New Pattern Release: Barque

I know it's been a while. I thought I'd use my blog again but in a different way to before. It definitely won't be a weekly blog [as it once was] but I thought I could share some tutorials and tell you about any pattern releases. Talking of pattern releases...

I've been working on a collaboration with Giddy Aunt Yarns and since it's Yarndale this weekend, it's time for a pattern release.

This is the beautiful yarn that the lovely gals at Giddy Aunt Yarns gave me. The darker skein is a Mohair Lace in "Pieces of Eight" and the Merino Singles is "Drift". There will be kits of various colours available from this weekend over at Giddy Aunt Yarns, plus they do pre-orders, so you could create your own colour combinations from their catalogue and they'll dye it up for you.

Those two skeins turned into Barque; which is name for the old sailing ship of the same name. The two colourways I used had maritime-connected names - Drift and Pieces of Eight, so it seemed appropriate. The shape of the shawl is also reminiscent of a sail.

Here it is...

I don't know about you but I see these gorgeous mohair skeins and want to use them with something else to show them off to their best. The idea behind the design is to showcase a mohair skein with either a contrasting or complementary colour 4 ply/fingering. I wanted the design to be really enjoyable to knit too. There's plenty of garter stitch but it's broken up with some simple lace patterns, so it keeps the interest going. 

The pattern is modular too, which means that you can use different amounts of yarn and stop when you want to (the details for this are in the pattern). I think it would work quite well for using up leftovers from other projects too. This is a prototype I made from my own hand-dyed yarn and I only had 25g of mohair, so it was a bit shorter than the final sample and ends at a different section. I still think it works great.

My photoshoot for this was cancelled due to going into lockdown, so I ended up being the model myself. This last photo is my favourite.

Giddy Aunt Yarns have put together some truly stunning kit colourways (pre-order).

From top left clockwise - Pieces of Eight and Drift (sample colourway), Fae, Morganite, Mildred, Lughnasadh and Litha, Rhodolite.

The pattern is currently available through Ravelry, Payhip, and Lovecrafts. 

[Just be aware that if you have eyesight/neurological differences that some have had issues with using Ravelry. I'd recommend using one of the other store fronts instead. I'm happy to manually add it your Ravelry library - just drop me a message]