New pattern: Observatory Gate

In the mood for some cosy cables? This squishable scarf was created in collaboration with John Arbon Textiles, who are launching their new Yarnadelic Worsted yarn tomorrow (which just happens to be my birthday - I’ll be 43)! The Observatory Gate scarf is thick and cosy, with an all-over cable pattern meandering to and fro over a background of reverse stockinette.

Every now and then I see something when I’m out and about and just know it needs to be turned into knitting somehow. Inspiration struck during a walk through Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens when I laid eyes on the intricate wrought-iron Observatory Gate, so named because it marks the way to an old historic observatory. I snapped the photo below and began charting and swatching, trying to find an effective way of capturing the gate’s wavy, fluid trellis-pattern in knitting. After many false starts involving twisted-stitch mini-cables, larger cables, and even colourwork, I hit upon this cable pattern which strikes a good balance between knitability and aesthetics.

The Observatory Gate at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne Australia

To knit my sample I used 5 skeins of Yarnadelic Worsted by John Arbon Textiles, which is 100% Falklands Corriedale wool, at 235yds/215m per 100g skein. Yarn kits for this pattern will be available on their website shortly, in a range of beautifully-heathered colour options. I used the colourway ‘Black Gold of the Sun’, a complex greenish-black shade perfect for evoking old ironwork. I haven’t knit many cabled projects in a colour this dark, but now that I’ve tried it I’m obsessed. Shoutout to my new-ish pair of reading glasses, without which I would not have been able to weave in the ends no matter how good the lighting!

I love how the woolliness of the yarn helps minimise the little imperfections in my tension; my usual stretched-out cable stitches look much better after washing and blocking. I’ve previously used the sport-weight version of Yarnadelic for knitting colourwork (in my Cat’s Eye Cowl), and I thought it worked brilliantly - the woolliness once again helps smooth everything out and makes for a cohesive fabric, and there are so many inspiring colour options. I’ll definitely keep the worsted version in mind for heavier-gauge colourwork.

The scarf measures 77”/195.5cm in length, which can be adjusted by working a different number of cable-pattern repeats, and the 13”/33cm width is easily adjustable by adding or subtracting a multiple of 12 stitches to the cast on. If you’re confident with working 2-over-2 cables this should be a nice straightforward project with an impressive result.

I recommend blocking your scarf once it’s finished to tidy up any wonky stitches and help the edges uncurl. I wet-blocked mine by soaking it in warm water with a little wool wash, gently rinsing it and squeezing out the water, and carefully laying it out flat to dry. I didn’t use any pins or wires because I didn’t want to risk stretching it too much and flattening the cables. Instead I smoothed it out with my hands, and used a long wooden ruler to check the edges were straight and even.

My scarf laid out to dry on my foam blocking mats - please excuse the claw and nibble marks, my cats are a bit too keen on these mats!

Observatory Gate features:

• A scarf knit from end-to-end, with an all-over pattern of interlinked cables

• One size is included in the pattern, with suggestions for adjusting the length and width

• Requires 1,107yds/1,012m of worsted weight yarn (shown in John Arbon Textiles Yarnadelic Worsted)

• Choose a non-superwash wool yarn in a solid or heathered shade

• Scarf dimensions, relaxed after blocking: 77”/195.5cm length, and 13”/33cm width

• Charts and written instructions are both provided in full.

My little helpers love to get in on the photoshoot action.

Find out more about my Observatory Gate pattern, including Ravelry and Payhip purchase options.

Deco City Revisited

My Deco City shawl pattern, originally published in Pom Pom Quarterly's gorgeous Winter 2015 issue, is now available as a single pattern download on Ravelry. There is one change to the new version of the pattern: this time it includes charts as well as the written instructions. As a chart-lover, I like to include them whenever I can! You can read all about the shawl and its inspiration in my post from last November: New pattern: Deco City.

Before I sent my shawl off to Pom Pom, we did a little photoshoot of our own in Melbourne's St Kilda, which has some interesting Art Deco buildings including the Palais Theatre. It was incredibly windy, so we used the wind to our advantage...

As you can imagine, it takes a lot of shots to get a shawl to look good in the wind, without having the lace design hidden or all of my hair in my face. :)

We also found this amazing architectural confection on the little lawn outside Luna Park:

Find out more about my Deco City pattern, including Ravelry and Payhip purchase options. You can also find the whole Winter 2015 issue on Ravelry and Pom Pom Quarterly's website.

