Recently I purchased two skeins of tweed Quarry yarn from Harrisville Designs. I’ve been looking for tweed yarn in dark colors to knit hats for my boys. The company is located in New Hampshire. The tag notes that the yarn is “sourced” in Wyoming, “spun” in New Hampshire, and “dyed” in Pennsylvania.
I purchased “Obsidian” and “Slate”, which are black and gray. The colors are nice. The yarn is not very soft, but I had hoped that it would become soft after washing. However, I can’t even get this yarn onto my needles without it coming apart! I’ve tried twice to start a hat in the round, and any pulling on the yarn (unless you are super careful) will cause it to come apart.
This is what happened when I tried to tighten the yarn on my needles.
So I finally had the cast on figured out and had just joined the yarn in the round. I went to tighten it up, and it came apart. I can’t knit with yarn like this! Apparently this type of yarn does this, but I wish I had known. I spent a good amount of money on this yarn and I am not happy. UPDATE: I have found this PDF about Quarry yarn and it recommends twisting the yarn before putting stress on it. That should strengthen the strand so it won’t split.
I’m happy to support home-grown yarn, and I used to live near Harrisville in New Hampshire, so I was excited to buy this product. Once I give it another try, I will post updates here.
I’d love to hear suggestions from knitters who have used Quarry yarn, but in the meantime I did find this post by someone who knit an entire cardigan sweater using Quarry. It came out lovely, and here is the link to her sweater page.
Lots of knitters love to use gradient color yarns. Often shawl patterns work best for this, and I have found a free, simple pattern to try. It is called the Scrappy Bias Shawl and you can download it at Ravelry. I am grateful to knitters who share their free patterns. It’s the perfect way for beginners to get used to trying new things.
Some yarn shops will offer small skeins of colors that match or contrast which can be knit up in any order you choose to make your own gradient of color. This requires adding new colors as you knit and can leave lots of tails to deal with. The effect can be quite pretty, but with lots of weaving to come.
Changing colors makes many tails of yarn to weave in later
Speckled or variegated yarns can also be used to create a gradient effect, and I love the look. I began the ‘Scrappy Bias Shawl’ using dark green fingering yarn, then dug out more skeins hoping to have the colors changes from dark to light along the way. I am not finished, and will begin to revert back to darker colors to end with.
Create Your Own Design
What I love about this simple pattern is that once you know the basics of the shaping, the colors can be anything at all! It could be done in wide stripes, skinny stripes, a solid color, or add a simple pattern to some of the rows.
I decided to knit approximately 20 rows with one color, and then alternate two rows with my next color choice. You can see that in my image below where I went from pink to yellow, then yellow to variegated white. I did not buy any yarn, but used what I had in my stash already. I believe the “scrappy” part of the title is meant for knitters to use up their scrap yarn on this project.
Mostly I am using Mad Tosh Merino Light and similar sock / fingering weight yarn. It’s a simple garter stitch knit with increases at one side and a decrease at the other. I wanted my colors to “blend” as I progressed. Viewing the pattern page will also show how other knitters interpreted this pattern.
Gradient colors of garter stitch
Changing yarns: All my new yarn was added on the same side of the project so each color row made one complete back and forth row. Then I would pick up the alternate color to knit. Once I was done with the previous color, I cut it and continued on with the new color.
For easy counting of stitches, I have added stitch markers at 20 stitch intervals. Once you memorize the beginning and ending of rows, this pattern is super simple to knit while watching television.
After some searching online I found some lovely yarn at The Fibre Studio called 50 Shades of Gradient. Check out “Nantahala” (one I must buy soon) and others that come in cake skeins which make wide color swaths that gradually change as you knit.
My other WIP (work in progress) is the Bay’s Edge Shawl. And I just finished up a couple of hats and a thick scarf to give as Christmas gifts.
Today I finally decided on the seven colors I would use to knit the Bay’s Edge Shawl pattern. I had been searching for a rectangular shaped shawl to knit.
It took me days to decide which blue-green shades of yarn to use. Then there were the two contrast colors. The main color was an easy choice as I wanted something with a bit of a gradient and not the plain white shown in the pattern. I wanted colors to represent ocean and beaches I see near my home.
The Bay’s Edge pattern suggests a gradient yarn collection (find it at Miss Babs) to make buying easier, but I wanted to choose my own colors! The ripple effect evokes waves of water so I chose blue-greens and blues with one tan (sand color) and a peachy-pink to add a bit of color to offset the blues.
At Miss Babs I added many colors to the “compare” section, then deleted them, and added more. I think I went through every single 2-ply toes yarn shown! The only color which is the same as one in the collection of yarn used in the sample pattern is Sea Oat. I chose to exchange their blues, green and purple with shades of blue-green.
