Introducing the Bloom Between the Lines Shawl! A illusion knit rectangular shawl which, believe it or not, only requires you to know how to knit and purl. It couldn’t be easier, right? This design uses a combination of Scheepjes Metropolis and Scheepjes Downtown yarns. These sister yarns are a perfect combination for an illusion design with the slightly heathered, but more solid shades of Metropolis providing contrast for the stripes of Downtown.

If you’ve made any of my other Between the Lines knitted designs, then you are familiar with this technique and it will be no problem for you at all. If you are a newer knitter who has never tried illusion knitting, this will still be a great introduction to get you started.

Buy the Bloom Between the Lines Shawl pattern 

For a small fee you get access to a lovely full-colour PDF with photos as well as a printer friendly black and white version with only the essential info. The pattern includes charts and fully written instructions.
Click here purchase the pattern now!

The beauty of the illusion knitting technique is that the shawl changes from every angle you look at it. As you move through the streets, people will notice the pattern shifting as the design appears and disappears before their eyes. It also looks much more difficult than it is, so people will marvel at how you create this knitty witchy magic!

Where To Buy Metropolis and Downtown Yarn for your Shawl

UK and International buyers will find Metropolis at Woolwarehouse.
Those of you in the Netherlands can find all you need at Caro’s Atelier.

You can also ask your preferred Scheepjes retailer or find a shop near you!

This post contains affiliate links. This is a way for you to support Canadutch and me as a designer. It is no extra cost to you, but if you shop via one of these links, I get a small percentage of the sale!

Well here we are at the end of the Twisted Roots MAL, and I can hardly believe it. It’s been so much fun chatting with everyone and seeing you making my scarf! I’ll be honest, in the last year or so my knitting mojo has taken quite a hit and I’ve really not done a lot of knitting at all since I finished my Sliding Tiles Blanket design. You know… life… I know a lot of you out there understand more than ever right now.

Being able to talk to newer knitters to see them through this MAL, and seeing people who haven’t knitted for years picking up the pointy sticks again has been SO good for my soul. While I didn’t get a lot of knitting done during the MAL myself, it has reignited something in me that I have been missing for a long time now. I am starting to feel the ideas flowing and have even started playing with a new design idea, so this is a really good sign! Thank you to all of you for taking part and helping me find my connection to knitting again too.

News From the Groups – Still Knitting Away!

I have quite a bit I want to write about blocking in this post, so be sure to check below for that, but I really enjoy sharing project photos from our group members, so here’s a few before I dig into the blocking details and other info!

This post from Rachelle Anchikoski was really fun. She and her virtual knitting group are all working on their Twisted Roots Scarves together! There have been questions about how they chat and count at the same time, but she says they have come up with a ‘cable row warning system’ which appears to be working well. Isn’t crafting always so much more fun with friends!?  

Lucie van der Velde has doubled the repeats to create a more shawl-like scarf in Our Tribe Simy (967). I think this is a great idea and I can’t wait to see how this looks when it’s finished and all blocked out. It’s just going to be a sea of gorgeous cables! She is making pretty great progress considering she is knitting twice as much!

The Twisted Roots MAL is also a family affair! I’ve seen quite a few family members mentioning that they were working on their scarves together, which is so great. Maureen Park, the mother of my wonderful friend, tester and fellow group mod Niamh (who I mentioned in my previous post) is also taking part in the MAL! She is sort of like an honorary group mama to our little moderation team, so it has made me so happy to see her joining in. She’s using my original Happy in Red (968) colourway from the bookazine and is doing an absolutely smashing job!

Stacy Jo Armstrong has jumped on the Whirl wagon with this lovely Green Tea Tipple version and is finally starting to see the colour changes in her project (which we all know can feel like forever at times, am I right?!). I have to say, I really love Our Tribe a lot, but I’m also super excited about the Whirl versions I’ve been seeing. What can I say, just like everyone else, I love me some Whirl!  

 Blocking Your Twisted Roots Scarf

As I mentioned in my previous post, to achieve the desired results of the original scarf shown in the bookazine, you definitely want to block your scarf and I will give you some tips on how to get the best results with this project in particular. I’m not going to reinvent the wheel here, though, and do a step by step tutorial on how this is done, because there are already loads out there and blocking this scarf is done in just the same way.

Also, why not give one of my lovely fellow Scheepjes Bloggers a shout out! Kirsten, from Haak Maar Raak has done a great blog post on how to wet block, which is the method I use most regularly and recommend for blocking your scarf. There is only one small difference in how I get the water out of my yarn for smaller items, which I will explain a little further in the post where I discuss my preferred blocking supplies.

Once your scarf has been soaked and you’ve gotten most of the water out, it’s time to get busy getting it into shape!

Originally, I was going to block what I have finished on my Felted Button scarf that I used for the tutorial photos in my Tips & Tricks post, but as I haven’t completed that fully yet, I thought it would be better to share photos showing the blocking process of the full scarf. So I dug out the photos I shared with my testers during the design process. If I’d known I’d be using them for a MAL, I’d have tidied up a bit!

As you can see, this is a pretty long scarf, and this is the moment where you get to sit back and marvel at the flow of the cable pattern! Seeing your project on the blocking boards is the first time you get to really see it shine in its final form, and it’s such a satisfying feeling!

I know not everyone has space for blocking and I didn’t have good floor space for it at the time either as we had just moved and were renting a holiday apartment at the time, so I got creative and built a bridge in the kitchen using my trusty Ikea trolly!

If you need an indication of if you are on the right track with your scarf when blocking, the best way to get an idea is to measure the length between your repeats. The measurement between two of the same cables is approximately 18cm. This isn’t an exact science, of course, yours may be slightly shorter or longer, but the main thing (as I mentioned above) is maintaining your width and making sure your cables are nicely spread out.

My method is to do a quick and dirty blocking, just to get it into the general shape, and then go over it and fine-tune, measuring and moving the pins as needed. I find that if I start at one end trying to get it just to the right measurements, sometimes I find myself at the other end realising it didn’t work and it needs to be done again, meaning I just wasted a lot of time. If you lay it out, spread it and pin it into the general shape and size you know you need, you can then measure it and go back over it moving things as needed.

That’s all there is to it, really! Make sure you give it plenty of time to dry properly to ensure it holds its shape. There will likely be some degree of bounce-back and this will vary depending on your tension and how tightly you worked your cables, but it should hold its form pretty well.

My Go-To Blocking Supplies

Every crafter is different, and we all have our own preferred needles, yarns and other supplies, and the same is true for blocking. We are all different and we use what works for us. Below I will show you some of my preferred blocking tools!

The best tool for blocking small items is likely already in your kitchen!

You can thank me for this later because it’s the best thing I’ve ever discovered and has made a huge difference in my blocking experience. After years of doing the wet log stomp after rolling a scarf or shawl into towels and walking on them to get the water out, I discovered THE SALAD SPINNER! Let me tell you, my salad spinner has spent years lazing around in the cupboard living the good life and not doing much of anything, because we are not huge salad eaters… but it is certainly earning its keep now!

I didn’t think to take another photo when blocking my Twisted Roots Scarf, but above you can see a photo I posted on Instagram when I was blocking my Hopscotch Scarf. When it comes to blocking smaller items like lightweight shawls, scarves, hats, socks, swatches, etc… the salad spinner is the bee’s knees!

It’s so simple, you put your item into the spinner, fill it with water and a touch of your favourite wool wash and let it soak for a bit (I usually leave it for 15 or 20 minutes… sometimes longer if I get distracted, which happens all the time), then when you are ready, you lift out the inner bit, pour out the water… then put the cover on and spin that sucker like your life depends on it! Your project will come out still wet but you’ll get a lot more water out of it this way and you’ll save yourself some laundry!

I have to say, a tiny piece of my heart breaks whenever I knit something that doesn’t fit in my salad spinner. I know I can use the spin on my washing machine but it just doesn’t have the same feeling of satisfaction when you don’t get to spin the bejesus out of it yourself!

Knit Blockers

Most crafters will start out blocking with pins, and generally swear a blue streak while sticking eleventy million pins into a large project. That was me, anyway, there’s a lot of sailor language in my crafting process. My whole knitting world changed when I discovered KnitPro Knit Blockers. With the sets of blockers, you can easily block smaller squares or larger items in a fraction of the time it takes you to stick in one pin at a time. They help give a straighter edge and make the fine-tuning process much easier as well. I probably have about 4-5 sets of the white knit blockers, but the rainbow blockers are definitely on my list!

You’ll never regret buying these if you plan to block your projects regularly!

Blocking Wires

Blocking wires are extremely helpful for helping block your items, especially if you are trying to keep a straight edge, or have a larger area you need to work with. You can weave these through the edge of your work and then you only have to place pins or blockers at spots along the edge to help stretch it out. There are also more flexible wires that can be used for projects with a more curved edge. No more using 1000 pins to block one side of a scarf! I use KnitPro Blocking Wires but there are a number of different brands out there to try.

You can see the blocking wires and knit blockers being used here together in a zoom of my blocking photo from the original scarf. With these two tools, it’s easy to get a nice straight edge in your work. You may get a slight bump from the weaving of the wire through the fabric but that will flatten out and not be an issue.

