Spring is here, and it is the perfect time to refresh your stash with something new. If you’d like to explore our newest yarns without committing to a full skein just yet, the Yarn Tasting Kits are the perfect way to dip your toes into the vibrant colors and luxurious textures of the new Spring Summer Collection.

Each kit contains a mini skein of our new collection yarns: Modern Linen, Vera, Paperie, Iris, plus new colors of fan-favorite yarns Vintage Handpaint and Tillie.

These small “tastings” give you the opportunity to swatch and experiment with different yarns to find the perfect match for your next big project. Test out gauge, feel the fibers, and see which one sparks your creative vision.

The kit also comes with our new Spring Summer Lookbook, a yarn menu with full details of each quality, and a 50% off pattern coupon to cast on for a new project!

Need ideas for what to make with these delightful mini skeins? Head over to Ravelry, where you’ll find tons of stash-busting patterns and inspiration for small projects. The possibilities are limitless.

Ready to knit or crochet? Visit your Local yarn store today to grab your own kit and discover the yarns you are sure to love for Spring and Summer!

Watch the video, or see step-by-step instructions below.

Step 1: Chain 2.

Step 2: Insert hook into the first ch (2nd ch from hook), draw up a loop (2 loops on hook)

Step 3: Yarn over (yo) and draw through 1 loop only (you still have 2 loops on hook). This step creates your first “chain.” You could place a stitch marker on this stitch to find it more easily when we work Step 5.

Step 4: Yo and draw through both loops. First Foundation sc made.

Step 5: Insert hook into both legs of the “chain” stitch and draw up a loop.

Step 6: Yo and draw through 1 loop only (2 loops on hook). This is your next “chain” stitch.

Step 7: Yo and draw through both loops. Another Foundation sc made.

Repeat Steps 5–7 until you have the required number of stitches.

I just finished knitting The Knitter’s Dude, designed by Andrea Rangel, and inspired by the sweater worn by Jeff Bridges in The Big Lebowski. This fun cardigan had been on my list a while and I was glad to finally make it!

The Knitter’s Dude is a great engaging project for an adventurous knitter. It has stranded colorwork, tubular cast-on and bind-off, and short-row shaping on the shawl collar. The sweater is steeked, meaning it’s knit in the round and then cut open into a cardigan. I’d call it an advanced level knitting pattern; you need to keep track of a colorwork chart and separate shaping instructions at the same time. The stranded colorwork has long floats and the large pattern repeat is not easy to memorize, or work without looking at the chart. (It obviously needs be this way to match the pattern on the sweater from the movie.) I found it safest to work on those sections in the mornings, and save the stretches of single-color knitting for my evening knitting time.

The pattern called for a worsted weight, non-superwash yarn, and Ultra Alpaca was an easy choice for me! It is one of my favorite Berroco yarns, a 50% wool, 50% alpaca blend. It has a nice natural feel, and comes in just the right colors!

I used colors Barley (62189), Potting Soil Mix (6279), and Pitch Black (6245).

To reinforce the steek, I used needle felting, a new method for me. For other sweaters I have steeked, I’ve used my sewing machine to reinforce with a seam. This was a great alternative. Instead of having to set up the machine just to sew that one seam, I got to stab at the sweater with a sharp needle! Yes, it was was fun! The needle felts the back side of the fabric – there is no way the stitches would come undone – yet the front side of the fabric is basically unchanged. Very cool!

This is the needle I used.

I then cut the steek (I promise it’s not as scary as it sounds!), trimmed the excess fabric off the cut edge, and used a ribbon from my mother’s collection to cover the cut edge. The ribbon also gives stability to the front of the sweater, preventing that front edge from stretching.

Click here to see when I cut the sweater open (Instagram link).

This sweater was a gift for my (very knitworthy) husband. But bonus – it fits us both!

Left to right: Cremini in Talara, Lovell in Modern Cotton DK, Meader in Hearthside

A sweater with an allover lace pattern can be oh-so pretty, but if there is any kind of shaping involved—and for a sweater, there usually is—it can be a little tricky keeping the overall pattern lined up. Lace knitting basically means working a bunch of increases (worked as yarn overs) and decreases, arranged in a decorative pattern. When you then add another set of increases or decreases to shape the piece, that’s a lot to keep track of. But don’t worry, we have some tips and tricks to help!

