was colorwork. As we all now know, the heart's a separate piece. If you're a colorwork fiend like me, you would prefer to use colorwork in your mug hug, so I’ve made the chart below so you can work this piece however you'd like!

Here is the chart and key for a color work mug hug. Don't forget to do the button loop according to pattern instructions and seam up the bottom ribbing.

Join me tomorrow, for more knitting fun with Baby Hugs Light and Baby Hugs Medium yarn!

2 things I learned from my knitted swatch other than gauge

This week I'm knitting with Sweet Roll by Premier Yarns. Yesterday, I explored making gradients with this self-striping yarn, and a big swatch. Today I’m sharing a couple things I learned from swatching that have nothing to do with gauge.

This swatch gave me practice with paired increases made with yarn-overs and twisted stitches. Both techniques improved with this swatch.

I embarked on a project to knit a mitered square blanket out of Sweet Roll yarn, but I wanted to do it in stockinette stitch instead of the traditional garter stitch. Well, there’s a reason why most mitered squares are done in garter stitch. It has to do with the number of rows versus the number of stitches you get. In garter stitch each ridge is comprised of two rows of knitting and the ratio is almost exactly 1 garter stitch ridge to 1 stitch, which makes squares possible.

In stockinette stitch, the ratio is closer to 4 rows to every 3 stitches, so mitered squares that are decreased or increased at the same rate as garter stitch squares end up looking like diamonds.

I did some math and thought it was right, but I ended up with a shape that reminds me of an awning on a Who-ville house (from Dr. Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas). Needless to say, this swatch is going to the "frog pond" to be unraveled.

But not all is lost. I learned two other things from my failed attempt.

1) I learned that with chunky yarn, or at least with 2 strands of yarn held double, I don’t like lifted increases. Lifted increases are where you lift a leg of a stitch from one or more rows below the current row and knit into it to create a new stitch. For a right-leaning increase you work into the first leg of the stitch one row below the loop on the left-hand needle. For a left-leaning increase, you work into the second leg of the stitch two rows below the loop just knit onto the right-hand needle.

I decided to do twisted yarn over increases:

I shine a light on the twisted yarn-over paired increases.

Twisted yarn over increases are made by adding yarn overs on the right-side rows and purling into the yarn-overs on the wrong-side and twisting the yarn over stitch. To do this, knit to where you want the first of a paired increase to be, yarn-over, knit to where the next increase is to be, yarn-over, and continue. On the return row, at the first yarn-over, change the orientation of the loop on the left-hand needle (if necessary) so that the first leg is at the front and the second leg is at the back, then purl into the back leg. Purl to the next yarn-over and change the orientation of the loop on the left-hand needle (if necessary) so that the first leg is at the back of the needle and the second leg is at the front, then purl into the front leg. These two different maneuvers twist the stitch in opposite directions, which mirrors the increases to give a balanced look.

Right-leaning mix twisted stitches lay the knit stitch over top of the garter stitch ridge.

2) I learned I like the look of twisted stitches where the garter stitch edging butts up against the stockinette section. To make the twist, I used the last garter stitch and the first stockinette stitch to make the twist, which makes the stockinette st cross over the garter stitch bump. To do this on a practice swatch of your own, try the following.

These left-leaning twisted stitches create a unique transition between stockinette and garter stitch panels.

Swatch instructions

Cast on 20 sts.

Rows 1- 6: Knit.
Row 7: Knit.
Row 8: K4, P12, K4.
Row 9: K3, with RH needle lift the left front leg of 2^nd st on LH needle and tug open, remove RH and reinsert as if to knit and K1, then slip first st on LH needle purlwise, removing both stitches from LH needle, k10, remove first st off LH needle and pinch with fingers from left hand, slip next st on LH needle purlwise, return pinched loop to LH needle and knit it, K3.
Row 10: K4, P12, K4.

Repeat Rows 9 and 10 for the pattern to desired length.
Knit 6 rows, bind off purlwise.

Let me know if you try the scarf from Wednesday’s post, or either of my discoveries from today. I do hope you try Sweet Roll yarn and that you'll share with us what you knit with it.