Blocking Boards

Blocking boards (or blocking mats, whichever you choose to call them) are necessary if you want to use items like Knit Blockers, as they are super sharp and can really damage anything that you stick them into (for example if you stick them into a rug, you may damage the floor below without realising it). The type of blocking mat you use doesn’t really matter, it just has to have enough thickness to stick your pins or blockers into without them going through the other side. I have many mats, including free numbered play mats I got from a friend whose daycare was closing, KnitPro Blocking Mats and my latest purchase, the especially thick KnitIQ Blocking Mats, which I love.

Any of these will work just fine and while I prefer the thicker KnitIQ mats now that I have them, because I like the extra thickness and not having to worry about pushing the blockers in too hard and them going through, I have used the others for years and gotten along just fine. Although I did lose the number inserts for some of my playmats over time, so that can be a bit annoying. Anyway, there is no real wrong answer here, just go with what you like the best and what fits in your budget.

Eucalan

There are quite a few different brands of wool washes out there (I call them wool washes, others say conditioners or delicate wash, it all adds up to the same thing), but my favourite is Eucalan. This is a liquid that you add to your water when you soak your items, which softens the yarn slightly and gives it a lovely scent. My absolute, absolute favourite is their Jasmine scented Wrapture. My word… it’s heaven. Just choose your favourite scent, follow the instructions on the bottle and you’ll be right as rain!

Alright, well that’s it. The MAL is now coming to an end and I’ve shared all the info that I think you will find useful. However, we know that none of the projects we share in the groups ever really end, so no matter when you find this post and decide to make your scarf, you are always welcome to come to visit, share your project, ask questions or just say hello!  

Hi everyone! Well, here we are already in Week Three of the Twisted Roots MAL and I have been enjoying watching everyone’s progress so much. We have reached that stage where most have been helped through any difficult bits getting started and are now off knitting away while I wait eagerly for updates!  

Before I dig in to share some news from this week, a little info for the first time visitors…

News From the Groups

Reunited!

I wanted to share these photos with you because I just think they are so pretty! You may recognise this Canadutch colourway Twisted Roots Scarf from some of the MAL promo photos shared by myself and Scheepjes on our social media. It was knitted by my dear friend and tester, Niamh Holcroft. Her scarf spent the last year or so hanging out with the folks at Scheepjes HQ, posing pretty for photos and such, and she just got it back. Now I have that tune “Reunited and it feels so good…” stuck in my head! You know I do love to share an earworm when I catch one. Thank you for this lovely sample and for testing, Niamh!

Some Newbie Love!

One thing I’ve been truly enjoying in the last few weeks is how many new knitters have jumped in and decided to give this project a try. They are all doing amazingly well! This is what makes me happy with knitting, sharing it with others and seeing that little spark when they start to really get it and enjoy it. It makes me a little sad when I hear someone say “I can’t knit” because I know they can, or rather, just don’t know how to yet. It’s just a matter of figuring out what is most comfortable and what works best for them and this is my mission in life, people!  

There have been a lot I’ve spoken to and again, I wish I could share them all, but here are a few of the new knitters who have dug in and shown some incredible determination in learning to knit to make this project. Let’s give them some serious applause, or snaps, or props, or whatever it is you’re into.

I recognised Lisa Marlow as a tester for some of the Scheepjes crochet designers, so when I saw her knitting I did a little Dr. Evil style laugh. She has never knitted before casting on her Twisted Roots Scarf and has been flying through it so far! I definitely think she has a natural talent for knitting and if she keeps it up at this rate, I think someday I may be trying to poach a tester out from my crochet friends’ noses and bringing her to ‘the dark side‘. I won’t even be the tiniest bit sorry either.

Jane Webber (left) and Rachel Herron (right) have also taken this on as their very first (ever!) knitting projects. Considering that even some of the more experienced knitters stumbled a bit with the set-up portion of the pattern (nested brackets for repeats can be a real son of a gun if you aren’t used to them), I think it’s pretty amazing that they persevered and pushed past that point. Despite having to frog a bit or start over, they forged on and are now off to a great start! This is the sign of a great future in knitting, that determination to understand and overcome. I think that all they need is a little practice, which they’ll get while working on their scarf, and then there will be no stopping them!

Those Pesky Twisted Stitches!

Diana Kloosterboer kindly agreed to let me show her project to demonstrate what I was discussing in my Tips & Tricks post about twisted stitches. This is always a tricky part for myself and the other group mods and admins. What do we do when we see someone with an error in their work? We want to tell them because we want to know ourselves if something wasn’t right, but we never want to hurt anyone’s feelings.

When we saw Diana’s first attempt (top) I noticed that her stitches were twisted. This is noticeable by the more textured look of both the stockinette and the seed stitch, which you can see when compared with her second attempt shown below. It can be a somewhat subtle difference, but when you compare, you can see how much smoother the stockinette stitch is without the twisted stitches, and how much more contrast there is between that and the seed stitch portions. With the twisted stitches, they tend to blend together a little more.

Ruth, one of the Dutch moderators, contacted her to explain as it was easier for her to do so in Dutch than it is for me, and Diana was such a champ! She had a look at my Tips & Tricks and with a little help from Ruth, she was on the right track in no time. Moments like this, where this type of situation turns out so well, makes us incredibly happy. It’s worth that knuckle-biting moment where we contact them to let them know something is wrong because in the end they learn something and are happy for it. Well, most of the time, at least!  Well done, Diana!

The Colour Crafter Contender!

When I spotted Anna Dusseljee‘s project, I thought it looked really lovely, then I learned as I read on that this was actually a practice piece she was making with Scheepjes Colour Crafter! Her clever plan was to practice with some yarn she had on hand to get the hang of the project before moving on to the real thing and working on her Our Tribe version. She has definitely conquered the pattern and is ready to move on to the real deal, but this has really left me thinking that Colour Crafter is also a great yarn option for this scarf, especially if someone is allergic to wool, for example. Perhaps Anna will return to this one at some point and can let us know how it turns out. Otherwise, if anyone else out there sees this and decides to give it a try, make sure to show me as I’m really curious and eager to see how it works out.

There’s No Unseeing This Now!

Marga Doornbosch-de Graaf shared her gorgeous scarf project yesterday, and I’m still loving this Heart colourway, by the way. However, something else also caught my eye… she figured she found the true inspiration for the Twisted Roots Scarf! I mean, who knows, I have done quite a bit of gardening in the last few years, so maybe that was in the back of my mind somewhere? Either way, there is just no unseeing it now, is there?

Well, that’s all I have to report at the moment. Everyone is busy knitting away but once more have finished their scarves I will definitely be back to share some of their finished photos!

Hoorah, we have a winner for the Twisted Roots MAL Giveaway!!   Today I gathered up all the comments on my Facebook and Instagram and used a random name picker to choose 10 from each post. I then put those 20 names back in the generator and Kimberly Hernandez was our lucky winner! She will be receiving three balls of Scheepjes Our Tribe in my Canadutch colourway as well as a copy of Scheepjes YARN Bookazine 10: The Colour Issue. Congratulations, Kimberly! Enjoy! 

Knitted by Niamh Holcroft using Scheepjes Our Tribe – Canadutch (975)

News From the Groups: WIP & Whirl(igig) Photos

Since it’s rude to drop a name and run, I figured I’d share a few photos from the Facebook communities that were shared during the first few days of the MAL. Don’t worry if you don’t see your photo, the MAL has only just started, so be sure to share your WIP’s in the Official Scheepjes Facebook groups and you may see yours in my next post!

Knitted by Karoliina Molander using Scheepjes Our Tribe – Heart (979)

This project, using the Our Tribe Heart colourway, has been super popular in our Facebook groups, and it’s not hard to see why! I think Karoliina was blamed by a few group members for them having to go out and buy this yarn, even if they had already chosen another colourway of their own! I’d be a lying liar if I said I haven’t tucked it away in the back of my mind to work with on something in the future too.

Knitted by Ruth Lambert using Scheepjes Whirligig Grey to Lavender (201) Whirligigette Grey (253)

You may recognize this Whirligig scarf from my previous post where I showed the gorgeous Whirl and Whirligig versions of the scarf. You have already seen a few of the photos but look at that middle one that we haven’t seen yet, I love the definition in the cables with Whirligig, it’s just divine! Ruth has been a bit of a trendsetter, I think, as I’m pretty sure there are a few others planning to do their scarf in Whirligig as well!
See more info on this project on my Tips & Tricks post.

Knitted by Theresa Pearson using Scheepjes Woolly Whirl – Sugar Sizzle (472)

Theresa also shared a new photo of her finished Woolly Whirl scarf after a snowfall, and I don’t know what I envy more, her having a scarf in that fab colourway, or having snow! Oh the Canadian in me misses snow so much sometimes… I expect that, like with the Whirligig, we are going to see more Whirl versions popping up now that people have seen Theresa’s, and who can blame them!
See more info on this project on my Tips & Tricks post.

Knitted by Kristina Hill using Scheepjes Our Tribe – It’s All in a Nutshell (973)

Kristina is making great progress on her scarf! She was very clever and put her thinking cap on when she wasn’t sure if her tension was working out properly. She took a blocking break and gave the work she had completed already a wee blocking to see if her cables would flatten out as she hoped. Turns out she was right on track and her scarf is looking just smashin’!

