Rocquaine

Rocquaine by Christina Danaee available to buy on Ravelry

New in the shop... Rocquaine designed by Christina Danaee.

This Gansey inspired jumper was knitted by Sue in West Yorkshire Spinners Bluefaced Leicester DK in shade 1038 Fellside.

It is soft, squishy and cosy!

Featuring traditional gansey stitches, like the tree of life motif and a rig and furrow pattern, this jumper is given a modern twist with a boxy shape, deep split hem and open i-cord neckline.

Knitted seamlessly the pattern uses the following techniques:

• provisional cast on 
• using charts
• picking up stitches
• i-cord bind offs

Here are some links if these techniques are unfamiliar:

A provisional cast on keeps your stitches 'live' so you can go back and do something with them later. In this case add a deep rib split hem. You can see a tutorial for a provisional cast on here and see it in action on our Moonwake Cowl.

All the stitch patterns are charted and you will use stitch markers on your knitting needles to remind you which stitch pattern you should be working. You can read more about stitch markers on our blog here.

If you've never knitted from a chart before check out this guide from Tin Can Knits. Although I would say that the Rocquaine charts are relatively simple as you are only knitting and purling the stitches.

However, you do read charts differently depending if you knit in the round or if you knit flat.

The yoke of Rocquaine is knitted flat (back and forth) so you read the odd numbered chart rows from right to left and the even numbered chart rows from left to right.

But the bottom half of the body and the sleeves are knitted in the round and so every row is read from right to left.

Like many things once you have your knitting in front of you this makes a lot more sense! 😆

If you're not a fan of picking up stitches, check out this VeryPink Knits video which has a simple explanation. If you want some more advice there is a good article by Kate Atherley at Modern Daily Knitting.

And finally, you can see a tutorial for an i-cord bind off here. I talked about that recently with our Striped Cowl.

Our sample is 42" and is shown on a 38" bust. The designer recommends 4" of positive ease i.e. 4" bigger than your bust.

If you were to size down for a snugger fit it is important to check the upper arm circumference as the sleeves are fitted and so without the positive ease at the bust your sleeves may be too tight.

You can see chest sizes and yarn requirements on Ravelry if you need further help with sizing or yarn quantities pop into the Pittenweem shop or send us an email.

We've got 10 shades of WYS Bluefaced Leicester DK in the shop and online.

Bluefaced Leicester sheep are a hardy hill breed producing soft, silky yarn with a lustrous handle.

You can see the Brook shade in action in our recent Show & Tell.

 Bobble Loop Sweater designed by Kay Hopkins 

And if you want to read more about Gansey knitting check out Di Gilpin's book - The Gansey Knitting Sourcebook.