Cascade Yarns Blog

What's not to love about Baby Alpaca and Merino Wool?  It is soft, squishy, warm and feels so lovely when you work with it.  Adding Merino Wool to Baby Alpaca gives it memory and stability.  So, another new yarn - Highland Duo - 70% Baby Alpaca/30% Merino Wool - 197 yards of squishy softness per skein.  This combination is perfect for a cowl, but I wanted something a little open that offered breathability and insulation. Part way through this cowl (after discovering a glaring error), I had to rip out at least 6 rows.  Fortunately, the yarn, the cowl, and I survived the frogging and I was able to finish the cowl.  One skein makes a cowl approximately  9.5" long by 15.5" wide (about 31" circumference). So here is the pattern: 1 skein Highland Duo - shown in 2305 US 9 - 16-24" circular needles Abbreviations K - Knit YO - Yarn Over Sl1 - Slip 1 K2Tog - Knit 2 together PSSO - pass slipped stitch over Cast on 101 stitches. ...

Short rows can be a lot of fun in a scarf while creating an interesting effect at the same time.  Casablanca works up wonderfully in short rows - it really shows off the colors in the skein.  For this project, I chose a more subtle colorway and was quite pleased with the result. One skein and a pair of US 8 needles is all that you need for this scarf.  I'd done the triangles within a short row rectangular scarf before, so it was interesting to see the turns that appeared.  Essentially you cast on 20 stitches, start by knitting 2 stitches, do a wrap and turn, and going back, then adding 2 more stitches each time until you reach 18.  You work backwards back to 2 stitches and then go to 20 stitches and change direction.  After a few sections, it gets fairly easy to ready your knitting to know where you are. So here is the pattern: Abbreviations K - knit W&T - Wrap & turn - Bring yarn forward, slip next stitch pu...

Sitka is a lovely blend of 80% Merino Wool and 20% Kid Mohair.  There is a lovely subtle sheen from the mohair and great memory from the wool.  It was a real treat to work with and worked up very quickly. I created a reversible cabled scarf - one skein is about 30" long, so two would be 60".  While out in Michigan I tripped over a Jul closure that I thought suited it nicely - what was really nice is that no button holes were required. So here is the pattern: Sitka - 1-2 skeins (80% Merino Wool/20% Kid Mohair - 131 yds/100 g) shown in color 28 US 10 Needle Cable needle Abbreviations K - Knit P - Purl CF6 - slip 6 stitches to cable needle, hold in front, K3, P3,  then K3, P3 6 sitches from cable needle CB6 - slip 6 stitches to cable needle, hold in back, K3, P3, then K3, P3 6 stitches from cable needle CO 24 stitches Row 1-6 - K3, P3 - repeat to end of row Row 7 - CF6,  K3, P3, K3, P3 Row 8-13 - K3, P3 - repeat to end of row...