Knitted by Linda Scannell using Scheepjes Wanderlust – Rio de Janeiro (453)

I was so excited when I saw Linda share the start of her scarf using Scheepjes Wanderlust and I immediately picked it off as the same colourway that I used for my All Good Things Cowl design. I’m so eager to see how this scarf unfolds and there are quite a few others in the group who are as well!

Knitted by Tessa van Voorthuysen using  Scheepjes Our Tribe – Canadutch (975)

Tessa was well ahead of the game by the time the MAL officially began! She posted this photo of her WIP in my Canadutch colourway on the first day of the MAL began and it was looking wonderful already. I always love seeing projects made in my Our Tribe colourway and it’s even better when it’s a design of my own!

Knitted by Rineke Rottiné using The Curio Crafts Room (974)

Last, but certainly not least, is another one who jumped right in and just couldn’t wait to get started. Rineke was already through one entire ball by the time the MAL began and her scarf is coming along splendidly! The waves of the cables with the blues and greens in this colourway really make me think of summer and the sea. So pretty!

Happy New Year and welcome to the start of the Twisted Roots MAL! I still can’t believe that it’s 2021 already, I feel like I am in a bizarre time warp where time moves too slowly and too quickly all at the same time! It’s not just me, right? Anyway, I’m so happy to be sharing this project with you and I’m sure we are going to have a lot of fun during the MAL!

I will be sharing lots of photos and info in this post, but first – the GIVEAWAY!!

To celebrate the start of the new year and the kick-off of the MAL, I am hosting a giveaway on my social media. On January 10, 2021, I will randomly choose the lucky winner who will receive the yarn and Bookazine from Scheepjes. Then they can make a Twisted Roots scarf of their own in the colourway I designed!!

I love hosting giveaways so much! There’s quite a quick turnaround on this one so that once the winner is chosen we can try to get the yarn out to them as soon as possible. What a fun way to start the MAL, right?! Good luck, everyone!

MAL Info and Support

The first thing you are going to want to do to prepare for the MAL is to join the Official Scheepjes Facebook groups. I will be there, together with the fabulously helpful mod and admin team and a wonderful community of crafters. It’s a great place to get support and chat with people who share your love of yarn and crafting!

Join the Official International (English) Scheepjes Group
Join the Official Nederlandse (Dutch) Scheepjes Group

All you need to know coming into this MAL is how to cast on, knit and purl. Once you know that, you are already 95% of the way there. I will try to give you as much info in this post as I can, but if you get stuck or feel you need something explained further, you can always come and ask in the Facebook groups and we’ll be happy to help you.

Pattern Information and Tips

As I mentioned above, there really isn’t a whole lot of knitting knowledge required for this project. I will have some general knitting tips for new knitters a little further in my post but assuming you already know the basics, the only thing I really have to show you is some information about the working tension, how brackets work and cables. I think these are the most important bits of info that you will need right now. If you already know how to work cables, feel free to skip that section but I urge everyone to read the information below regarding the importance of checking your gauge and using the correct tension for this project.

Cable Noodles and Why Tension and Blocking Matter

Please note that the advice in this section is purely for those who want their scarf to have the same results as in the original scarf in the photos. This is your project, and you get to decide, so if you like cable noodles that’s ok too!

As I mentioned in my previous post, the tension for this project is purposely loose, so be sure to do a gauge swatch according to the info given in the pattern. If it feels looser than you are used to, please ignore the instinct to go down in needle size. The loose, fluid texture is necessary to block the shawl into shape later. If you knit this piece too tightly, your cables may bunch up and will likely bounce back into cable noodles after blocking. Knitting looser stitches allows the cables to spread and flatten so that you get the desired look and feel of the original design.

Here is a side by side visual of my original scarf before and after test blocking the scarf to make sure the cables would settle properly. As you can see, there is quite a difference! It’s the same scarf just at a different time of day, in different lighting, having been blocked in between. While making your scarf, it will look like kinky, wobbly cable noodles, and this is totally normal, so don’t panic! If you work to the desired gauge (or even a little looser) it’s fine, you just want to be careful not to knit too tightly or your scarf may just decide it likes being noodles and wants to stay that way, whether you like it or not.

Making Use of Stitch Markers

So you’ve cast on your scarf and are ready to start knitting! If you are like me and you like to use stitch markers as reminders of when to change stitch pattern or mark points in your work, then here’s what I found worked for this project.

   
Scheepjes Our Tribe – Felted Button (965)

Your scarf is made up of edge stitches on each side and the columns of your cables. Each of these sections is separated by a pair of purl stitches. I found that placing a stitch marker between each of these sets of purls (so, between the two purl stitches) worked best. This way I knew where each section began and after a while, I could look at what was next and know what I needed to do without having to look at the pattern.

If you can count rows in your work and don’t want to use a row counter or tick sheet, it’s also handy to put a stitch marker on the front of your work in a flat column of stockinette stitch in the row where you have done a cable, then you can count and keep track of when you have reached a cable row again.

Understanding How Brackets Work

*k1 (p4, (k6, p8) twice, k9) twice, p8; rep from * once more, (k8, p1) twice.

With brackets in knitting, in cases like this, you follow from left to right, working the repeats as you come to them. Imagine it like rooms, you have to clear each ‘inner’ room before you can go through the other side. So you enter the red brackets, but once you see the green, you have to complete THOSE as many times as indicated before moving on to complete the red.

Using the above example, it goes like this:
Step 1: k1 (the stitches before the red bracket begins)
Step 2: p4 (the stitches at the start inside the red bracket, before the green bracket)
Step 3: k6, p8, k6, p8 (twice what is inside the green brackets)
Step 4: k9 (the stitches at the end inside the red bracket, which you can do now that you have completed the green brackets twice)
Step 5: Repeat steps 2-4 once more (to complete the two times doing everything within the red brackets, which includes the instructions for the green brackets each time).
Step 6: p8 (stitches after brackets
Step 7: Repeat steps 1-6 once more (indicated by the * marks to go back to the first star and do everything from that point one more time)
Step 8: k8, p1, k8, p1 (twice the stitches in the brackets at the end of the row)

Here’s another visual to help you understand the order of things, using the example above again.

Where most people get confused is knowing what the repeat amounts apply to in each case. These repeat amounts always apply to the brackets they come directly after. So, in this example, the “twice” after the green bracket applies ONLY to the stitches inside the green brackets, which you complete before moving on to finish the rest of the stitches (k9) in the red bracket section. The “twice” after the red brackets applies to the whole of the red bracket section, which includes the green brackets, so when you see that you go back to the start of the red brackets, working the green bracket repeats when you reach them again.

Hopefully this helps take a little of the confusion out of brackets in knitting. Read through it a few times and see if it starts to make sense. You can also colour the brackets in your pattern and follow the steps (using the stitches and repeat amounts given in the real pattern, not my fake pattern above) to make it easier to follow the process.

Getting Comfy with Cables!

Cables, like many things in crafting, look much more difficult than they are. As a new knitter, you look at them and think “What in the what?! How do you make stitches go in another direction? How is that one going over the other one? What sort of sorcery is this?!”.

Well, it’s very simple! First, you need a cable needle. There are many different types out there, and you can see a few above, but which one is best is purely down to personal preference. You can also just use a double-pointed needle, as I do when I can’t find my proper cable needles. You just need something that you can slide stitches onto, hold them for a minute, and then knit from when you are ready.

If you want to see some really lovely cable needles, check out this new blog post from Scheepjes’ Creative Director, Simy Somer, where she shares some of her new favourites!

There are only two different types of cables in this pattern, but in reality, they are the same thing. The action is the same, the only difference is the stitches you are making and which column is crossing over which. Here is all you need to know…

STEP 1: When you reach the cable in your pattern, slip the stitches specified in the description for that cable onto your cable needle. Make sure they are secure in the middle of your needle and not near the end where the stitches can slip off and then drop it behind your work (away from you).

STEP 2: Pretend the stitches on the cable needle don’t exist, leaving them in the back, and start the next stitches on your left needle as explained in the cable description.

STEP 3: Being careful not to twist your work, pick up your cable needle from the back and work them as explained in the cable description, just as if the cable needle was your left needle. This can feel a little fiddly and tight in the beginning, just take your time and don’t work too closely to the tips of your needles (you can read more about why it’s important to not knit too close to the tips further down in the post).

STEP 4: Congratulate yourself, you just made a cable! Well done! Now continue on with the stitches on your left needle and do it again a bunch more times when the pattern tells you to!

Yeah, seriously, that’s it, that’s all there is to it! You just repeat that each time you come to a cable in the pattern and you know all you need to know. I told you it was easier than you think! Just be mindful to pay attention to which cable it is so you know to knit or purl the stitches accordingly.

Cable Concerns – Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff!

There are a few things you may notice while working on your scarf, that fall firmly into the “you are looking too closely” category. Things that you notice while knitting with it right under your nose, but aren’t really a thing in the bigger picture. I figured I’d get those out of the way now as I’m sure you’ll be asking, I know the way the crafter’s brain works!

The main things that may catch your eye are yarn floats and holes. They are both normal, they aren’t a big issue, and in the case of this scarf, they may even help!

Yarn Floats or Ladders

I call these yarn floats because it’s the name that comes to mind, maybe there is another name for it, but that’s neither here nor there. I’m talking about the lines on the side of your cables, where it may look like you have something similar to what we’d call a ‘ladder’ in sock knitting.

