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Autumn Grasses Caped Cardigan

There’s something about a shawled cardigan that brings out the romantic in me: visions of Victorian heroines prowling grassy heaths and windswept moors abound. But here my romantic heroine goes modern with a little bohemian stirred into the mix. In this tale, she knits herself a caped cardigan suitable for casual weekends or for an extra layer of textury warmth, thinking to herself that she might meet a new love wearing such a garment or, better still, learn to be content in her own company.

The design is knit in a textury mix of DK-weight yarns on size 5mm/US8 needles in a play of seed, garter, and simple openwork stitches sprinkled with bobbles. Choose the bolero-shaped version or the longer, hip-skimming, rendition. Sizes for the longer version go from small to bodacious (up to size 56 in hip, suitable for plus sizes).

One of many possible yarn recipes for this creation lies in the combination of highly-textured yarns balanced by plainer fare but even if you use ‘plain’ wool, the bobbles alone will pop your sweater into the textural zone. If you’re a yarn addict who has long been hoarding similar hues of different yarns, here’s your design. I’m impassioned by goldy greens and toasted browns tinged with mustard so I had quite a collection in which to dive.

If you’re after the autumn grasses colorway, consider purchasing a hank of a multi-textured, multi-fiber yarn, like Prism Light Stuff, which contains all the needed textured elements. You can also collect a few tufted, flagged, and eyelash yarns to mix with plain yarn for a similar effect. Consider also one of those inventive new handspun creations now available by indie yarn producers, which often come with rich textural inclusions built into the mix. Aim for thinner fair recommended for a maximum size of 5mm/US8 needles to avoid too much bulk and keep the occasional bulky ribbon to a minimum.

I’ve put together a yarn list in the wheat gold/brown color family that won’t require a trek to the far reaches of the universe. In fact, all but the Habu Textiles yarns are available through Yarnmarket.com.

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Berber Jacket

The Moroccan souks offer rich foraging for Berber design. In this world of saturated color, inspiration abounds. Color leaps from eye to hand in everything from the spice stalls to the carpet shops, of which there are many.Hand dyeing is so common, pots of hue are as readily available on the Moroccan shelves as laundry detergent is on ours. A Berber pharmacy alone is an experience to behold – saffron by the barrel, spices heaped in mounds, something for whatever ails you. Everywhere you go, the senses are plunged into an exotic visual feast.

Knitting this jacket is like a mini-excursion into this land of authentic color. Here I invite you to experience color play using the simplest of knit combinations -- knit2,purl2-- for a richly-evocative rib. Something about this stitch evokes the pattern play of Moroccan textile like no other. The visual complexity is just a trick of the eye as you layer color upon color by basic two-color knitting. Only two yarns are carried across every row. Easy. And, just to help you grow comfortable with the technique, the guide offers a mini Stranded Knitting 101 section. Be inspired!

This jacket is a stash-buster but you'll be tempted to add a few new luxuries into the mix. What about those ribbons you spy but can't figure out what to do with? A few rows here and there really spark this vibrant mix to life. Here's your chance to play with yarn while knitting up a stunning jacket.

The design of the jacket can be fitted or straight and I'll show you how to knit it to fit you.

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Feather n Fan Club Guide

The feather and fan stitch, so named in Victorian times, was once relegated to restrained shawls and baby blankets. Like a dowager queen, she’d stodgily make her way across knitted rows in plodding, predictable, paths, always careful to do the proper thing in the name of laced-up propriety.

But that was then. Celebrate F&F’s release from captivity. Her true spirit emerges here as a nature sprite, born of field and glen, leaping from the ferny shadows to ripen colors on the vine in gleeful sprays of light and color. Give her lovely yarn to play with and she’s poetry: pure spirit netted in stitch.

Join her fan club with these three distinct designs. Her exuberant nature is released in the popular Organic Wrap design (updated with a few extras), is touched with a wee bit of Highland glory in the Ripenings Wrapped Shrug, and slips into something richly evocative in the Roving Moss cardigan. In every one, she challenges you to take risks, blend colors, experiment with textures and learn how to turn knitting into magic. 54 lavishly-illustrated pages.

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Blue Sky Over Sienna

The enchanted landscape of the Sienna region of Tuscany inspired the design for this elegant jacket/cardigan. It’s a celestial sky blue spanning an earthy blend of terracotta, the contrasting textures akin to tiled roofs overlooking rolling hills. Knit in thick, textury yarns, the sleeves are as full as a poet’s shirt while the torso slips a lean, flattering rib stitch over your curves. The body's mix of tapes and ribbons creates the look of hand-woven silk while the sleeves brim in a fulsome mix of textury fiber. Optional buttons line the front. Knit side to side, the pattern can easily be adapted to any size with my ‘smart sizing’ solutions (so simple!).

As with all my ‘free-range’ patterns, knit this one with almost any yarn. However, for the lean, body-shaping effect, the two lead yarns used in the jacket’s body work together to create a lovely effect. The jacket pictured is light and so flexible, it will literally spring back into shape. Slim lines are created by knitting rows of a thin yarn amid bands of thicker, textured, fibers in 'random rib', a simple rib stitch, knit side to side on size 5.5mm needles. Sound complicated? It isn’t. Side to side rib knitting is pure liberation, an answer to sizing nightmares and a way to multicolor a rib without Fair Isle’s extra weight.

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The Medici Coat

Inspired by the Medici, a family of art patrons who ruled Italy during the Renaissance, this jacket will wrap you in opulent texture for the chill days of autumn and beyond. Pictured in harvest colors, these purple grapes, soft yellow-greens and olives form a half-jacket, half-wrap, knit in a sumptuous feast of yarn. Indulge your fiber fantasy. Everything and anything can be knit into this jacket.

Stitches are a simple concoction of seed, garter and yarnovers knit on size 7.5mm needles with front bands and cuffs seeded in size 5mm. The back and fronts are worked side to side to create a linear flow and the bottom side seams can be left open partway to enhance the easy, loose effect. The drop sleeves are full and luxe to add renaissance flavor further enhanced by a lace collar. A single button or scarf pin keeps it all together or you could add buttons all the way down. Knit a longer version for a full-length coat. The pattern is one-size, being loose enough to fit sizes 10-1X but I’ve provided simple real-life sizing tips so that you can easily adapted this design to fit any measurements. Difficulty level: intermediate.

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