Good morning and happy Friday to you! Today I want to tell you about a new pattern I created called The Long Way Round.

The irony is that I named it The Long Way Round before knowing just how long it would take me to get it designed and published. You may recall that I asked for test knitters back in January, and they did a tremendous job! In the process, I decided to make a few small changes, and then of course I had to knit another sample, and that is really what took so long because life. I know you know.

Let me tell you a little more about the pattern. I fell in love with Dawn Barker’s assigned pooling patterns. Assigned pooling is a technique that uses yarn that has been dyed in a particular way. The yarn needs about one quarter of the circumference dyed in one color or set of colors and the other three quarters dyed in something quite different so there is a lot of contrast between the two sections. The designer does one thing with the assigned pooling quarter to make it stand out and uses the other three quarters of the skein as a background of some sort. Dawn Barker’s Float pattern was the inspiration for the assigned pooling version of my Van Gogh’s Starry Night colorway, and I have been making more different colorways just for assigned pooling ever since.

As much as I love her patterns, I was thinking how nice it would be to create a pattern that is easy enough to knit while visiting with a friend or watching a movie but still makes use of the fabulous assigned pooling concept. For The Long Way Round, I used the double-elongated stitch for the assigned pooling colorway with a background of stockinette. I added an I-cord edge and a garter stitch border so the scarf remains flat and the edges are nice and neat.

It’s a very flexible pattern. I designed it for my Super Sport yarn base, but you could certainly knit it on a different yarn base and weight just by changing your needle size. You just need one skein of any of my assigned pooling colorways to make it. Or if you want to turn the scarf into a shawl, you can literally just keep knitting the pattern, adding an extra skein or two of the same colorway.

The shape is rather intriguing and unique. It’s a cross between a triangle and a crescent, so I’m calling it a triangular crescent. What’s really neat is that it works with both the point of the triangle and the crescent edge at the top, but each direction gives it a different flow so to speak.

It requires minimal counting, but it does need a little bit of weighing to make the most of the yarn without having to play yarn chicken. I just published The Long Way Round on Ravelry. It’s $5, but I’m offering a free copy all of you between now and Sunday night. Here’s the link for the free pattern. The coupon code is SUBSCRIBER. It’s actually a big help to me if you take a moment to get the free pattern because it makes it so more people are likely to see the pattern on Ravelry, or so I’m told.

You can also order the pattern directly from my website right here. When you order it on my website, you have the option of adding it to your Ravelry library too. Isn’t that cool? Over the next week, I’m planning to get my other patterns listed on my website as well.

Starry Night

Speaking of assigned pooling, I dyed up the assigned pooling version of Van Gogh’s Starry Night this week. I dyed it on three yarn bases–Sparkly Merino Sock, Sock Perfection, and Super Sport. Any of these would look great with my new pattern and other assigned pooling patterns too. My pattern calls for one skein of yarn, and Dawn Barker’s Float pattern (shown below on Sparkly Merino Sock) calls for three skeins of sock-weight yarn. Here is that beautiful shawl, knit up for me by my friend Natalie.

Coming Soon

I have a bunch of things in the works right now. I’ll be dyeing up more silk hankies later today. I am also in the process of turning all the colorways for the Eight Days of Easter kits into mini skeins. I took my skein winder to our homeschool co-op yesterday and had fun explaining what I was doing to lots of curious children. I’m also getting ready to dye up the March club colorways. Last but not least, I am finalizing my plans for some barely-there pastel colorways for spring.

I hope you have a beautiful week and that spring has sprung in your part of the world.