WARMing up

Have you heard about the WARM project? It's a community textile art project to reflect on climate change and sustainability, which will take the form of two giant pictures made up of small knitted parts, to be installed in the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery this September. You can read about the inspiration for the project here.

My contribution is a batch of knitted gum leaves (Ravelry project link). I've made six small ones so far, which I'll put in the post today. If I have time, I'd like to make another batch of leaves.

I found some fallen leaves and flowers under the gum trees at our train station today, very conveniently for my photos!

If you'd like to knit something to contribute to WARM, you can find the all of the patterns (devised by Georgie Nicholson) here on Ravelry - you can make different kinds of native flowers, or wind turbines, or simple lace squares for example. All items need to be made from 100% wool yarn, and using stash yarn is encouraged. Contributions are due by the 12th of August.

Finished project: Royally Striped

You guys, I actually finished a garment! This only happens once or twice a year, I am sloooow when it comes to garment knitting - mostly because I have so many other things I want to knit, and if they're my own designs I prioritise them. Which is totally great! But I think I need to get back to doing purely ME-knitting on the weekends, because I'd love a couple more jerseys and cardies in my wardrobe.

This is my Royally Striped cardie (Ravelry link), designed by Stephen West and knit in a combo of Morris and Sons Norway 8ply (the natural charcoal and brown colours) and Vintage Purls Max (the burgundy and golds). The golds are actually the leftovers from my Beeswax Set, now put to good use. :)

Isn't this mural neat? It's across the train tracks from our place, on the side of some storage units. I like the little people climbing around in the eucalyptus branches.

Royally Striped is an all-in-one-piece design, where you knit one section and then pick up stitches for the next section. It's quite magical, the way it grows and grows. I really like the i-cord bind off around all of the edges, it finishes it off really tidily. I did add a big wooden button, but I prefer the way it looks unbuttoned.

The striped short-row wedges were fun to knit - don't they look cool?

Here's a closer look at the back, with its block of colourful narrow stripes:

I do love the cuddliness of garter stitch!

Next up will be another one of these (Ravelry link). Not as exciting (especially as I've knit one before), but it will be a great basic super-wearable jersey. And my yarn is speckled, so scratch that - it IS exciting!

Indigo and cobalt

I have a pretty-pictures post for you today! I visited the NGV on Sunday after choir, and saw an exhibition that's been on my to-see list for a while.

Blue: Alchemy of a Colour definitely lived up to my textile/dye geek expectations, once my eyes adjusted to the dim lighting. I really enjoyed seeing all the different textile decoration techniques from various places and time periods - and it was so much easier to see the details and differences in real life. Being able to see the texture of the fabric from various angles makes such a difference. That said, I hope you find my photos interesting! ;)

Most of the fabrics below are dyed with indigo. This beautiful kimono and wall hanging were decorated using resist techniques, which you can read about here: Resist-Dyed Textiles.

And here are examples of ikat fabric, where the threads are resist-dyed in a pattern prior to weaving. You can find out about how it's made in this photo gallery: Making Ikat Cloth.

The 'rag kimono' below is an example of boro patchwork, a traditional Japanese form of visible mending. You can see the parallel lines of running stitch holding the layers together in the close-up photo.

You can read more about traditional boro and sashiko embroidery here: The Japanese Art of Sashiko Stitching; and you can see examples of modern sashiko-inspired visible mending here: Three Easy Ways to Mend Fabric, Inspire by Japanese Textiles.

This quilted bodice with indigo-dyed silk ribbons and 18thC embroidered bedspread are just too pretty, especially with the depth of colour in the ribbons. I recognised the bedspread from last year's 'Exquisite Threads' embroidery exhibition...

Lastly, I had a look at the ceramics. This article on the exhibition describes the use of cobalt in ceramic decoration, which goes back over 1,000 years. The 18thC Delft tiles were especially cute! I've included by favourite below...

If you're curious about indigo dyeing, here are a couple of videos I found interesting. The first is about cloth-dyeing in India, and the second (specially for my fellow knitters) is about dyeing yarn. I must get some real indigo yarn to play with!