soft donegal – New England's Narrow Road

My daughter gave me yarn (a gift certificate) a while ago and I purchased six skeins of Soft Donegal yarn in dark blue (worsted weight). I’ve been keeping an eye out for the perfect cardigan to knit using this pretty yarn.

While I added to my list of possible cardigans, and found lots of new patterns I might knit one day, nothing seemed right for this yarn. I nearly chose the Truss pattern (link goes to Ravelry), but ended up wanting a lighter color for that pattern. I did buy the pattern and plan to make it one day.

A Re-knit With Changes

My first Cobblestone is a sweater I wear a lot. In fact I was wearing it the morning I began writing this post. Mainly, I love it because it’s a cardigan, which I prefer. Unfortunately, I’m not a great cardigan knitter because I hate picking up stitches and cardigans generally need a button band. It is picked up after the sweater is knit.

This pattern, by Jared Flood (link to pattern below), knits the button band right along with the sweater knit. There is no need to pick up stitches. I totally screwed up my Carbeth cardigan because of the button band, and that has scared me away from knitting them. Just like knitting the Oxbow pattern has scared me away from textured sweaters. One day I will be brave enough to not let those things stop me, but this time I want an easy cardigan.

knitting Cobblestone in blue — Cobblestone in blue without the garter top section.

Big change number one is that I will not be doing the garter stitch section at the top of Cobblestone. I really don’t like it, so my sweater will be more plain.

I had some trouble and had to add a lifeline and rip back a few rows. The buttonhole in the pattern is a very simple one, and I am doing something a little more substantial, like the one shown in Suzanne Bryan’s video here. Then, I messed it up and couldn’t fix it, so I had to take out entire rows!

The sleeves are being knit before the body is finished. I am afraid of being short on yarn and would rather have long enough sleeves! In fact, it’s a good idea to do this when knitting a sweater IMO. (I ended up having plenty of yarn.)

The cuffs were done a bit differently because I wanted something tighter.

Buy the Cobblestone Cardigan Pattern here

Sleeve Bind Off – New!

I followed a video by the Chili Dog when binding off. The Invisible Rib Bind Off. It is done with a tapestry needle. It didn’t seem to make that much difference with this type of yarn, but it’s a nice bind off.

The original cuff from the pattern is just a garter stitch rib. I decreased to do a regular ribbed cuff. It ended up being a little tighter than I would like, but it’s okay. I decreased to 36 stitches and 40 may have been better.

Twisted rib cuff on Cobblestone — Invisible rib bind off

invisible rib bind off — Invisible rib bind off

Soft Donegal Yarn

Soft Donegal is a yarn I have used before. My first experience was when I knit Kate’s Poncho for my daughter. For some reason the pattern is no longer available. This tweed yarn has a similar feel as Brooklyn Tweed’s Shelter, but I’m hoping it will hold up better. The Shelter is looking very worn. It is dry and light and mine came directly from the shop in Ireland. It is available at shops in the US also to save on shipping.

Cobblestone two sleeves done — Both sleeves finished and on to the body

At the yoke, just before the sleeves, there is a weird bump that I don’t like. I think the pattern is accommodating for this being made for a man, who would have bulkier upper arms and chest area – the pattern is unisex. I wish I had not done the last increase maybe? I’m not sure if that would have helped, but I think so. This would make stitch counts off, so that would have to be figured.

In this picture I show both of my Cobblestones. They both have the bump that seems to make the upper arm bulge a bit.

Along the sides of the sweater the pattern calls for garter sections. I decided to do seed stitch instead. The bottom is still done in garter rib, but I tried a new bind-off this time.

Finishing Up With The Icelandic Bind Off

Because I had plenty of yarn, I kept knitting until the body was around 18 inches. The pattern said 10.5 for my size 2, so I made it quite a bit longer. I did the garter rib and then did the Icelandic bind-off following the Brooklyn Tweed video. It’s a fairly simple bind-off and ended up looking great on this sweater because it’s meant for finishing off garter stitch.

The Icelandic bind-off is done with the knitting needles, and not a tapestry needle. It is fairly easy to do, but this yarn made it a bit tougher. I do like the outcome and would definitely use this bind off again.

The Icelandic bind off matches garter stitch

A New Sweater

In the end, I’m quite happy with my new blue sweater. I got some quick photos of me wearing it, but it was a very hot and muggy May morning. I knit this one in size 2 and it is still plenty big. Keep this in mind if you knit this pattern – it runs quite large.

Finished cobblestone cardigan — Just need to sew on the buttons

When knitting my second Cobblestone, I learned a new buttonhole technique, and two new bind-offs. Fun! On to finding a new pattern to begin. If you have knit this pattern, I would love to hear what you thought.