In stockinette stitch, if you make an accidental increase or decrease, you can usually get away with correcting the stitch count when you notice the mistake. If you’re off by a stitch when it comes time to divide for the sleeves of a sweater, a discreetly placed increase or decrease can make everything good again, even if you kept knitting for several inches before noticing.

But when working in lace, where it is easy enough to miss a yarn over and thereby accidentally changing the number of stitches, it can unfortunately be harder to hide a mistake, since it can shift the stitch pattern for an entire row.

And going back to fix things tends to be a little more involved in a lace pattern.

Put in a lifeline every inch or so and take the worry out of lace knitting. You can carry on with confidence, knowing if anything goes wrong, it’s easy to go back to the last lifeline and start fresh from there.

Use stitch markers. For a repeating stitch pattern, just place a marker in between each repeat, like this:

This simple lace pattern is a repeat of 6 stitches. If you notice the whole row is off by one stitch, you can easily check which section has five stitches instead of six. Missed a yarn over? You can add it on the following row in a pinch.

If there are a lot of repeats in your pattern and you don’t have enough markers, you can tie off little bits of scrap yarn to use as markers.

For simple lace patterns this works great. But then there are some patterns when the stitches don’t stay neatly inside the lines of the pattern repeat.

Let’s use the Cremini cardigan as an example. Here’s what the chart looks like:

The repeating part of this pattern consists of six stitches, with five additional stitches at the one side, and four at the other. This centers the pattern across the body of the cardigan and leaves an edge stitch in stockinette stitch at each side throughout. (This edge stitch will make it easier to pick up stitches for the button band later.)

If you use markers like in the previous example, you will be fine through Row 6 of the chart. But once you get to Row 7, there is a double decrease right at the beginning of the pattern repeat. You will need to take one stitch from each side of that center stitch and decrease the three stitches into one. This means that if you placed a stitch marker between the repeats, your marker will be right in the middle of the stitches to be decreased.

No worries, each marker will just need to be moved over one stitch to the right before working this row. And there is no need to move the markers back afterwards – the yarn over just before the marker will have things in the right place for your next row. If you had not placed any markers, you would not even notice this!

Once you have worked through your pattern once or twice, you may find it works well enough to remove the markers and rely on your existing stitches to keep things lined up. (If so, it may be a good idea to place a lifeline at this point.)

As you work through the pattern, check your stitches at the end of the row, to make sure they line up with the same stitches from your previous pattern repeat. If the yarn overs should be stacked straight on top of each other, make sure they don’t start going at a diagonal, etc. This is called reading your knitting.

In the photo below, you can see that the double decreases are stacked on top of each other. You can follow the column of stitches straight up to see which three stitches need to make up the next double decrease.

The next tricky part is shaping in pattern. If you’re knitting anything other than a blanket or a scarf, you will probably need to do some shaping. (You might get away with a boxy drop shoulder pullover too.)

For the Cremini sweater, there is not too much shaping to be done in pattern. The armholes are worked straight up from the underarms and the slightly balloon-shaped sleeves, which are picked up from around the armholes, maintain the same number of stitches all the way down to the cuff. The part where things get a little tricky is at the front neck shaping.

The front edges have a decrease every 4th row, shaping the v-neck.

The instructions say to “work in pattern as far as possible”. So what does that mean?

Here, it can be helpful to use markers again. Place a marker at the beginning of the first full pattern repeat, and another after the last full pattern repeat. As you decrease, just move the marker over one full pattern repeat (in this case 6 stitches) any time you run out of stitches at the edge. All stitches inside the markers will be worked in pattern stitch just as before, so it is only the stitches at the sides of the markers that we need to worry about.  

For the edge stitches outside the markers, the simplest thing to do is to keep them all in stockinette stitch. This works best for very short pattern repeats.

In larger patterns you’ll end up with noticeable patches in stockinette. For the best result, you need to work as much of the pattern as you can fit in the remaining stitches.

Work the first edge stitch, and then the decrease to shape the neck if needed, then see how many stitches are left before the marker.

If, for example, there are four stitches left, these can be worked as the last four stitches in the pattern repeat, if possible.