My main color yarn will be “Life Begins” which is a Yummy 2-Ply wild iris (non-repeatable color way) in light blue-green with some speckles – See the big skein below. I needed one skein in 400 yds. My yarn arrived November 1st – how exciting! I love those little gifts they always include, and the yarn is super wonderful! Look at those colors…!
Yarn colors for my shawl project
Miss Babs offers smaller skeins of Yummy 2-Ply Toes with 133 yards each, and I needed 6 of those to complete the “waves” in the pattern.
Here is what colors I ended up choosing: (a “wild iris” color is non-repeatable, one of a kind dye lot).
I would have liked the two darkest greens to be more of a contrast, but buying yarn online makes it difficult to see everything together. The “Blackwatch” color way is really beautiful and I’d love to knit something using that color again. It looks a lot more green than blue in reality. The photos at Miss Babs look very blue, which mine was not.
Beginning the Shawl Pattern
It took me three tries to get this shawl’s “cast on”. If you have ever knit a triangle shawl, you probably know how that weird beginning goes. You must know how to “pick up and knit” stitches. I suspected it would give me trouble and I expected to have to re-do. I finally had it looking okay and got on a roll. I can see the pretty little triangle shape emerging!
Miss Babs yarn is so pretty with slight variations in color throughout.
Beginning the shawl
Now it is January and I am finishing up this shawl. Once I did the bind-off on the first edge, I fell in love! The I-cord bind off looks so nice. Once I completed the second half and needed to do the bind-off again, I had to look it up to refresh my memory.
Today I wove in the ends and washed the finished shawl. It is blocked on Knit IQ mats, and in the process of drying in the spare bedroom. The pattern was easy to follow and fun to knit. I really love the way it turned out. The yarn colors I chose were meant to represent the colors of the sea. Shades of blue-green from light to dark are mixed with a row of beige for “sand” and “pink” for seashells.
Blocked and drying – the Bay’s Edge shawl
My Notes on Knitting the Bay’s Edge Shawl
Notes: Beginning this shawl is a bit tricky. Watch a video about how to pick up stitches and knit them, if you have never done this. You must know how to SSK and M1R and M1L. I placed markers for each 19 stitch set on the making waves rows just in case I ended up off with my count at the end of the row. I could easily go back and count 19 stitches in each section to see where I was off. Many of the rows were simple knit across, which could easily be done while watching TV. The I-cord bind off takes time, but is worth it.
More Rectangular Shawl Patterns
Buy the Bay’s Edge Shawl pattern (link at the top of this page) or view some of the other patterns I found in my search for rectangular shaped wraps.
All hats shown here were knit from patterns found in the Hats On! pattern book which is available at Amazon.
Gansey Watch Cap
Fur Pom Pom Added to Gansey Watch Cap
The pattern is in chart form only, and I was not sure how to do it. I think the top is not quite right, but it’s good enough. I would make this hat again with smaller needles in the smaller size. Mine is a size Medium, but came out a bit loose.
Fana Cap
I finished knitting the Fana Cap just before I left for New Hampshire, and gave it to my daughter. We volunteered at the Monadnock Animal Shelter fundraiser and it was a cold, rainy day, so she wore her new hat.
Fana Cap
Yarn Used: Manos del Uruguay “Gloria” in superwash merino worsted wool in color “Pescador” blue. White yarn is Rowan Alpaca soft DK combined with Rowan Kidsilk Haze mohair, held together.
Notes / Changes: I made the Medium size, which was perfect for my daughter’s small head, but next time I would make the larger size.
Aran Watch Cap
I knit this one in size Medium which was large enough around, but I needed more height. Changes: Next time I will add another inch to the top part and maybe make a longer cuff. I like a nice wide cuff to flip up and give my ears double coverage in the cold.
This is an interesting pattern with cable and seed stitch between simple knits and purls. For that reason a solid color is recommended. I used Malabrigo worsted yarn in “Water Green” color which made this finished hat nice and soft.
I plan to make this one again with the changes I mentioned. The decrease section is quick so dealing with DPN’s is fast.
Depending on your knitting skill level, the hats in this book will keep most knitters happy. I began by knitting the simple patterns like the Classic Watch Cap and Tam, and progressed to two color patterns and cable patterns. Still on my list of “want to knit” are the Triple Pattern Watch Cap, All-over Two-Color Pattern Watch Cap, and Norwegian Star.
Some of the colors chosen to knit the sample hats in this book are not the best, but change the colors yourself and come up with something unique.
New England's Narrow Road 