Basically, where there is a long line of yarn between your stitches at the side of the cable. This shouldn’t be massively long, but having some of this is completely normal. It can even help with preventing your cables from pulling in too much, as it gives you that little bit of wiggle room. If you pull your stitches too tightly at the start and end of your cable sections, you may risk not giving your cables the flexibility to spread out which brings you back to cable noodles. Work naturally, even a little loosely (which is how the floats happen) but just not too tightly, and you’ll be fine.

What’s With the Hole?!

Depending on the angle you look at your scarf, you may see a hole through the side of your cable. This is normal. You are crossing one piece over the other and with a somewhat wide cable, it’s natural to have a gap behind there. You can drive yourself into a crafter craze, twisting and turning it and staring at the hole, but try to let it go and continue knitting, as it isn’t an issue in the bigger picture.

So that’s it, that’s really all I can tell you about the cable in this pattern. If you get stuck somehow or have questions, you can always pop by the Scheepjes Facebook group and ask, we’ll be happy to help you sort it out!

Keep reading further down for more beginner tips!

Remember Those Whirl(igig) Versions I Mentioned?

Before I get to the rest of the tips, I have to show you these two scarves!

Do you remember in my announcement post when I mentioned that scarves were being made using Scheepjes Whirl and Whirligig? WELL, I’ve received some photos and info and let me tell you, they are fab! I know you won’t just take my word for it, so here are some photos.

Scheepjes Woolly Whirl – Sugar Sizzle (472)

This beautiful (Woolly) Whirl version was knitted by Theresa Pearson, Scheepjes group admin extraordinaire! She knows just as well as I do that one of the first questions we get for any project is “Can it be made with Whirl?!” and she was a step ahead of us all! The answer is “HECK YEAH, IT CAN!”.

The Whirl Info
Theresa started with a gauge of 28 sts x 43 rows = 10x10cm using 3.5mm, which was pretty close to the original gauge in the pattern. She felt that this was too loose and decided to drop down to a 3mm needle as we thought perhaps the Woolly Whirl was slightly thinner than the Our Tribe, making the tension a bit too lose for that particular yarn (this was not actually the case, so please keep reading). Her finished scarf has a blocked size of 24cm x 220cm with 14 full pattern repeats and 10 of the 12 final rows. This used up her entire 209g cake of Woolly Whirl, with very little to spare.

In hindsight, Theresa felt that while the scarf is still lovely, she probably should have stayed with the 3.5mm and the recommended gauge as the 3mm ended up actually being a little too tight for this particular design in the end.

Based on her results, Theresa agrees that it’s best to start with a 3.5mm needle and take it from there to find the needle that gets you as close as you can to the gauge given in the original pattern. With Whirl, as was the case with Our Tribe, it’s better to keep the tension looser, to the recommended tension, even if it feels a bit too loose in the start. With this in mind, you should be able to complete the scarf with a single cake of Whirl!

Scheepjes Whirligig – Grey to Lavender (201) and Whirligigette Grey (253)

This gorgeously smooshy Whirligig / Whirligigette version was knitted by Ruth Lambert, another fabulous member of our group moderation team. She loves taking Whirl projects and upping the squish factor by making them in Whirligig, so when I asked about a Whirl version she was front and center to test it out in Whirligig as well! I knew before she even started that it was going to be amazing.

The Whirligig / Whirligigette Info
As this yarn is a fair bit thicker than both Our Tribe and Whirl, gauge on this one was a guessing game. With a gauge of 20 stitches and 38 rows = 10x10cm using 4.5mm, Ruth used one entire cake of Whirligig plus 21g of a Whirligigette for 11 pattern repeats. The unblocked measurement was 200 cm long and 23 cm wide with a finished, blocked scarf of 27 cm x 210 cm.

Based on this info I’d suggest following Ruth’s lead. While you may still get by with the one Whirligig cake, it wouldn’t hurt to have a matching Whirligigette on hand to continue your scarf if you feel you would like a little extra length.

Additional Knitting Tips for Beginners

I know many of you out there are quite new with knitting, so I thought I’d mention a few things I’ve seen popping up in the Scheepjes Facebook groups recently. If you are a new knitter and are struggling to get your groove, there are a few things you can consider to see if it helps.

Changing Needles

If you have always tried to learn to knit with straight needles but find them a little too unwieldy, try switching to circular needles. They aren’t just for sleeves and socks anymore! Many knitters nowadays knit everything on circular needles, whether they are knitting flat or in the round. They can be much more comfortable in the hand and are very handy for on the go!

Consider Your Knitting Method

There are many knitting methods out there… English, Continental, Portuguese, Russian and many variations that people have formed themselves and passed down. How you learn to knit, at least in the past, has largely depended on where you lived and who was teaching you. Many of us learned from our mothers and grandmothers and we grew up assuming that their way was the only way, but that’s not true, there are loads! Thanks to the internet and YouTube, it’s possible to see them all!

I’m not going to go into how they all differ, but I did want to mention one thing for the crocheters who are learning to knit. If you have been trying to learn to knit but are struggling with it, have a look at the continental knitting method. Crafters with a lot of experience in crochet often find it much easier to pick up knitting with this method, especially when paired with circular needles. The motions are much more similar to the ones you are used to in crochet and should feel a little more natural than other methods you may have tried in the past. So, if you have a long history with crochet and are new to knitting – circular needles and continental method… try it and see if it helps! There are many, many, maaaaany tutorials on YouTube, so just give it a wee search and you’ll be good to go!

Stay Off the Tips

Stitches too tight to move on your needles, a constant fear of dropped stitches, or having them actually drop off… sound familiar? Knitting too close to the tips of the needles is a very common mistake made by new knitters and thankfully it’s just as easy to fix!

When knitting, you should always try to work with your stitches where the needles are at their fullest width, beyond the tapered tips, as you can see in the photo on the left. The instinct of many newer knitters is to knit closer to the tips, like in the right photo, because it feels easier, but it’s actually working against you in a couple of ways.

• When you work on the tapered tips of your needles, the width of the needle is smaller, which causes you to create smaller stitches that can’t comfortably move onto your needles as you continue knitting. This causes further issues when you come back to them in the following rows or rounds and need to work into them, especially if you are doing something like increase or decrease stitches, and you’ll find yourself fighting to get your needle into your stitch.
• Knitting on the tips of your needles doesn’t only create tight stitches, but very inconsistently sized stitches as well. If you look at your knitting and feel like the stitches are all different sizes, and look a bit messy, this may be the reason. Knitting on the main shaft of your needles, where the size is consistent, will help to create more even stitches, resulting in a more tidy and even tension.
• The fear of dropped stitches is real when you are working on the very tips of your needles. You may even have regular issues with losing stitches. Not only that, but this feeling of fear will cause you to be tense, which makes you work more tightly, which circles back to the previous issue. Working further down on your needles gives you better control and allows you to knit without feeling like it’s an extreme sport.

If you have been knitting on the tips of your needles this whole time and recognize some of these issues, try knitting further down on your needles. It’s going to feel VERY weird in the beginning but if you make a point on concentrating on that change long enough for it to become muscle memory, it will feel more natural to you and will really help you relax and enjoy your knitting more.

Don’t Twist Your Stitches

While twisted stitches can be a beautiful feature in a pattern, they are something you really only want in your work if they are intended to be there. Many new knitters (and even more experienced ones, I’ve learned!) are twisting their stitches without realising it. How can you tell if your stitches are twisted? The easiest way to tell is by looking at your knitting in stockinette (in flat knitting, this is done by knitting on one side and purling on the other, in the round you knit every round).

I have knitted a quick swatch with some Stone Washed XL (853) to help you see what to look out for. The photos aren’t really true to colour so please don’t use them as a reference.

When you look at your stitches in stockinette, they should make a wave as they go through the row, but shouldn’t cross over each other. Your work should create even columns of V-shaped stitches, as you see in the top portion of the photo, above the yellow line. This is how stockinette stitch should look if you are creating your knit and purl stitches properly.

You can see the difference in the look of stockinette stitch when you introduce twisted stitches, shown below the yellow line. In that section I twisted my purl stitches, so you’ll notice that every second row of stitches is twisted, with the right leg crossing over the top of the left leg. You can also see that the stitches are very uneven, some are smaller and tighter than others, and it is generally more untidy than the work above.

You can notice this more clearly when you look at the stitches closely, especially if you spread them out as I have in the photo on the right. When spread out, your stockinette should open into tidy columns of even stitches as seen on the top of the right photo, compared to the bottom, where the spacing is uneven and the twisted stitches are much smaller, which looks quite messy.

The most common causes for unintentionally twisting stitches are knitting or purling through the wrong leg of your stitch, or not wrapping your yarn consistently in the same direction.

I am going to use my own knitting method(English) to show how I work through my stitches and wrap my yarn. To not reinvent the wheel, I will recycle some photos I used to help someone else who was having this issue a while back, so excuse the laptop and TV in the background!

Making Your Stitches

The photos above show put my needle into my my stitches when making my knits and purls.