The most important thing is to not change the number of stitches. If the pattern stitch has an increase, there must also be a decrease and vice versa. If there are not enough stitches to do both, you should just leave the stitches in stockinette.

If there is a double decrease on the chart, but you don’t have enough stitches for it, you can make a single decrease instead. An SSK or k2tog should have one corresponding yarn over and a double decrease should have two.

When working partial repeats of a pattern stitch like this, it’s a good idea to count the edge stitches before and after working them, to confirm that the number of stitches did not change, aside from any intended decrease.

If you are shaping a lace pattern at the end of a row, any stitches after the last full repeat can be worked by the same principle. You would then work the edge stitches according to the beginning of the chart repeat.

If you are increasing in a repeating stitch pattern, place a marker outside the last full repeat, work any stitches outside the markers in pattern as far as possible, and then move the markers out toward the edge any time you have enough stitches for another repeat.

Don’t forget to look over your knitting at the end of the row. Remember that it is very easy to miss a yarn over (hello knitting group, movie night, kids, pets and zoom meetings!) so take the time to look over your work regularly.

Happy knitting!

Our Fall make along is a Cardi Party!

From October 1 to November 30, we will be making cardigans, and we would love to have you join – you can catch up on all the details here.

To help you choose a project, let’s have a look at the cardigans from the new Fall 24 Collection!

Ashlar in Merino 401
This duster-length cardigan has a sophisticated style for effortless layering throughout fall and winter. Ashlar is straightforward to knit, worked in pieces and seamed, and will be an elegant addition to your handmade wardrobe.

Bartizan in Merino 401
Add this wrap-style cardigan to outfits from fashion-forward to weekend chic for extra warmth and graceful style. This nearly seamless bottom-up cardigan has thoughtful details for a great fit, and its double-knit tie provides a polished finishing touch.

Shaw in Millstone Tweed
This one-piece raglan cardigan is worked from the bottom up and features a beautiful and easy-to-work lace pattern. Shaw is an adaptable wardrobe staple that adds graceful style and extra warmth to any outfit.

Graves in Millstone Tweed
Texture takes center stage in this wear-with-everything cardigan, with a dynamite combination of cables and moss stitch. Worked from the bottom up in one piece, a foldover collar provides the perfect finish to this warm and snuggly layer and has it ready for crisp fall walks and cozy nights by the fireplace.

Jasper in Gimlet
A generous shawl collar adds warmth, while eyelet rib details add special adornment to this ultra-cozy cardigan. With classic raglan shaping, this bottom-up sweater has a comfy feel to pair with its polished style.

Meader in Hearthside
Allover lace brings a pretty, peaceful feel to this long coatigan. Worked from the bottom up, this sweater features a relaxed drop-shoulder silhouette paired with subtle balloon sleeves. Effortlessly slipping from cardigan to coat, your finished project will be just the right layer to wear all fall and winter.

Tina in Bestie
Say hello to your new BFF for fall and winter. Bursting with color and texture but straightforward to knit, the Tina cardigan is made from the bottom up and features a simple drop-shoulder construction.

Kodama in Mistico
A cozy crocheted yoke sweater, this beautiful cardigan has a bobble pattern that creates a cabled look. An elegant layer for fall and winter, this one is an easy choice for timeless style and extra warmth.

Noreen in Lanas Quick
Make a statement in the comfiest of ways with this quilt-inspired coatigan! Worked in pieces and seamed, it’s fun to lay out the squares to find the perfect arrangement for this go-to cold-weather layer.

Mavka in Renew
Pockets are just the beginning of the things to love about this hooded cardigan! It’s worked seamlessly from the top of the hood down with raglan shaping. Gorgeous cable columns frame every edge and adorn the center back for refined focal points.

Retreat in Wizard
Retreat is the perfect layer for fall and winter with a relaxed fit and allover texture pattern. Worked from the bottom up in pieces and seamed, you can customize your cardigan with any of the stunning shades in the Wizard palette!

You can see all our cardigan patterns here. Let us know in the comments which one is on your list this fall!

Bestie, a new release for Fall 24, is a fun and soft chunky weight yarn. Its two-tone colors evoke a cheerful sentiment, and of course, its name evokes feelings of friendship and playfulness. The Bestie collection features six youthful and energetic patterns designed by Mel Kennelly.