Knitting gradients with self-striping yarn

Self-striping yarn became popular with the quick growth, almost a movement, in sock knitting. Gradient yarns have become popular with the development of shawls and stoles and their visibility in the knitting community. Yesterday, I worked with one colorway to create stripes. This whole week I'm exploring our featured yarn, Sweet Rolls (a worsted weight, not a sock weight yarn), in knit gradients.

Holding two strands of Sweet Roll together with staggered placement of the stripes opens up a whole realm of possible gradients.

I chose two colorways of Sweet Roll, Caramel Swirl and Cappuccino Pop to blend together to create a gradient. The warm cream and camel tones of Cappuccino Pop coordinate well with the mocha, beige, and cocoa browns of Caramel Swirl. The warm gray in the Cappuccino also creates a nice contrast and complements the brown family without making all the colors muddy when they come together. This way of holding strands together rids the knitting of stark stripes and makes the color transitions more gradual.

Make your own marled gradients by blending two different colorways of Sweet Rolls together.

You can see in my knit swatch above, that a gradient is created when the different colors combine. This provides depth and a tweedy or marled look to the fabric, which I achieved by holding the two yarns together, but starting one of the colors partway through its self-striping pattern. Other yarns are spun this way deliberately but with Sweet Roll, you have control of the colors you want to blend.

Some of you may be wondering what this knit item is? Well, it was supposed to be a blanket, but it ended up being a swatch! As I designer, I don’t like to think that I failed (although, there are days…), but this was a learning experience! I learned that mitered squares work better when knit in garter stitch because the row to stitch gauge is almost equal. In stockinette stitch, stitches are little rectangles. Increases quickly throw off the symmetry of a square, so I couldn’t get my math right here. This square will be frogged and I'll go back to the sketching board with calculator and graph paper! 

My not-so-hot attempt at a mitered square blanket blending my own gradients. The gradients are fine, the "square"? Not so much.

In the meantime, if you’d like to use 2 different colorways of Sweet Rolls to knit a mitered square, I’m going to refer you to an excellent resource for mitered squares. While Nicolette makes lots of small squares and sews them together, I would start with my two balls of Sweet Rolls held together and make 4 big squares to show the gradients changing as the squares grew, then I would sew the 4 squares together to make a diamond out of the gradient color changes.

Tomorrow I’ll talk about 2 other things I learned while knitting this blanket…errrm, learning swatch.

These center-pull cakes don't cause a fuss or a tangle and are great for blending together.

Shadow knitting with Sweet Roll Yarn

This week we're knitting with Sweet Roll yarn by Premier Yarns. This long color repeat self-striping yarn is ideal for sprucing up shadow knitting with worry-free color changes. This is what we’ll explore today, while yesterday we looked at some free patterns provided by Premier Yarns.

 

Sweet Roll yarn stacks up to your most imaginative ideas. The Punch Pop colorway features lavender, bright turquoise, and a rich teal.

Shadow knitting was initially developed in Japan and roughly translated, it's known as 'fine knitting', which doesn’t really hint at the optical illusion that it creates. If you’d like to learn more about this history of Shadow knitting and see more patterns, I’d recommend this Interweave book Shadow Knitting

History of Shadow Knitting and many patterns can be found in this volume by Interweave.

Shadow knitting is a great way for beginners to do colorwork without knitting with two colors at the same time on the same row. It involves knitting 2 rows in one color and then 2 rows in the next color and then alternating back and forth. The strands of the unused color are loosely carried up the side of the project where each color row begins and ends. When you do this, you basically get stripes. If you only knit you get garter stitch ridges, and if you knit one row and purl one row you get stockinette stripes. Like these.

Stripes of 2 rows of each color

If you look a little closer at the pattern, you’ll notice that on a few of the stripes things look a little wonky. Perhaps to the untrained eye, it would look like a mistake. But these irregularities my friend, are what make shadow knitting what it is. If you look at the knit fabric surface from any angle that's shallower than a perpendicular bird’s eye view, you’ll start to see some changes in the color and the texture of the fabric, and what you're seeing are the shadows that the alignment of certain stitches creates.