Knit (left photo) – Right needle through front leg of stitch on left needle, from front to back (or left to right).
Purl (right photo) – Right needle through front leg of stitch on left needle, from back to front (or right to left)

Now, ASSUMING you go into your stitches in this same way when starting to make knit and purl stitches, you should be wrapping your yarn counter-clockwise around your right needle to complete both the stitches as in the photos above. Again, with the knit stitch on the left and the purl stitch on the right. The key to keeping your stitches untwisted is to wrap consistently in the same direction.

Have a look at the photos below which show a clockwise wrap for comparison.

Again you can see the knit stitch on the left, and purl stitch on the right.

• If you put your needle through your knit and purl stitches in the same way as I do, and wrap one clockwise rather than counter-clockwise, this is where your twisted stitch is coming from.
• If you wrap your yarn counter-clockwise for both stitches, as I do, but work through the back leg of your stitch or through the stitch in another direction when either knitting or purling, this will create a twisted stitch.

There are other ways that twisted stitches can happen, but those are the most common. As I mentioned earlier, it will vary from one method to the next, and process of elimination is the only way to get to the root of the issue, but this is at least a good starting point to help you figure it out!

Ok, my knitting friends, that is all the info I have for you at this point and it should get you well on your way to breezing your way through your Twisted Roots Scarf! For now, concentrate on getting started, getting the hang of the cables and making sure your stitches are constructed properly, and we can deal with other things (like blocking!) a little later in the MAL! Have fun!

I’m doing a little happy dance now that I finally share the Twisted Roots MAL with you! I’ve been looking forward to this for quite a while now and I think it’s a great way for us all to kick off the new year!

When Scheepjes asked if I’d be interested in having a MAL for this project, I was all for it, because I thought it would be the perfect way for us all to wind down after the crazy year we’ve had.  I also know that many of the Scheepjes fans out there are either new to knitting and want a nice project to practice on or already have the knitting experience and are eager for an engaging project to relax with. Either way, this scarf fits the bill, as it’s easy enough for a beginner to knit confidently and still fun for the long time knitters.

About the Twisted Roots Scarf and MAL

The Design

The Twisted Roots Scarf is a design that I made for Scheepjes’ special 10th edition of their popular YARN Bookazine: The Colour Issue. This special issue was also a part of the celebration of Scheepjes’ 165th anniversary, featuring 16 knit colourful and crochet patterns spanning the whole spectrum of the rainbow.

I have always found knitted cables somewhat mesmerising with the way they move and intertwine and that is what I had in mind with this design, for everything about it to create a feeling of calm. I wanted the flow of the lines to be as soft and fluid as the fabric itself and for the experience of making it to be relaxing and meditative. To keep the feel I wanted in the finished scarf, I knew I wanted to use fewer large cables rather than a lot of smaller, more complicated cable patterns, so it wouldn’t feel too busy.

After my first swatch, I quickly realised that I needed to change two things to get it just the way I wanted. If I wanted to achieve the desired drape, I had to use a slightly larger needle size than I normally would and I also needed to add something to kick things up a notch and keep it interesting, which is where the dual textures came in. I felt like having a different texture in each part of the cable changed the look entirely and add an extra dimension to the work. Once I made those few tweaks, it all fell into place and it was exactly what I wanted.

The Yarn and Colourways

Scheepjes Our Tribe was the perfect choice for this project for several reasons. It had the warmth and softness I was looking for, as well as having a lot of lovely colourways available.  I also knew from previous experience with my Big Sister Shawl that it blocked beautifully, which would be essential for this design and would give me the final results I was after.

FUN FACT! Did you know that the original colourways of Scheepjes Our Tribe were designed by the Scheepjes Bloggers? We each got to choose our own combination of colours which were turned into some of the colourways you know today. Mine, of course, is the Canadutch colourway! In this photo, you can see the original colours that I chose, together with the final results. Cool, huh?!
I love having my own yarn colourway named after me!

There are now 38 beautiful shades available to choose from, which you can see below. If you’d like to see a swatch of each, have a look here on the Scheepjes website or here on my blog post where I shared some quick swatches of the original 15 shades. No matter which colourway you choose, I’m sure it will be great, as they are all really beautiful… it’s just a matter of deciding which you like best!

To give you an idea of how the pattern worked out in some of the Our Tribe colourways, you can see some examples below, which were knitted by myself and a few of my wonderful testers. I may be incredibly biased because this is my design and I love my testers, but I think they all look amazing!

Top left – 881 Blackberry Black knitted by Vicky Michiels
Center – 975 Canadutch knitted by Niamh Holcroft (also seen below)
Top right – 989 Optimism knitted by Ruth Coleman
Bottom left – 968 Happy in Red (my original)
Bottom right – 984 Old Bewick knitted by Femke van der Poll

Since my original sample is still hanging out at Scheepjes HQ, I will be making a new scarf for myself using the colour 965 Felted Button. I’ve always liked this colourway and have a feeling it’s going to look really gorgeous. I can’t wait to see what colourways you all choose!

The MAL: What You Need to Know

WHEN AND WHERE
The Twisted Roots MAL will be hosted by Scheepjes from Jan 6 – 27, 2021 in their Dutch and International Facebook groups.

THE PATTERN
MAL participants will find the Twisted Roots pattern in English (UK terms) and Dutch in the Scheepjes Yarn 10 Bookazine: The Colour Issue, together with 15 other beautiful knit and crochet patterns to explore!
Please note: Separate or digital copies of the pattern are not available.

MATERIALS
Yarn: 3 x ballsScheepjes Our Tribe in whatever colour strikes your fancy!
Photo example colours: Red 968 Happy in Red, Blue 975 Canadutch
Needle Size: 4mm (may differ depending on personal tension)
This scarf is purposely knitted at a looser tension with a larger needle, to provide drape and ensure that the cables are soft enough to not bunch up too tightly. For other projects I use a 3mm needle with this yarn, for the Twisted Roots Scarf, I purposely went up to 4mm to create a looser tension.

Cable Needle: There are many different types of cable needles and they all work fine, any choice is a personal preference that comes from use. I often just use a double-pointed needle of the same size.
Stitch Markers – optional but they can be very handy for putting in place between the columns of your cables, to help remind you when to change stitch pattern. This is especially helpful if you are like me and like to watch TV while knitting.
Blocking Materials – Essential for this project, as the cables have a tendency to ‘noodle up’ a bit. Blocking the scarf is needed to flatten it out, show off the cables properly and give it the desired size and shape. My go-to blocking materials are foam mats, blocking wires and KnitPro knit blockers.

SKILL LEVEL 
Everyone is welcome to take part, and all that is needed are the supplies, a basic knowledge of knitting (cast-on, knit, purl) and an adventurous spirit! If you are a newer knitter, this pattern may look intimidating with the different textures and to and fro of it all with the cables, but I promise you it is so much easier than it looks. This is the perfect project to hone those knitting skills! For the more experienced knitters, you’ll have no trouble finding your groove with this pattern, making it a great on the go or binge-watching project!

PATTERN SUPPORT
At the start of the MAL, I will be posting handy tips and tutorials here on my blog to make sure you have all the info you need to be able to knit your scarf. You will also have additional support in the Scheepjes Dutch and International Facebook groups where you can find me and my fellow mods and admins, as well as some of my testers, so there will be no shortage of advice and help to get you through! You’ll also find an active community (over 110,000 knitters and crocheters between the two groups) who are always eager to help out, chat and share their love of crafting with you.

Ok, that’s all the info I have for now, so be sure to check back in on January 6th, 2021 for the MAL kick-off!

Until then, stay safe and have a wonderful holiday!

Hi everyone! As promised, here is the pattern for my Sliding Tiles Blanket! Check out this post for more photos and information about this pattern. Enjoy!
Hallo iedereen! Zoals beloofd is hier het Nederlandse patroon voor mijn Sliding Tiles Deken. Klik op deze blogpost voor meer foto’s en informatie over dit patroon. Veel plezier!

Did you know that the Sliding Tiles Blanket is also available as a handy printable PDF? 

For a small fee you get access to a lovely full-colour PDF with photos as well as a printer friendly version with only the essential info. Not only that, but you will also recieve a bonus page with an alternative colour worksheet to help you put together your own colour layout, if you wish to do so!
Buying the pattern makes it easier to take with you on the go and also supports me as a designer!
Click here to get your PDF’s now! 

Wist je dat het Sliding Tiles Deken patroon ook beschikbaar is als een handige printbare PDF?
Tegen een kleine vergoeding krijg je toegang tot een mooie full-colour PDF met foto’s en een printervriendelijke versie met alleen de essentiële informatie. Maar dat is niet alles! Je krijgt ook een bonuspagina met een alternatief kleurenwerkblad om je te helpen je eigen kleur layout samen te stellen, als je dat wilt!
Het kopen van het patroon maakt het makkelijker om mee te nemen onderweg en ondersteunt mij als ontwerper!
Klik hier om nu je PDF’s te kopen!

