THE NORDLÁNDDA COLLECTION: Nøss and Heggelia

When I was brainstorming about the pieces to include in the Nordlándda collection, I wanted to include some projects that were suitable for new cable knitters. The first piece that fits this bill are the Nøss mitts.

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Copyright 2015 The Fibre Co. & Tommy Martin

These super simple little mitts are worked in the round from the bottom up, and feature a very small, 2 stitch cable on either edge. Since the cables are only two stitches, this is a perfect pattern if you'd like to try cabling without a cable needles.

I've got some handspun London Fog Bluefaced Leicester spun up that I'm using to cast on my own pair of Noss mitts at Knit Night tonight - the pattern takes less then 120 yards for all sizes, but I've only got 85 yds of handspun. I'm still going to try to squeak out a medium pair for myself - stay tuned for future Yarn Chicken games!

The second pair of mitts in the collection are the super scrummy Heggelia gauntlets. 

Copyright 2015 The Fibre Co. & Tommy Martin

I just love these mitts - long and cosy to protect against any intrusive winter winds, worked in reverse stockinette for interest with a big bold cable running down the back of the hand and arm.  This is also a good potential no-cable-needle project - the cable looks complicated, but all of the cable crosses are worked over four stitches, so its just a step up from the Nøss mitts in terms of cabling complexity.

The Heggelia mitts come in two sizes, and use up to 240 yards of bulky yarn. I want to do a handspun pair of these too, but I'm going to need to spin up some yarn for them specifically. I'm not such a pink person generally speaking, but it is a colour that works well with the design! Maybe I'll have to bite the bullet and stay in keeping with the original sample...

There's still plenty of time to join in the #AYSWinterCablesKAL on Instagram and over at the A Yarn Story group on Ravelry. We'd love to see your projects!

Note: If you are in Europe and would like to purchase one of the patterns from the collection without paying VAT, please go to the Nordlándda page and be sure to include your Ravelry ID (if you have one) when you check out. The pattern will be emailed to you and put into your Ravelry library. Thank you!

Nordlándda

Today is the launch of my new collection of accessoried, Nordlándda, from The FIbre Company. I'm going to be blogging about each of the pieces from the collection over the next few weeks, but I wanted to show them all to you as a whole.

By the time this post goes live, the patterns will all be available on Ravelry. I'll get them up shortly over here. In the meantime, I hope you like them! If you're interested, A Yarn Story is kicking off their #AYSWInterCablesKAL with this collection today, so come on over and join in!

ETA: the patterns are now up on the website, so if you'd like to purchase them without paying VAT, head over here! If you include your Ravelry ID with your order, I will gift you a pattern for your library in addition to email you the pdf. Thanks!

Fait accompli

I've just returned from a trip to the post office, to send out a very special pile of knitwear.

It's been a bit of a crazy few months while I've been working on this collection. I've had a few shows, looked at a lot of very expensive and not very nice property, been back to the States on a scouting trip against the possibility of moving back next summer, seen family, come back, put on a Yarn Crawl and Marketplace, seen more expensive real estate, starting visiting secondary schools with my daughter, put in an offer on a house, had the offer accepted...you get the idea. And all the while I've been plugging away at this accessory collection, in the fantastic Tundra from the Fibre Co.

As the pieces have only just gone off for their photo shoots, I'm not going to reveal too much, but I will share these details: there are three hats, two pairs of fingerless mitts, two cowls (one of which comes in two sizes) and a long, narrow shawl. All of the pieces have cables and texture - some are all over, some have just one focal cable, some have an all-over cabled pattern. All are worked in bulky weight yarn, so they knit up super fast. They all take between one and three skeins of Tundra, and are super soft and squishy.

Over the next few weeks I'll share more details of each piece and the construction, but I didn't want to go much longer without letting you know that I'm still here, and there is still lots and lots of knitting going on.

Toxic!

I came home early this afternoon with a wicked bad cold, and was thrilled to find the November installment of the Hello Yarn Fiber Club on my doorstep. Meet Toxic:

8 oz of superwash Corriedale top. Can you say socks? I love the colors, and have great plans in mind for the 3-ply yarn I want to end up with. I signed up for the doubles option, so instead of getting 4 oz, I got 8 oz. I figure that should be enough for some serious socks. I can't wait to get started on it, but it will have to wait until I finish the Wild Raspberry Targhee that is currently on the bobbin.

There has also been some serious work on The List. I finished one entire Endpaper Mitt (sans thumb ribbing) and discovered that, while it fits me perfectly, it is a wee bit large for its intended recipient.

My gauge was only off by 0.5 stitches per inch, but over 56 stitches, it works out to 7.5 inches around instead of 7. My Fair Isle gauge is definitely looser then my non-stranded gauge.

I loved the pattern, and it went incredibly quickly. I went down a needle size on both the ribbing and mitt (from 0 and 2 down to 00 and 1), and the new version (not pictured) seems to be the right size. Hopefully those will be done by next week, but we'll see.

Progress is also being made on Mr. Redjeans, but the pictures wouldn't be terribly interesting, so I'll save it until the body ribbing is done.