Bestie’s two-tone colorways and chain construction give an overall marl effect, which works well in textured and plain knitting. Plus, we love it for crochet! The chunky weight of the yarn makes for quick work, perfect for those of us who love instant project gratification.

The Bestie collection has patterns perfect for beginner knitters and crocheters.

No matter how you use Bestie, we know you’ll love the result! From a cozy sweater to a chic tote bag, each project is a chance to explore new techniques and express your creativity.

Shop Bestie at your favorite Berroco retailer.

Aerial and Aerial Color gets center stage in this modern five-piece knit and crochet collection, Light As Aerial. Shot on location at the Dye House in Providence, RI, the charm of the modern decor aligned beautifully with the pieces.

The Dye House in Providence, RI, was the perfect backdrop for our collection shoot. Charming and stylish, this boutique hotel was a former woolen mill and served as the home of the American Woolen Company for a few decades.

From everyday layering essentials to charming accessories, our Light As Aerial Collection was designed to showcase the beauty of Aerial. A popular hold-along, this yarn is stunning on its own, whether held single, doubled, or tripled.

Shop Aerial and Aerial Color at your favorite Berroco retailer.

Each year, we love to bring you beautiful new yarns for knitting and crochet, but we know it can be hard to commit to something you haven’t tried before! Enter the Berroco Yarn Tasting Kit!

Each kit contains a mini ball of our new Fall Winter Collection yarns, Merino 401, Millstone Tweed, Gimlet, Hearthside, and Bestie, plus one mini ball of a seasonal favorite, Renew.

The kit comes with our new Fall Winter Lookbook (preview a copy below), a yarn menu with full details of each quality, and a 50% off coupon to cast on for a new pattern.

Some have asked “What do we do with our kits?”

First thing we love it for – Swatching!

Yes we know, it’s not very glamorous but swatching tells us so much about how a yarn will behave. We love that you can use it to get started on a knit or crochet pattern before ordering the full quantity!

We also have designed a few free Yarn Tasting Kit Patterns. While created with older yarn tasting kits, these evergreen patterns can be adapted for all our yarn tasting kits.

Crochet Flowers

Knitted Pennant

Crochet Scarf

Ravelry also features great stash busting patterns you can use this kit for! The possibilities are truly endless.

To order visit or call your favorite Local Yarn Store!

My Dad rocks, I know many people will say this but, mines the winner, sorry!

He’s a joyous New England-er, the kind of guy that goes to get his car fixed and brings all the mechanics their favorite coffee order. He loves the simple things in life: family, dogs, Boston sports, car repair shows… and Dunkin’ Coffee. Earlier this year, our family was hit with the unfortunate surprise of his Lymphoma diagnosis. Soon, the tumors on his neck grew so large that his iPhone wouldn’t recognize his face anymore, and my family found ourselves afraid of the seemingly uncontrollable future.

We are fortunate to live near great medical care here in the North East. The doctors and nurses at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, MA have been an absolute godsend. My father’s treatment started quickly, and began working immediately, which was a huge relief. His tumors all but disappeared after his second chemo treatment, and so did his hair.

With 4 more rounds of Chemo to go and a bit of a brighter outlook on the situation, I got to thinking we could use something fun to bring a bit of levity. I decided that he obviously needed a killer hat that would make heads turn at the infusion center.

If you watched the Super Bowl this year, or well, the Super Bowl COMMERCIALS this year, you had to have seen the iconic DunKings Commercial featuring Ben Affleck and two of Boston’s favorites, Matt Damon and Tom Brady. The 3 men dawned fashionable, albeit flashy, bright orange sweatsuits with the new DunKing logo plastered all over it. I had to have them. Unfortunately, I did not have a spare $300 dollars to drop and even if I did, the suits sold out in minutes. So, I turned to my needles, and created this custom colorwork version of Emily Russell’s “My Baker’s Hat” pattern, which was originally made in Berroco Ultra Alpaca.

I took the total amount of stitches in the hat and divided it in half. I then decided how tall I wanted the motif, about 2.5″, which equates to about 16 rounds. I then sketched my DunKing inspired design over the grid. After converting the sketch into a colorwork chart, I moved to yarn choice.