SLIDING TILES BLANKET PATTERN 

Materials / Materialen
MC: Scheepjes Stone Washed (78% Cotton, 22% Acrylic; 10g/25m) 801 Moonstone x 11-12 50g balls
Note: Pattern is possible with 11 balls but better to get 12 if you want to be sure.
CC: Scheepjes Stone Washed / River Washed Colour Pack (58 colour version) (78% Cotton, 22% Acrylic; 10g/25m) x 1 pack
3.5mm needles
Stitch markers

HK: Scheepjes Stone Washed (78% Katoen, 22% Acryl; 10g/25m) 801 Moonstone x 11-12 50g bollen
Opmerking: Het patroon is te doen met 11 bollen, maar het is beter om voor de zekerheid 12 te nemen.
CK: Scheepjes Stone Washed / River Washed Kleur Pakket (58 kleuren versie) (78% Katoen, 22% Acryl; 10g/25m) x 1 pakket
3.5mm naalden
Stekenmarkeerders

Gauge / Tension / Stekenverhouding
One square = 11 x 11cm unblocked. Blocked to 12 x 12cm before joining.
Een enkel vierkant = 11 x 11cm. Opgespannen tot 12 x 12cm vóór het in elkaar zetten.

Measurements / Afmetingen
132cm x 132cm from point to point through the middle of the blanket.
132cm x 132cm van punt tot punt door het midden van de deken.

Abbreviations / Afkortingen
k knit
k2tog knit 2 stitches together; single right-leaning decrease
pm place marker
rm remove marker
RS right side of work
sm slip marker
ssk slip 2 stitches knitwise, knit these 2 stitches together through back loops; single left-leaning decrease
st(s) Stitch(es)

2afh.1r haal twee stn één voor één recht af, steek linkernaald van links naar rechts in de stn en brei ze recht samen
2r.sbr twee stn recht samen breien
CK contrastkleur
HK hoofdkleur
m afh haal de m af
mv markeerder verwijderen
pm plaats m
r recht
s/stn steek/steken
m steekmarkeerder

Pattern Notes / Opmerkingen
Please work to the given gauge as you may run into difficulty with running out of yarn with the mini balls if you work too loosely.

The pattern is written for 112 squares (two per colour). The colours 801 Moonstone and 821 Pink Quartzite were omitted due to them being too close to the MC, but can be used in the joining process, so they are not wasted.

Yarn can be carried up the side and anchored by picking up working colour from under non-working colour at the start of the rows. This edge will be hidden on the back of your work after joining your motifs and will not be visible. Carrying the yarn creates fewer ends and prevents running out of yarn with your CC.

One garter ridge = 2 knitted rows.

Probeer volgens de gegeven maat te werken, want anders kan het zijn dat het garen van de mini bolletjes op raakt. 

Het patroon is geschreven voor 112 vierkanten (twee per kleur). De kleuren 801 Moonstone en 821 Pink Quartzite zijn weggelaten omdat ze te dicht bij de HK liggen, maar kunnen wel gebruikt worden bij het aan elkaar naaien, zodat je ze toch nog gebruikt.

Het garen kan aan de zijkant worden meegenomen en verankerd worden door aan het begin van de rijen de werkkleur van onder de niet-werkende kleur op te pakken. Deze rand wordt na het verbinden van de motieven aan de achterkant van het werk verborgen en is niet zichtbaar. Het meenemen van het garen zorgt voor minder gareneindjes en voorkomt dat het CK garen opraakt.

Eén ribbel = 2 rijen breiwerk.

Sliding Tile Square Pattern / Sliding Tiles Vierkant Patroon

Make 2 squaress for each colour in your pack, excluding colours Moonstone (801) and Pink Quartzite (821) – 112 squares.

Using the long tail cast on method and MC, cast on 50 sts.

Row 1 (RS) K23, k2tog, pm, ssk, k23. (48 sts)
Row 2 (WS) Knit to end.
Row 3 Knit to 2 sts before marker, k2tog, sm, ssk, knit to end. (3 garter ridges in MC. 46 sts)
Row 4 Knit to end.
Rows 5-16 With CC repeat rows 3 and 4 six times. (6 garter ridges in CC.  34 sts)
Rows 17-22 With MC repeat rows 3 and 4 three times. (3 garter ridges in MC. 28 sts)
Rows 23-26 With CC repeat rows 3 and 4 twice. (2 garter ridges in CC. 24 sts)
Rows 27-32 With MC repeat rows 3 and 4 three times. (3 garter ridges in MC. 18 sts)
Rows 33-46 With CC repeat rows 3 and 4 seven times. (7 garter ridges in CC. 4 sts)
Row 47 K2tog, rm, ssk. Two stitches left on needle. Slip right stitch over left, cut yarn and pull through to bind off.
Weave in ends and block to size (see measurements).
Arrange squares according to the diagram below and join using mattress stitch.

Maak 2 vierkantjes voor elke kleur in je pakket, behalve de kleuren Moonstone (801) en Pink Quartzite (821) – 112 vierkantjes.

Met HK, gebruik duim en wijsvinger methode (long tail cast on) en zet 50 stn op.

Rij 1 (GK) 23r, 2r.sbr, pm, 2afh.1r, 23r. (48 stn)
Rij 2 Brei alle stn r.
Rij 3 Brei tot 2 stn voor m, 2r.sbr, m afh, 2afh.1r, alle stn r tot einde rij. (3 ribbels in HK. 46 stn)
Rijen 5-16 Brei met CK volgens rijen 3 en 4 x6. (6 ribbels in CK. 34 stn)
Rijen 17-22 Brei met HK volgens rijen 3 en 4 x3. (3 ribbels in MK. 28 stn)
Rijen 23-26 Brei met CK volgens rijen 3 en 4 x2. (2 ribbels in CK. 24 stn)
Rijen 27-32 Brei met HK volgens rijen 3 en 4 x3. (3 ribbels in MK. 18 stn)
Rijen 33-46 Brei met CK volgens rijen 3 en 4 x7. (7 ribbels in CK. 4 stn)
Rij 47 2r.sbr, mv, 2afh.1r. Nu zijn er nog twee steken op je naald. Schuif de rechter steek over de linker steek, knip het garen af en trek de lus groter totdat deze uit de steek komt.
Hecht alle draadjes af en span tot de juiste afmetingen op (zie afmetingen).
Plaats de vierkanten volgens het onderstaande schema en naai ze samen met behulp van de matrassteek.

Sewing the Squares / Naaien van de vierkanten

When joining the squares, you will be either be joining two sides, or one side and one cast on edge. The cast on edge is quite straightforward, but here is a video showing how you join on the side of garter stitch.
Bij het aan elkaar naaien van de vierkanten worden ofwel twee zijkanten van het vierkant samengevoegd, ofwel een zijkant en een kant van de opzetrand”. Het naaien van de opzetrand is vrij eenvoudig, maar hier is een video die laat zien hoe je aan de zijkant van de ribbelsteek naait.

PLEASE NOTE: I work one stitch closer to the edge for my join than Staci does in her video as it makes a flatter join for this blanket.  Here is a photo that shows how I went through the side stitches on my squares when joining. I go through the same loops as in the videos, just one stitch closer to the edge.
LET OP: Ik werk één steek dichter bij de rand voor mijn join dan Staci doet in haar video, want het maakt een plattere join voor dit deken.  Hier is een foto die laat zien hoe ik tijdens het naaien door de zijsteken op mijn vierkanten ben gegaan. Ik ga door dezelfde lussen als in de video’s, alleen één steek dichter bij de rand.

Here is how I go through the stitches on the cast on edge.
Hier is hoe ik door de steken van de opzetrand ga.

When working with Stone Washed and River Washed, be careful to not weave too many stitches at once, or you will have trouble pulling your join closed. Do small amounts at a time, pulling them closed as you go, as in the photo below.
Als je met Stone Washed en River Washed werkt, let er dan op dat je niet te veel steken tegelijk naait, anders heb je moeite om hem dicht te trekken. Doe kleine hoeveelheden per keer, en trek het gaandeweg aan zoals op de foto hieronder.

Where To Buy / Waar te koop

UK and International buyers will find Stone Washed / River Washed yarns at Woolwarehouse and Black Sheep Wools.
Canadian and International buyers have a great option with Knotty House.
Those of you in the Netherlands can find yarn packs at Caro’s Atelier!

You can also ask your preferred Scheepjes retailer or find a shop near you!

UK en Internationale kopers kunnen Stone Washed / River Washed garens vinden op Woolwarehouse and Black Sheep Wools.
Canadian en Internationale kopers hebben een geweldige optie bij Knotty House.
Degenen in Nederland kunnen kan pakketten vinden bij Caro’s Atelier!

Je kunt ook je favoriete Scheepjes-dealer vragen of een winkel bij jou in de buurt vinden!

This post contains affiliate links. This is a way for you to support Canadutch and me as a designer. It is no extra cost to you, but if you shop via one of these links, I get a small percentage of the sale!

Copyright 2020, Tammy Canavan-Soldaat. This pattern and pictures are the property of Tammy Canavan-Soldaat. All rights reserved. Pattern is available for personal use only. No unauthorized reproduction, in whole or in part, or distribution of this pattern or content, including text or pictures is allowed. Any patterns derived from the original must be with the permission of the designer herself, name cannot be used for other patterns. You may sell items made from this pattern.

There’s something I’ve been wanting to write about for a while, but I haven’t been sure how to approach it. I don’t want to offend or upset anyone, and I don’t want anyone to think this is specifically pointed at them. This is a collective issue that has been going on for quite some time, that I’ve encountered a lot across all platforms, so I have no one person in mind when I write this. Please bear with me, keep an open mind and remember that these are my feelings alone and I do not speak for all designers, only myself.