On this scarf, you’ll notice a series of L-shaped blocks arranged in a motif that’s called a Greek Key. I made up a simplified version of a Greek Key because some of them can get quite complex and have a variety of corners and parallel lines.

Looking at the scarf at a 30 degree angle makes the Greek Key pattern jump out at you.

To make the shadows, the knitter uses strategically placed purl stitches that create raised garter stitch ridges that run one half row off-set of the other garter stitch ridges. It’s a thing of beauty.

Sweet Roll yarn added a cool element to shadow knitting in that the color changes add a whole different dimension to the shadows. I used almost all of 2 rolls of the same colorway, Punch Pop in this case. To ensure that you don’t end up with the same color overlapping, it’s necessary to unwind all of one color from the center of the roll so that when you use the yarn from one ball to be on color of stripe, it always contrasts the yarn from the other ball. If you use two different colorways together you won’t have to do this step. In the picture below, you can see how the colorways “chase” each other across the length of the scarf, making it look like there are more than 3 colors in the colorway.

Bird's eye few of alternating stripes of Sweet Roll Punch Pop makes it look like you have more than 3 colors.

My wife knit this for me and she really enjoyed the pattern. It was one that she could take with her to knit-night because it doesn’t take too much concentration. She loved the feel of Sweet Roll as she knit with it, and the end result is a soft scarf with beautiful drape and a squishy feel to it.

If you’d like to try to knit this scarf and see how you like shadow knitting, I’ll include the pattern for this scarf below.

finished measurements 8½" x 76¾"

materials

2 balls of Sweet Rolls
US 8 [5mm] needles

Gauge isn’t essential for this project.

 

Keep people wondering how you made this optical illusion with only 2 stitches and 2 balls of yarn

Cast on 34 stitches with yarn A (your first ball of yarn). Place a locking stitch marker around the yarn going to ball A.

Rows 1-2: K34 in A.
Rows 3-4: K34 in B.
Rows 5-8: Repeat Rows 1-4.
Row 9: K34 in A.
Row 10: P6 in A, k22 in A, p6 in A.
Row 11: K34 in B.
Row 12: K6 in B, p22 in B, k6 in B.
Rows 13-20: Repeat Rows 9-12.
Row 21: K34 in A.
Row 22: P21 in A, k7 in A, p6 in A.
Row 23: K34 in B.
Row 24: K21 in B, p7 in B, k6 in B.
Rows 25-32: Repeat Rows 21-24.
Row 33: K34 in A.
Row 34: P6 in A, k8 in A, p7 in A, k7 in A, p6 in A.
Row 35: K34 in B.
Row 36: K6 in B, p8 in B, k7 in B, p7 in B, k6 in B.
Rows 37-44: Repeat Rows 33-36.
Row 45: K34 in A.
Row 46: P6 in A, k8 in A, p7 in A, k7 in A, p6 in A.
Row 47: K34 in B.
Row 48: K6 in B, p8 in B, k20 in B.
Row 49: K34 in A.
Row 50: P6 in A, k8 in A, p20 in A.
Rows 51-54: Repeat Rows 47-50.
Row 55: K34 in B.
Row 56: K6 in B, p8 in B, k20 in B.
Row 57: K34 in A.
Row 58: P6 in A, k22 in A, p6 in A.
Row 59: K34 in B.
Row 60: K6 in B, p22 in B, k6 in B.
Rows 61-68: Repeat Rows 57-60.

Repeat Rows 5 to 68 until you’ve reached desired length minus ½''.

Knit 4 rows. Bind off purlwise.

Chart for shadow knitting Greek Key scarf.

Tomorrow, we’ll look at another way to use Sweet Roll colors in a unique way.

3 patterns to knit with self-striping worsted weight yarn

This week we are knitting the lovely self-striping worsted weight yarn called Sweet Roll by Premier Yarns. Yesterday, we took a close look at its characteristics, and today we'll look at 3 patterns that are perfect for Sweet Roll yarn.

2 rolls of the multicolored, self-striping, worsted weight Sweet Roll in the Punch Pop colorway. I love this fun color combination.

