Good morning, everyone!

A few months ago I had this crazy idea for a scarf with a squiggle of handspun art yarn with all its wonderful texture and variation running through the fabric of a hand-dyed millspun scarf as well as a cowl with the same basic idea. It sounded like the coolest thing, but I wasn’t sure if it was even possible.

My skills as a designer are very rudimentary, so I knew I would want to work with a great pattern designer on this one. Do you guys remember when I interviewed Cindy of Orange Smoothie a few months back? You can see that interview here if you didn’t get a chance before.

Cindy had already made several patterns with handspun yarn, including one that combines handspun with millspun, and I also knew from personal experience that her patterns are well-written, clear, and easy to follow, so I knew she would be the perfect person to design these patterns. I asked her, and she was happy to do it, and we have been working together ever since to bring you these kits, which just went live this week.

We started with a sketch that I sent to her. It turned out that my original design, which included a sort of double-helix of handspun, was really not possible without very advanced knitting skills, and Cindy and I both wanted this to be a pattern that any knitter from advanced beginner to pro could make and enjoy. Not only that, but she and I both really love helping newer fiber artists advance their skills. So, we agreed to remove one strand, and came up with a design with a single strand of handspun that looks something like this:

It’s a good thing I’m not trying to make a living drawing, isn’t it?

I sent Cindy the yarn for both projects and got to work dyeing and spinning up some coordinating sets while she worked on the pattern. Each one is made from just one skein of my Sparkly Merino Sock yarn and one 20 gram mini skein of worsted-weight handspun, which I made specifically for this project.

After discussing several possible ways to create the pattern, she came up with a brilliant method that involves one single cable stitch for each row to make the handspun squiggle. I admit I was a little nervous about the cable stitch as I had never done any cabling before myself, but she explains it so well in the pattern that it was really pretty straightforward! When I saw what she had designed and made, I was just amazed. It was stunning! Don’t you agree?

Isn’t that beautiful? I just can’t get over it!

The sparkly merino sock yarn is in my Lilac colorway, and the handspun is in my Highland Heather colorway. You can purchase the kit including the yarn and pattern in my shop here.

I have it available in several colorways, including the one I’m working on now in Annunciation Blue and Wonder. FYI, Wonder was my Art Batt club color of the month just last month. Here is my WIP:

 

 

The third colorway I have this kit in now is my very bright Margarita along with Sunken Treasure handspun. The Sunken Treasure contains fantastic gold teeswater locks along with a number of other luxury fibers.  Here’s a photo of the yarn:

As soon as Cindy had finished the scarf, she started on the second project, which is a cowl that again combines one skein of Sparkly Merino Sock with one 20 gram mini skein of handspun in a totally new and different way. I spent a long time coming up with color combinations I loved. I spun up some worsted-weight minis in my Renaissance Festival colorway and sent her that along with my Boysenberry yarn, and she worked her magic once again.

I love cowls. As a mom, I prefer them to scarves right now because my youngest is 18 months old and will definitely take a scarf off my neck when I’m holding him. Once he is a little older, I may return to scarves as my preference because there are just so many ways you can wear them. Here is a photo of the beautiful cowl that Cindy created:

 

 

And here’s a closeup:

I love eyelets. Don’t you? I have this one available in my shop now in several colors as well including:

• Boysenberry Sparkly Merino Sock with Renaissance Festival Handspun
• Margarita Sparkly Merino Sock with Moonlight Handspun
• Light Princess Pink Sparkly Merino Sock with Sunken Treasure Handspun

Each handspun colorway contains a different combination of luxury fibers. One of the things I love about handspun–at least the way I make handspun–is that it is just so much fun to see what the next stitch will be like.

Like I said, both the Handspun Highlight Scarf Kit and the Handspun Highlight Cowl Kit are available in my shop. I’m offering the kits with and without the pattern, so you can purchase the whole kit with a hard copy of the pattern from me, or if you prefer to keep all your patterns safe and sound in Ravelry, you can purchase the patterns from Orange Smoothie and then get just the yarn from me.

Right now, Cindy has a sale going on where you get $2 off her already very reasonable patterns when you purchase both together.

Here’s the Handspun Highlight Scarf pattern, and here’s the Handspun Highlight Cowl pattern in Cindy’s Ravelry pattern store.

Have a wonderful fiber-filled week, and I’ll see you next week. I will be rolling out a new line of spring colors soon.