Right, so… “We need to talk”, these are probably the last words anyone wants to hear, aren’t they? Nothing good ever follows, and most people will feel themselves deflate the minute they hear them. There are few things that will take the wind out of your sails as swiftly as those four little words.

That is, unless you are a knitting designer and the first comments you see after every pattern release are:

“Is there a crochet version?”
“Pity it’s not crochet”
“Oh, boo, I thought it was crochet”
“I love this, but I wish it was crochet”
“Can you tell me how to crochet this?”
“I’m going to make this in crochet!”
“Look I’ve figured out how to make it in crochet!”

This is what I am met with every time I release a knitted pattern, without fail, and it really doesn’t feel awesome, you guys.

Before I get further into my feelings on this, I need you to know that I do realise a few things:

1. A large part of my crafty tribe are are crocheters, it’s just worked out that way, and any other time time I love it.. but this causes me to come up against this particular issue more than other knit designers.
2. Many know me from my Read Between the Lines and Crochet Between the Lines patterns, which may lead them to think that I am happy to recreate all of my knit patterns into crochet. What you don’t know is that the CBTL only exists because I caved to the pressure on this issue, and while I’m happy so many people enjoy it, it was actually very stressful for me at the time. This was the exception for me as a designer, not the rule.
3. None of these comments are meant as insults, or with any bad intention, and in most cases it’s the exact opposite of that. It’s people liking the pattern but wanting it in their preferred craft medium. I get it, and I appreciate the love.

These things considered, I do understand why this happens. I also appreciate that people see some of my designs, like them and feel inspired by them. I am aware that my efforts to put people onto knitting by creating structurally easy, beginner friendly patterns, is biting me in the ass. By doing so, I am also creating patterns that people think are easy, and acceptable, for them to re-create.

Here’s the thing, though. It suuuuuuuucks to reveal a knitted pattern and have so many reactions be about how people wish it was crochet, then have others see that and jump into action to re-create my design, sometimes before I even get the chance to release the original!

I don’t mean like “Oops! I just dropped my toast jam side down” kind of sucks, I mean full on banged your little toe and your funny bone right at the same time while being punched in the nose kind of sucks.

Imagine this for a minute… humour me with this analogy.

You are an aspiring chef who owns a chicken farm. You decide to throw a dinner party and invite all your friends and family to share a new chicken recipe with them.

They love to eat and you love to cook, it’s perfect, right?!

You spend weeks preparing, making decorations, planning the meal and tweaking the recipe to get everything just the way you want it. You have the presentation just right, and are so proud of what you’ve created. You can’t wait to share it with your people.

You sit it the dish on the table and hold your breath…

There’s a moment oooing and aahing and a few people mention how eager they are to dig in. This is the moment you’ve been waiting for and it feels so great!

Then one of your friends says how pretty it looks but…ugh, they really wish it was beef.
Then another friend says, yeah…actually, they would have preferred beef as well.
Another friend at the end of the table chimes in about how it could easily be made with beef instead.

Then suddenly, before you know it, your brother’s girlfriend is off to the kitchen exclaiming “Give me a half hour, I’ll be back with a beef version that looks exactly the same and will be delicious!”. You silently shoot daggers at your brother, and you can see he is fearing for his life, but she’s cute, so he’ll risk it.

Your friend next to you leans over and says “Oh this looks delicious, I can’t wait to have some, I love chicken!”, and you smile and thank her.

A while later, the brother’s girlfriend reappears. “TADAAA! See, it can be made with beef and it looks almost exactly the same!”. Your beef loving friends cheer and dig in, telling her what a culinary genius she is. A little part of you dies inside, and your brother won’t even look at you now.

Sure, some of your friends are eating the chicken and enjoying it, but it’s still not quite the party you had in mind.

Why did all these people expect a chicken farmer to serve beef?

Why did you spend all of this time working on this recipe, just for your brother’s girlfriend to dig through it for ingredients so she could re-create it and steal your idea and your thunder?

You sit quietly at the table, while all of your friends and family go on with the party, blissfully unaware of how sad and frustrated you are. You remind yourself that they don’t get it, they don’t understand the work that went into it and how much it means to you, and you don’t say anything because you don’t want to make a scene.

You try a few more times, to have other parties, with other new recipes, but different versions of the same thing keep happening. You find yourself feeling pressured to still have these parties, but you no longer look forward to them.

You try to make sure to sit next to the friends who do enjoy your meals, but the voices at the other end of the table are so loud, you can’t escape them.

One time, your brother’s girlfriend even shows up with her beef version of your new recipe that she put together ahead of time from looking closely at your prep photos on Instagram! Why is he even still dating her?!

This is my life in designing right now… I keep throwing parties, my friends know what I’m going to serve, and yet it all goes down the same.

I’m starting to wonder why I keep throwing dinner parties, ya know?

Don’t get me wrong, as I said, I do realise that this is not done with bad intentions, and maybe the dinner party is a rather odd analogy, but the resulting feeling is the same.

I’m not going to lie, designing is not easy, at least not for me. I’m still quite new at it in the grand scheme of things and I’m still learning. I can be disorganised, and sometimes it’s hard to herd all the hamsters in my brain into cooperating, to make the idea into a reality. This is still all quite hard work for me. There’s so much behind the scenes that the average person doesn’t even think about. Designing is not just the idea and the knitting… it’s also organising testers, solving problems, photography, photo editing, pattern writing, creating PDF’s, blogging, social media, etc.

Every time I tear up a page, frog a piece of work or start over from the beginning, I remind myself that it will all be worth it. It will be worth it because on the flip side of that coin is the moment when you stand back and look at your finished creation. It was your idea, your hard work, and your determination that made it into an actual real thing!

That’s such a cool feeling and I want to hold onto that for as long as I can.

The problem is that, when I put it out into the world, I lose that feeling very quickly. Unfortunately, rather than appreciating it for what it is, a lot of the comments I receive are about what it isn’t.

It isn’t crochet. Why isn’t it crochet? Why can’t it be crochet??

I just isn’t, it’s just simply not crochet and that’s ok. It needs to be ok.

There are so many incredible crochet designers out there, there are more fantastic crochet patterns in existence already than any single crafter could make in their lifetime. There’s a lot out there to keep you busy.

I love that you like the look of my design and want to make it, and if you want to learn to knit, I GOT YOU. I have all the time in the world for you and will do whatever I can to help you learn.

If you don’t want to learn to knit, that’s absolutely fine too, but it’s not ok to bombard me with messages about how disappointed you are that it’s not crochet, and it’s not ok to take it upon yourself to create it in crochet without at least chatting with me about it first. It’s especially not ok to recreate my knit designs into crochet, and release a pattern as your own idea, without even mentioning where your inspiration came from.

Just because a pattern exists, or is released for free, does not mean it is yours to take and do what you please with it.

We, as designers, do not owe you the time and effort it takes to make a pattern into what you want it to be. We are giving you something, and you can either choose to take it and appreciate it, or not. If you choose not, that’s ok, tastes differ, and it’s ok to go off and try something else without telling us why you don’t like it.

I understand that, in most cases, this is just not something people think of. They are excited about a project, get carried away, and don’t realise how much work designing can be, or how deflating their comments and actions can be a times. People don’t realise the impact these things have on a designer before making comments or offering an alternative of their designs to the world.

That’s why I’m making this post. I am telling you that this is the case, at least for me, and it is starting to affect how I feel about designing.

My close friends and crafty tribe know how I feel about this, they have known for a long time, because they are my sounding board. Last night one of them told me that there will be no change without education, and that’s why I am here posting this now. I don’t want to sit at the table silently anymore, reminding myself that this is all happening because people don’t know any better. I want you to know better and I want you to know why why it’s not ok for you to come to my chicken farm, sit at my table and complain that I’m not serving you beef, because you like it better.

I need you to give me a minute, when I release a new pattern. Let me enjoy the moments that make all of the work worth it, because those feelings are what feed creativity and give me the energy to eagerly move on to the next project. I have so many ideas, so many cool and fun things I want to make, but it’s getting to the point where I spend a lot of the time I’m creating dreading the release, because it feels a bit like a race horse shooting out of the gate and straight into a brick wall.

Perhaps I’d feel differently if I was given some space. If I was allowed to just take a beat and enjoy chatting about my new patterns with knitters, or aspiring knitters, and soak up that creative energy. If I were allowed to have that just for a little while, maybe I’d be more open to your comments later. If you wanted to create a crochet version, maybe if I were less of a raw nerve on the issue, I could be more supportive of your project and even help to promote it… but that’s not where I am with this right now and I won’t be, unless we can can change this situation.

This hasn’t been easy for me to write, because I don’t want anyone to feel like I am pointing at them in particular, this is a collective issue. I don’t want to create drama, or upset an entire sub-section of the craft community. I also really don’t want to give the impression that I am trying to speak for all designers, as their feelings are their own. I can only speak to mine and I really need you to hear me and understand.

It’s easy to forget that designers are people, and that we often feel vulnerable when we put our work out there. It’s so easy to just have your thoughts come straight out your fingertips on the internet, without a thought of what it feels like on the other end, so I’m just asking that you take a minute to think about if you really need to give your opinion, and if it has to be right at that moment.