Self-striping sock yarn has been around for quite a few years, but I haven’t run across worsted weight self-striping yarn. One of the bonuses of self-striping yarn is that color choices and color changes are all done for you. There are no knots to tie and there's no headache to be had from trying to get the right colors to coordinate. Sweet Roll yarn solves these 2 issues very well.

Take the chill off with this Ice Pop colorway of Sweet Roll!

Sweet Roll isn’t a gradient yarn, though. The color transitions are brief rather than happening gradually over long stretches of yarn. Yesterday I wrote more in detail about the colors and their arrangement. I have heard reports of a knot appearing in a roll in one spot every rare once in a while, but this does happen occasionally during the manufacturing process of all yarns and can’t be helped. The mills that spin Sweet Roll obviously take pains to reattach the yarn in the same color stripe where the break happens rather than creating an even more abrupt color change at the knot! It never happened to me though, and I’ve knit through 8 of these self-striping skeins from different colorways.

Premier Yarns has provided these 3 patterns for free and you can see how the color change happens randomly. I like the natural transitions and the color schemes that they’ve chosen are great.

Don't worry about color changes, make these easy and quick projects with Sweet Roll.

The earth-tones of this scarf and the classic ribbing stitch pattern make this easy-to-knit scarf a great unisex style for any casual or dressy winter outfit.

Knit these fraternal twin slipper socks for some playful warmth around the home.

If you have a sweet Phoebe in your family, or another young lady who wants to be warm with a bit of pizzazz as well, this easy little Phoebe Poncho is a great introduction to knitting in the round.

Tomorrow I’ll introduce you to one of my patterns that takes advantage of the color transitions in a new way that's quite unique looking, even though I only knit and purled.

Purl rows and knit rows with this Punch Pop colorway of Sweet Roll make the mystery project that will be revealed tomorrow.

Knitting with Premier Yarns Sweet Roll, a self-striping yarn

This week we’ll take a look at this long repeat self-striping yarn by Premier Yarns called Sweet Roll.

These 2 rolls called Capuccino Pop (top left) and Caramel Swirl (right) make me thirsty to knit!

Sweet Roll is a worsted weight yarn and it’s 100% acrylic that is packaged in a yarn cake or “roll” format. It comes in 26 colorways (scroll to the bottom). Each colorway consists of long repeats of 3 colors, and each in each roll, the colors repeat at least twice per roll. The length of each color segment is fairly consistent. At the transition points the change from one color to another takes place over a 1" or 2" segment.

In some of the colorways, each color is dyed with a more heathered look, where several small strands of fiber are dyed different colors and then blended to create a mottled look.

This blend of cornflower blue and lavender fibers make up a heather color section in the Punch Pop colorway.

In other colorways, each color is more solid with the occasional speckle or dollop of one of the other colors from the scheme.

This cream section from the Pop Cappuccino colorway has speckles of an oatmeal beige distributed randomly across this stretch of yarn.

The ball band says that Sweet Roll knits up at 17 stitches per 4", which makes it a tad bit thicker than a worsted weight, more like an Aran weight, but it's a soft, 'cushiony' (for lack of a better word) yarn that has a lot of spring to it, so knitting at an 18-stitch gauge will work great as well. Each roll weighs 5oz (140g) and has 245yds (224m).

The architecture of Sweet Roll is really interesting. It consists of 4 individual plies that are twisted together to give the yarn nice definition. Each of these 4 plies is crimped or something like that. I don’t know what the process is called, but it gives the end result a crepe finish, and it also reduces pilling a lot. There's no halo around this yarn, even after knitting and with the usual friction of rubbing against the sides of a project bag, my hands, and the needles. I didn’t have a chance to throw it in the washing machine, but I predict very little if any pilling.

4 plies are spun together to give this yarn a squishy texture and clean stitch definition.

The rest of this week, we’ll look at different patterns and stitches that really complement Sweet Roll yarn. I hope you come back to see what we have planned to share.

Book Review and Giveaway: Bath Knits by Mary Beth Temple

I’m excited to review the book Bath Knits. This book is written by my friend Mary Beth Temple and she has come up with 30 great patterns to spruce up any bathroom. The designs are both practical, and beautiful, and definitely are “made to pamper”. 