What is fabulous about finding a pattern using one of our “workhorse” yarns, is that Berroco Ultra Alpaca, Berroco Vintage, and Berroco Ultra Wool are all interchangeable in gauge. I know my Dad… and I know he will be throwing it into the washing machine at some point or another, so, Alpaca is off the table. I also knew I wanted a vibrant pink and orange. I turned to my ol’ faithful for bright colors: Vintage!

Berroco Vintage is a 52% Acrylic, 40% Wool, 8% Nylon blend that is perfect for gift-making. The knitted fabric feel is so soft, which is perfect for those in your life who aren’t into the “scratchy” or “wooly” feel of wool. Perfect for a bald head, in my opinion. The 8% nylon really adds a level of durability, as well. I used the colors #5164 Tang, #5123 Blush, and #5101 Mochi for the ultimate Dunkin’ trio.

With my colors chosen, my chart charted, and needles ready, I cast on hoping to finish this puppy in time for my Easter Sunday visit home.

And -voila! A hat fit for my DunKing! He was happy to report that everyone at his treatment center adored his hat, and now they’ll all know where to get his mid-treatment treats. While watching a loved one go through the Chemo treatment process is not easy, the small things, like making a personalized hat or watching my niece try to make play-dough hair for my dad, are the small, joyous glimmers that are getting my family through. Making this project allowed me to take time and process the reality of the situation, whilst pouring as much love as I could into each stitch. I can’t beat cancer for him, but I’m happy I could give him something personal to our family to take along on his journey.

Today, my father is in good spirits and just finished his second to last round of Chemo. Chemo is accumulative in side effects, so it doesn’t get easier along the way, but I am so impressed and proud of how well he is handling this terrifying situation, choosing to walk into the care center with a smile and a bright orange hat every time. We are looking forward to this enjoying this summer all together, and I think I’ll have to make him a summer bucket-hat in Modern Cotton next!

** The Condado pattern is 50% off for a few more days until March 31, 2024!

Although I’m loving wearing my new Condado cardigan now that the weather is finally getting a little warmer, I’m also dreaming of re-making it as a pullover!

Here is how you can easily change this design into a pullover, with its spectacular (and not nearly as hard as it looks) lace panel on both the front and the back:

1. After making the Back Panel, make a Front Panel the same way, but with one fewer pattern reps vertically. This should result in a Front Panel that is about 3″ shorter than the back, which will create some neck shaping.
2. Skip the Right Front section, and start with the Right Side Panel, setting it up as follows: pick up along the Back Panel as written, cast on 17 sts, then pick up 17 fewer stitches along the Front Panel than you did on the back. The total stitch count after picking up/casting on should match what is in the pattern for the Right Side Panel section. Now work the rest of that section and the Right Sleeve as written.
3. Skip the Left Front section, and to set up the Left Side Panel, start at the bottom of the Front Panel and pick up the same number you did for the front on the right side, cast on 17 sts, and pick up along the Back Panel. Work the rest of the Left Side Panel and Sleeve as written.
4. For the finishing, the sleeve cuff is the same, and the Lower Edge instructions will give you guidance about how many single crochets to work along the panels and the stockinette stitch portions. For the neck edging, you could work in single crochet as at the hem, or if you want to use the stitch pattern that was used for the cuffs and front edge/collar on the cardigan, you could adapt the collar instructions included in the pattern, using the numbers listed for working sc along the Back Panel for both front and back, and adding 11 sc at the stockinette edges at each side of the front neck. The pattern includes some shaping at the edges of the back neck to make the edging lie flat, and I think it would probably need a little extra shaping at the corners of the front neck as well.

That’s all there is to it! I’m planning to make my pullover in Remix Light, which would be a slightly more rustic-looking substitute for Tillie and is another one of my favorite spring yarns. Special thanks to my colleague Nadia for making a lovely swatch in Remix Light, proving out its suitability for this pattern!

I’ll update this post when/if I get around to making my pullover version, but as I write this we have just a couple days left in the special introductory discount of 50% off the pattern, so I wanted to get these instructions out there for anyone who might want to take advantage of it! Find the pattern here.