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After searching for a poncho pattern to knit, I have narrowed it down to Kate’s Poncho (pattern link below). It is a cute, short poncho with some seed stitch on front and back. The collar is also seed stitch but I changed it to a short rib. I’m knitting it for my daughter who works in a cold office. I figure a shorter neckline will be more comfortable.

Finding Tweed Yarn

I knew I wanted to use all one color and a neutral one at that. There is a lot of stockinette and I thought that a tweed yarn would look nice. If the yarn could also be machine washed, that would be a plus. The poncho is not for me, and I’d like it to be easy to care for.

Well, I didn’t end up buying washable yarn, but I did find some tweed wool from Ireland that I hope will be beautiful. The Soft Donegal merino wool is on order from the Dublin Bay website where I found each skein for about $5.00 CHEAPER than many other sites…!! It pays to shop around. They also have free shipping for US orders over $35… ! Yay… what a deal. They also had my first color choice, “Oatmeal” in stock. I bought three skeins for a total of 630 yards.

Although this poncho will have to be hand-washed when needed, it shouldn’t need washing very often. Maybe a spot clean here and there.

Soft Donegal tweed yarn — Tweed wool to knit a poncho

The yarn’s here..!!! Not only was the price of this yarn excellent, the shipping was super fast – it arrived in two days – but the yarn itself is superb. It is very soft wool. If you have ever used Brooklyn Tweed’s Shelter yarn, it feels exactly like this. I had no trouble hand-winding the skeins (over my knees).

This is the first yarn I have purchased in a while. I’m trying to use up my stash, but unfortunately I don’t have a lot of matching skeins. The Soft Donegal gets very good reviews from knitters at Ravelry and now I can see why!

Knitting The Pattern: Kate’s Poncho Review

A size 9 needle is suggested and I do not have a 16-inch size 9. I had to go down to a size 8 until I could get my stitches onto a 24-inch size 9 needle. I did that after the first increase row on the patterning.

The Neck

I am changing up the neck for this poncho so it won’t be high. The pattern calls for a seed stitch cowl type neck. I knit a 1×1 rib for about 1.5 inches. By the way, you must cast-on an even number of stitches to do this, so I added one stitch to the normal cast-on number.

Using the Old Norwegian cast-on has created a nice stretchy neck. Once I had the stitches on a 24 inch circular needle, I pulled it over my head to make sure.

I’ve ended up with 13 markers on this project. Each section of knitting is marked and I added four more markers to show where the increases are made. This helped me at the beginning of the project.

This is a fairly simple pattern to knit. Once the knits and purls are marked out, it’s one normal round of following the pattern and one round of increases.

spit splicing the wool yarn — Spit splicing yarn

Kate’s Poncho body done — Spit splicing yarn

The spit splice method of attaching yarn works very well for the Donegal Tweed. I really love this way of attaching skeins. I used it throughout my striped Warm Up Sweater and had very few ends to weave in. This time I only had two strands when I finished!

I’m doing a twisted rib around the bottom. I like the way it looks. and am hoping it will be good for finishing up this poncho. I am not doing any kind of stretchy bind off, just a normal loose bind off.

Buy the Kate’s Poncho Pattern

Mods: I changed the collar and did a simple 1×1 ribbing. I did a twisted rib along the bottom. I added length and knit to a total of 19 inches long after blocking.

Hand knit poncho drying — Finished – washed and blocked

I used up nearly all of my three skeins of yarn. I could have done one or two more rounds for the ribbing, but chose to leave it at two inches as the pattern called for. If I had knit the normal “cowl” collar, I would have definitely needed all three skeins and possibly more to make the poncho longer.

Kate’s poncho on recipient — My favorite model

What Knitter’s Need to Know

What you need to know how to do in order to knit this pattern:

Cast-on with preferred method. See my Cast On Page if you need ideas, but choose a stretchy cast on. I did the German Twisted / Old Norwegian which is what I almost always use.
Knit, purl, Make One Right, Make One Left
Seed Stitch (see below)
Place markers where pattern says – you will need 9 (I used 13 total- 4 extra to mark increases)
Cast-off and weave in ends

How to Do a Seed Stitch

Just in case you don’t know what a “seed stitch” is, I will explain here.

Alternate knits and purls by row. The seed stitch sections on the poncho are bordered by a simple knit stitch. Those border stitches will always be knits. After the knit, your seed stitch section would begin (first row) with a knit one, purl one, across for the number of stitches in the pattern. When you come to the seed stitch section again, alternate the knits and purls. If you had a knit in the row above, do a purl and alternate across the row. *Remember to always do a knit stitch for the border stitches in this section.

This yarn really became more lovely after washing and blocking. This item was not knit for me, but as a gift to my daughter who works in a cold office setting. She is taller and slimmer than I am, and I hope it will fit her well and keep her warm.