I'm also pleased to announce that you can enter the giveaway contest at the end of this post for your chance to win a copy of Bath Knits. Let's get started on the book review.

Cover of Bath Knits by Mary Beth Temple

The book is divided into 5 different themes. Each one features a lovely color palette to give you some ideas as to how the different knit projects will complement those private spaces we retire to seeking solace and comfort.

The first theme is called The Naturals.

Make these lovely neutral toned knits to soften the atmosphere of your bath retreat.

My favorite pattern in this section is the Tab-top Towel. This cotton towel is perfect for a busy family with lots of hands who need a dry off. Make 7 of them to rotate through the week. It’s a great project for a beginner knitter who wants to learn a bit of color-work in their knitting. The other projects in this group are also sure to bring a touch of sophistication to any bathroom space.

The second theme is the Flower Garden.

Several practical washcloths would make great gifts

These designs will make a woman’s toilette very classy and add a touch of warmth. My favorite patterns here are the “Shaped Washcloths” As you know, I’m a technique-oriented knitter, and I really want to learn how to work these shapes that are constructed from the center out.

The Oceantide section of the book is calming and soothing.

I want that stack of blue washcloths to add tranquility to my bathroom counter.

There are many cool patterns for washcloths, but the project I'm going to knit first is the Textured Bath Mitt. I don’t really like bath poofs, so this is the perfect masculine solution to applying body wash to the skin without using abrasive plastic.

This knit texture is easy to do and the resulting mitt is fantastic.

Sunny Days is the fourth theme of the book and these designs are warm and invigorating.

A couple of sweet washcloths can be knit and then stored in a knit basket. How fitting! Then there’s a mod twist on the edging for towels. My first choice is the Textured Linen Washcloth, mostly because I’ve always wanted to knit with linen yarn, but never really had any idea of what to make. This fits the bill perfectly.

Linen yarn will become softer with each use, and this textured look is perfect for a little scrubbing action.

The final section is Bright and Cheery and these designs are perfect for helping family members wake up every morning with the bright pops of color that you could feature in your bathroom.

The Framed Lace design is very appealing to me because it scratches my “how is that knit” curiosity itch. Though Mary Beth suggests framing it to make it a piece of wall decor, I would like to use it as a wash cloth, and it would be very fun to knit with the short row and lace construction.

Short rows and lace make this lovely circular washcloth. Probably my first project from this book.

After looking at the designs, I then turned the pages again to study the yarn choices that Mary Beth has made. There's a wide range of yarn thicknesses, from a finer fingering weight all the way to bulky. There's also a wide range in composition of the yarns. Lots of cotton, naturally, because of the durability, but other natural fibers are used as well, like linen, as I’ve already mentioned. The price range for these yarns is also great, making all the projects very affordable without using low quality yarns.

Lastly there's a good range in purchasing options for the yarns, with some being common in big box craft stores and others in local yarn stores or online shops.

What about the speed of making these projects? Well, I think there are enough patterns that would give process knitters some fun as they try short row and color techniques that won’t leave you dumbfounded, but won’t let you get bored either.

And product knitters and beginners who would like to finish things quickly have lots of options as well.

These coordinating washcloths could be knit with any pairing of a solid color and a multicolored yarn.

Many of the projects make great gifts and if you’ve let some holiday or special occasion creep up without knitting anything to give away, many of these projects would make perfect projects to get ready quickly.

While there are a lot of decor and utility items, Mary Beth hasn’t forgotten to include some garments. There's a cute pair of lacy socks and the plush robe for a personal spa day!

Lacy pedicure socks to keep your feet warm while your toes shine!

Lastly, the photography and book design are lovely and complement the designs and the intent of the patterns well. There are closeup views of every item that needs to show where design elements are worked in a special way, or how a finished item should look.

I really hope that you’ll consider entering the giveaway contest, but if you don’t win, please look for this book at your favorite store, or ask them to order it for you. It’s $16.95 in the United States, which means just over 2 quarters for each pattern, and I know that between my wife and I, we’ll easily knit 80 to 90 percent of the patterns.

Good Luck!

 

 

Back cover of Bath Knits by Mary Beth Temple

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