I’m not giving up designing, I love my crafty tribe and the circles I travel in, and I’m not trying to start any kind of movement. Nothing is going to change in regards to who I am, where I hang out or who my people are. I just felt this needed to be said and am asking for a bit of space and consideration, so that I can still enjoy my designs and my design process too.

I am going to leave the comments closed on this post, as I’d rather avoid debates or discussions,  and so we can all move on and continue to share in our love of all things yarn.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and I hope you understand. Much love to you all! x

I’m so happy to finally show you my Sliding Tiles Blanket. Yes, it has a name! I put a call out to my Scheepjes Bloggers to help me think of a name, and after some discussion, Simy Somer mentioned that it reminded her of one of those sliding tile puzzles we used to do back in the day, remember those?!

Maybe some of you are too young to remember, but I’m in my mid 40’s and when I was a kid, my parents used to throw one of these in my direction when they needed to keep me distracted for a while.

What an awful little monster I must have been to raise, because if I can be real here for a second… I used to get frustrated and pop those suckers right out of there and then snap them back in. I’m a bit torn on whether it was a good or bad thing, really. Maybe I lacked patience, or was too dumb to figure out the puzzles before the frustration set in, but I was also smart enough to not waste more time on it than I had to.

I guess it would depend on who you ask, and since this is my blog and my rules, I’m going with smart enough!

I honestly tortured myself for ages for a name and I don’t remember when I last had so much trouble thinking of one, but once I heard the Sliding Tiles, I knew that was the one.

Two photos above: Photos and test knitting by Theresa Pearson

What took me longer than the name, was the layout. I’d mentioned this in my previous post but couldn’t go into it in too much detail until I showed it. The challenge, and my goal, with this design layout was trying to use all of the colours in a unique way. I had 112 squares, which was two squares for each colour from the pack that was used.

I tried many, many variations but I kept coming back to this same idea of the overlapping tiles.  The most challenging part was trying to use all of the squares. In the beginning, I planned to do the tiles in a random order, placed all over the blanket. Once I had this laid out, the edges bothered me, because it left me with what I called ‘orphan’ tiles sticking out on the edges with no match.

You can see what I mean in this quick photo I took at the time, shown above. The blue lines point to the ‘orphaned’ tiles and I just found it all a bit too chaotic. I needed more order in the layout.

I decided that I wanted to try to create a gradient and to close the edges. In order to do this, I had to find the closest colour matches within the colour range available in the pack, that allowed me to break up one set of two squares, and match each of them to two other pairs. This meant that not all of the edge squares would be exact matches, but I was still ok with that because when I finally got the puzzle pieces all in place, I loved the finished blanket so much!

Here is a better photo of the full blanket laid out. Excuse any wonkiness, I was standing on a stool on a windy day and I kept having to get off to flip it back over. After a while I gave up on trying to pat it out into its most pretty of forms. I was trying to take a photo and felt like I was taking a step class!

So that’s it, after a zillion years, a zillion changes in plans and a zillion more distractions, this blanket is finally finished and presented to the world!

I will be back soon with the finished pattern, which will include a diagram for this layout as well as information on yarn amounts for if you want to use the regular 50g balls. It will, of course, be possible to put together your own layouts as well, using the mitered square pattern.

Hope you like it as much as I do!

BLOOPER REEL!

That moment when you try to take photos of a blanket and the wind just wants to blow you out to sea.

Where To Buy

UK and International buyers will find Stone Washed / River Washed yarns at Woolwarehouse and Black Sheep Wools.
Canadian and International buyers have a great option with Knotty House.
Those of you in the Netherlands can find all you need at Caro’s Atelier.

You can also ask your preferred Scheepjes retailer or find a shop near you!

This post contains affiliate links. This is a way for you to support Canadutch and me as a designer. It is no extra cost to you, but if you shop via one of these links, I get a small percentage of the sale!

Today Scheepjes released issue #9 of their YARN Bookazine: NOW Age, which is, as always, full of some really great knit and crochet patterns! Here is what Scheepjes has to say about this issue…

“Take your time to savour this issue, undisturbed. Create a mindful moment for yourself. Those of us who craft know the value of knitting and crochet, and understand the mindful benefits any crafting can bring.”

Taking inspiration from Eckhart Tolle’s books The Power of Now and A New Earth, our ninth issue of YARN Bookazine, NOW Age, presents four concepts across four carefully curated chapters designed to inspire and enlighten the creative within. Celebrate and wear the Bohemian Bralette to a local festival, or bring yourself calm crocheting the Celestial Mandala. No matter which design you choose, this issue reminds us that taking time to craft is something we can all benefit from.

Considering mostly every knitter and crocheter I know got into it because they wanted an outlet and way to relax, I think we can all understand the importance of crafting when it comes to our general well-being. This issue gives off that feel good vibe we are all in search of, I think. As usual, the photography and stying are absolutely gorgeous.

I do have a pattern in this issue and I’m so excited to share my new Breathe Between the Lines sock design with you! For those who are familiar with my previous Read Between the Lines pattern, these socks are using the same illusion knitting technique, with Scheepjes Metropolis yarn. I know so many enjoyed the RBTL pattern and who doesn’t love sock knitting, right? This is the perfect combination of the two!

Before we submit pattern pitches for the Bookazines, we receive a mood board from Simy Somer, which outlines the theme of the issue, including inspiration photos and the colour themes for each of the chapters. Sometimes an idea jumps out at me, sometimes it takes a while… other times I just come up completely blank. It just happened that, when I received the info for this issue, I had already been about to start on this design anyway. It’s something I’d wanted to do ever since I first released the Read Between the Lines pattern, so it was the perfect opportunity. Originally, the idea was just for regular socks, but when I saw the mood board for the Mindful chapter of the Bookazine, inspiration struck… a yoga sock!

I still wanted to include instructions for a regular sock as well, but the idea of the yoga sock fit perfectly with the theme, and then the name came to me instantly as well – Breathe Between the Lines – perfect! I think this was probably one of my easiest contribution to the bookazines yet in terms of the design process and finding inspiration!

The hardest part was deciding on a colour combination. My opinion changed with my mood, so about 100 times a day… I went through a lot of different options as I was swatching to try to decide.

I was busy swatching while at a family gathering, and their opinions were as varied as my own! So I kept swatching colours after I returned home.

The problem with Metropolis? Too many colour options! Even when I had to stay within a limited range of colours for the chapter, I still had tons of possible combinations! Agh! I liked each of them in different ways, but I think it’s a well established fact that I’m a total fussy-arse and will obsessively knit something until I feel like it’s just the way I want it. So I just kept swatching and swatching and swatching until I looked over into my knitting trolly and spotted the leftover Seoul colourway that I had from my Spice Market Socks.

Scheepjes Metropolis Seoul (035) and Nice (025)

Don’t ask me why this colour combination just worked for me, but it did. I was like the Goldilocks of yarn and it somehow felt just right! After this point it all came together in record time. The only real stressful part of this project was the colour choice, which was totally self-inflicted! The design process was quite fun, the pattern came together easily and my lovely tester got through it with no problem.

Once the socks were finished, the hardest part was waiting for the release, but it’s here now and nothing beats that moment when you crack open the new issue and finally get to see your design in print!

It may not have been instant, but the satisfaction was still pretty sweet and definitely worth the wait!

Where To Buy Metropolis Yarn for your BBTL Socks

UK and International buyers will find Metropolis at Woolwarehouse and Black Sheep Wools.
Canadian and International buyers have a great option with Knotty House.
Those of you in the Netherlands can find all you need at Caro’s Atelier.

You can also ask your preferred Scheepjes retailer or find a shop near you!

Before I go, I have to talk about the knit love!  It makes me so happy to see my fellow Scheepjes Bloggers doing more knitting, and also being introduced to new knitting designers to follow. Have a look at the other beautiful knitted projects included in this issue!

The Free Form Shawl by Tatsiana Kupryianchyk of lillabjorncrochet.com, which uses short rows with Scheepjes Secret Garden to create this lovely wavy design. Can’t you just imagine wrapping yourself up in this on a cool evening? Also, how much fun it’d be to knit?!

The Serenity Cardigan by Neringa Ruke from Rukeshop.com. This cardigan is made using Scheepjes Metropolis as well, which gives plenty of colour options. I could personally never pull this off with leggings like those lovely models, but it’d be super cute with a dress!

Something for the little ones! The Earth Day Sweater, by Lili van Wattum from Sticks & Cups, which was designed to celebrate Earth Day on April 22nd, 2020! This lovely sweater is knitted using the sustainably produced cotton yarn, Organicon, which is one of the newer Scheepjes lines. I haven’t used it myself yet but I did do a swatch a while back and absolutely loved it. I have all sorts of plans in my head, but well, you know me and my WIP-itis! Just look at how gorgeous this swatch is, though, omg!

Nothing makes me fall in love with a yarn more than some incredible stitch definition!

I could honestly go on for days but I think I’ve kept you here long enough. If you’ve made it all the way to the bottom of my post, or any of my posts, you’re a real champ! I hope you enjoy this latest issue and again, please be sure to tag me if you make the socks. I’m sure those of you who loved your RBTL Shawl will find this a lot quicker (although, what isn’t quicker, am I right? Sorrynotsorry!).

Byeeeeeee!

This post contains affiliate links. This is a way for you to support Canadutch and me as a designer. It is no extra cost to you, but if you shop via one of these links, I get a small percentage of the sale!