Cascade Yarns Blog

This week the Cascade Critter came to be. He came together quickly and is already getting into all sorts of trouble. You can follow his adventures on Instagram  as well as on the Cascade Yarns social media feed. To make your own Critter you need 1 skein of Pacific Chunky, US 9 DPNs, stuffing and safety eyes. Materials: - 1 skein Pacific Chunky Color Wave (60% Acrylic/40% Superwash Merino Wool) - 120 yds/100 g - shown in color 415 (Puget Sound) - US 9 DPNs - Stuffing/fiberfill - Safety Eyes - Yarn Needle Abbreviations: - K - Knit - Kfb - Knit into the front and back of 1 stitch (increase 1)  - K2tog - Knit 2 together (Decrease 1) - 3 Needle Bind off -  move stitches to 2 needles with half of work on each needle. With 2 needles parallel, insert a 3rd needle knitwise into the first stitch of each needle. Wrap the yarn around the needle as if to knit. Knit these 2 stitches together and slip them off the needle. Knit the next 2 stitches together (same...

For the past few years, I’ve had the opportunity to design crochet patterns for Cascade Yarns, and today I am writing to share how I created one of the most recently released patterns – the Bloomfield shawl . Most of the time, my inspiration starts from the yarn. Heritage Wave is a super fine weight yarn, and the lightness of the yarn just begged to be made into a shawl. After deciding what I would be creating with the yarn, the next step was the shape, and I knew I wanted to challenge myself to try a new shape.     A close friend of mine, who is also a knit and crochet designer, had recently designed a half circle crochet shawl for another yarn company. After asking for some tips on how to create that shape in crochet, I knew that sometime soon I wanted to try designing a half circle shawl in crochet myself. A couple of months later, I received a skein of Heritage Wave yarn to swatch with for design proposals, and I knew this would be a good yarn to use to try de...

Baby Alpaca Chunky is the perfect yarn for holiday gifts. It is soft, luxurious, and works up quickly. There are over 40 colors to chose from to work up something special for someone deserving - or even better, yourself (it makes a great reward for all of the holiday knitting and crocheting). Mitts, cowls, and scarves are my favorite projects for Baby Alpaca Chunky. I decided it would be fun to do a 2 skein striped cowl. I picked 2 trend colors - Damson and Grape Compote and settled on using Fibonacci to inspire my striping repeats. It is a simple 2 stitch, 2 round repeat and works up fairly quickly. Materials - Baby Alpaca Chunky (100% Baby Alpaca - 109 yds/100 g) - 1 skein Color A - 647 - Grape Compote & 1 skein Color B - 648 - Damson - US 10 Circular needles (16-20") - Stitch Marker - Yarn Needle Abbreviations - K - Knit - P - Purl - K1b - Knit 1 through Back Loop Cast on 80 stitches in Color A - join in the round - careful not to twist stitche...

A skein of yarn has so much potential. First you consider the fiber, gauge and twist and then there is the color - although, sometimes there is a certain color that just grabs you. Baby Alpaca is one of those fibers that just needs to be touched. The color that spoke to me was Mineral Red (3063) - a color I have been seeing in the trends. Pure Alpaca is a light worsted to DK weight baby Alpaca yarn with 220 yards in each 100 gram skein. The hand is heavenly and paired with the classic 4/8 twist is a joy to work with. It is important to be mindful of the nature of Alpaca as it does not have the memory of wool. The luscious, soft fabric has a propensity to grow. I decided that I wanted to make some form of a shawl. Originally I had thought a simple triangle top-down shawl would work and then I started to swatch.  I found that I really like the structure combined with openness of the Irish Net stitch. In the process of swatching, I decided an asymmetrical triangle would ...

I am one of those people that actually enjoys swatching. It gives me time to get to know a yarn. It can talk to me and tell me what works really well and what is probably better used with a different yarn. North Shore is an acrylic that has a similar look and feel of mercerized cotton. The DK gauge yarn comes in 27 solids and 12 prints.  The yarn has lovely drape and sheen. North Shore is easy care (machine wash & dry) and quite durable. I cast on with US 6 needles and tried a variety of different stitches.  Since North Shore is an acrylic, I have to remember that you have to like the way it knits up before you block. Acrylics don't usually respond very much to blocking. Knit and Purl combinations  tended to not pop as much as they would on a springier fiber. Ribbing was a bit drapey. Stockinette worked well.  Eyelets and garter were fine but it did not show the drape of the yarn. My favorite stitch pattern that I tried was a Fern Lace. I plan to...

Baby blankets make wonderful gifts. It never hurts to have extras and there is nothing quite like a hand knit blanket. Sunseeker Shade is a DK weight cotton-acrylic blend that is the perfect weight for a warm weather blanket. Each 100 gram skein contains a generous 246 yards. The easy-care (read machine wash & dry) cotton blend is available in a wide range of colors that vary from rich jewel tones to soft pastels. Materials - 2 skeins Sunseeker Shade  (50% Cotton/50% Acrylic) - 246 yds/100 g - shown in 21 (Sunlight Yellow) - US 4 needles - Yarn Needle to weave in ends Gauge & Measurements - Gauge approx 5.4 sts = 1" in stitch pattern - Finished Measurements:  Approx 20" wide x 27" long Abbreviations: - K - Knit - P - Purl Cast on 108 sts Edge 1 - K 2 - [K1, P1] 3 - K 4 - [P1, K1] Do edge for 8 rows (do rows 1-4 2 times) Start pattern:  1 - K6, *[K1, P5, K5, P1]; repeat from * to last 6 stitches, K6  2 - [...

This year my older son was part of a Little League baseball team. It has been a truly wonderful experience for him. The team did quite well during the season - and then it was the playoffs. Regular season had games that were up to 2 hours in length. Championship playoff games were 6 innings. His baby brother was at almost every game strapped to me in an infant carrier... which meant my hands were free. So I was able to get some knitting done. Most of this hat was completed during 2 of the playoff games (until Baby Brother decided he was done with sleeping and wanted to watch). Anthem is one of our newer yarns - and it is great for baby projects, charity, crochet, and anything easy care. It is a soft acrylic that reminds me of wool. Each 100 gram skein contains 186 yards and is available in 33 vibrant colors. The medium size hat used less than 1/2 of the skein - so you can easily get 2 small or medium hats out of 1 skein. Gauge & Measuments: 4.5 sts = 1" Shown in 18...