Fiber Fool

I have new gig on my calendar these days. I’m doing a monthly newsletter for one of the local yarn shops, My Sister Knits. Part of the newsletter duties will include designing a free pattern to be part of the newsletter (at least some months). For April we wanted to highlight some fun new sock yarn that came into the shop from Done Roving. I thought the Citrus Sorbet colorway of the Tapping Tootsies really said “April” to me, so I brought a skein home and turned ~1/3 of the skein into these fun cuffs.

They are lacey and fun while remaining easy to knit. You can choose to place mini bobbles or beads at the scallop points. I find them a fun way to brighten up the cool weather wear that we can’t quite pack away for the season yet. And, since they only use ~160 yds of fingering weight yarn they are a fairly quick and economical project for gifting and an alternate option for sock yarn stash diving.

The pattern is available by downloading the My Sister Knits newsletter for April 2009. It will be free only during April. Once the May newsletter goes live it will be available here through my store as part of a new pattern line focused on economical projects. It will include some more detailed information and charts which could not be included in the newsletter version due to space constraints.

Want more Fibery Fun on Fridays? Check out Alpaca Farm Girl’s Fiber Arts Friday!

I was pulling together some spring and summer proposals a few weeks ago and fell in love with Pebbles from Classic Elite (on Rav). It is one of few cotton yarns that does not bother my hands. I am a semi-tight knitter and it seems when I work with cottons which have little give in the yarn that I get cramping on the back of my left hand. But there is enough nylon content in Pebbles that along with the spin used to give it texture it has more give than your traditional cotton yarns (but not as much as Fixation which causes gauge nightmares). I’m working with one of the new colors for this year called Blue Canoe. It makes me think of the land of 10,000 lakes :-)

Forgive me if I’m absent from the blog more now that the photographic week is over. I’ll just be in my corner knitting at 5.5 sts/in on a plus sized sweater… ;-)