quarry yarn – New England's Narrow Road

The Size

Even though I knit the size Medium, it came out huge! But really, that is okay because now it is my sweater / poncho. My yarn was thicker than the pattern calls for and my needle size was larger. I expected it to be big.

I used about 1,000 yards of yarn, or 5 skeins. I had to frog the Oxbow cardigan, which is why I bought this yarn to begin with.

The color used for the back ribbing is Granite. I changed the color at that part of the knitting so I could easily tell the back from the front. There are short rows near the neck cuff for the back, so even though it may not look it, there is a Back and Front to this thing. Having a different color hem in the back just makes things easy.

Turtle Dove hand-knit sweater in Quarry yarn, color Geode — I chose the split hem option

The pattern offers two types of bottom hem options. I knit the split hem version. Although I planned to have 3/4 sleeves as the pattern is written, they ended up long.

The Pattern – Good for Beginners

The Turtle Dove pattern is one of many free patterns (no longer free) offered by Espace Tricot, a Canadian yarn shop. The link here goes the pattern on Ravelry.

I also just want to mention that as I began this pattern I had a hard time figuring out where the back, front and sleeve sections were located. I’d never knit a raglan sleeve sweater. I wrote a blog post about that, just in case other’s have this problem.

Once I got past that, the pattern was very easy to follow. I would say it really would be good for any beginner knitter to try.

The Yarn

I loved working with the Quarry yarn. I had no problem with it pulling apart, and came across one knot where I cut the yarn. Because the needles were size 11 and the yarn is bulky, the sweater worked up quickly.

Brooklyn Tweed Quarry yarn in color Geode — Quarry yarn leftover

The one personal problem I had was that as the project grew, it became hot in my lap. It was summer in Florida as I knit this, and even with the AC on, it became uncomfortable to knit.

I washed the finished sweater in my kitchen sink with Eucalan wool wash that doesn’t need to be rinsed out. I wrapped it in a towel to remove excess water and put it in the spare bedroom, on a queen size bed, to dry. It could almost be a bedspread… LOL. This yarn dries fast.

Turtle Dove sweater drying — The sweater was dry in about a day’s time

I bought my yarn at Wool and Company when it was on sale. I like to order from this place because shipping (US) is free always, no matter the amount you buy, and they will wind skeins for free also. I’ve never found any other company who does that. They have a great selection of yarn as well.

Turtle Dove hand-knit sweater in Quarry yarn, back view — This thing is massive!

Currently I live in Florida, but I picture myself in my (future dream) New Hampshire home snuggled up in my poncho on a cold evening.

I want to say right off that I knit this hat for myself and did not use a specific pattern. I did take notes as I knitted, which I can’t seem to find.

The two skeins of Quarry yarn I purchased a while ago were meant to be used to make warm, winter hats for some boys I know. I bought Brooklyn Tweed Quarry in Obsidian (black) and Slate (dark gray), but when I tried to start a hat and join in the round the yarn came apart! I was so disappointed.

The Quarry wool was put away until I read something somewhere about how to work with it. Apparently it does tend to have this splitting problem which can be remedied by twisting the yarn to make it stronger before putting stress on it. Because I didn’t want to have to deal with this when beginning a hat, I made my brim from other yarn, with the plan to attach Quarry for the top only.

The Hat Cuff

To begin the hat at the cuff I held two leftover (stash) yarns together and knit a K1, P1 rib for about 6 inches. The yarn here is Miss Babs “Coffee Break” and Madelinetosh sock in “Arch”… I believe.

Fold up hat brim knitted in two yarns held together

Although I now live in Florida, in New Hampshire my favorite winter hats had thick cuffs. Making an extra long brim to fold up gives an extra layer of warmth for the ears.

double-brim hat in Quarry and other yarns — Extra ear warmth with roll up brim

After I finished knitting about six inches of ribbing, I changed to the Quarry yarn. Right away I discovered that I needed to use larger needles and have fewer stitches to work with. I also want to say that I had none of the previous problems with the yarn coming apart. I don’t know if I simply had a bad section of yarn before, or if I just never had to pull on it as much.

I did take notes when I was knitting, and here is how I began, but I didn’t figure out the decreases like this. Also my hat was getting too tall so I didn’t do the knit rows between the decreases at the top.

Cast on 110 and K1, P1 around for 6 inches (not sure about the needle size because I didn’t write it down, but probably a size 5 or 6)
Attach Quarry and use size 11 needle to knit around (size recommended by Quarry is 10 or 11)
Here is where I had problems. Quarry is more bulky than the two yarns held together. The rest of the “pattern” notes are what I should have done – I have no idea what I actually did – until the top decreases.
Reduce to 80 stitches: K4, K2tog around = 88 stitches first round, then K10, K2tog around, for 80.
Knit around for about 2 / 2.5 inches then begin top decreases
Crown: K8, K2tog, Place Marker – around
Next row Knit around (I didn’t do these knit rounds because my hat was becoming too tall)
Next decrease row: Knit to 2 stitches before marker and K2tog, around
Continue by alternating a knit row and decrease row – using DPNs for last few rounds.
Once there are only a few stitches left, finish as you do any hat.

Anyway, the hat is not perfect, but it is somewhat how I planned. The warmth of the wool on top will keep my head warm when the temperatures drop to 60 around here… Haha…

But seriously, this hat will be nice to wear when I visit NH in cooler months.

Hand knitted winter hat in a tropical elephant ear plant

You may be able to see the tighter and smaller stitches just above the brim. Then, I switched to a larger needle and decreased stitches somewhat evenly around. I still ended up with too many stitches so the top of the hat is a bit puffy. It looks okay, and overall I am happy with it.

Hand-knit winter hat with roll brim — Warm wool on top

The hat was hand-washed and laid flat to dry and the Quarry wool is very soft – not at all scratchy. In fact I look forward to using it again with the gray color I still have. Not only does it finish nicely, this type of wool makes excellent cold-weather items. Now I understand why it’s chosen for sweaters, mittens and hats.

Skittle, my cat, came out to watch me try to take my selfies and hat pictures. It was a little warm to be wearing a hat like this one!