autumn inspired blanket

 

This blog post records my progress as I follow along and knit the WYS Forager Blanket for the shop.

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Start here

West Yorkshire Spinners are hosting an autumn Knit ALong for a blanket using their ColourLab DK yarn.

The Forager Blanket is designed by Chloe Elizabeth Birch and takes inspiration from autumn foliage and colours from the ground up into the treetops with its charming and enchanting motifs.

The pattern will released in 4 weekly parts.

9th Oct - Marvellous Mushrooms

16th Oct - Pumpkin Picking

23rd Oct - Changing Leaves

30th Oct - Falling Acorns

Each part can be accessed on the WYS website

 

blanket kit

 

The blanket uses 5 colours of WYS ColourLab DK.
 
ColourLab is 100% British Wool. It's nice and plump but robust and woolly soft. It's also machine washable.There's a kit with all the yarn you need
 

I'm going to try and do the KAL in real time.

There is very little chance of me keeping to the 4 week schedule but there is no need to. The pattern is just released in that format, you don't have to follow the same schedule.
 
The blanket ticks a lot of boxes for me.
 
I like that there's a variety of stitch patterns. Looking at the photo of the finished blanket it looks like there's:
  • lots of stranded colourwork - which I love
  • cables - which I don't love so much
  • knit and purl combos - which are satisfyingly simple
No one section looks too big. So even if I don't like doing part of it (I'm looking at you cables) it won't be for long.
 
It also feels like a substantial project to get stuck into and it will make an impressive blanket (and give me some cable practice).
 
AND! I don't have to agonise over the colours.

Part 1 - Marvellous Mushrooms

Part 1 begins with a 192 stitch cast on. I used a Long Tail Cast On to give a reasonably stretchy edge. I don't want it to pull in.
 
I'd also recommend adding a stitch marker onto your right hand needle every 20 or 25 stitches to help you keep count. That way you can count the markers without having to count all the stitches again. You can remove them when you work your first row.

You then work a 4 row textured stitch pattern - a straightforward sequence of knits and purl. And then you work a large, 46 row block of stranded colourwork.

As soon as I saw how much knitting was involved in Part 1 I knew there was no way I'd complete it within a week.😆 Even with a quiet weekend.

I did give it a good go though.

I cast on on Wednesday night and completed the first block of Part 1 on Saturday morning.

waffle stitch

I definitely advise using a 100cm circular needle to knit the body of the blanket. Unless you have very long straight needles you'll find the stitches don't fit comfortably and may slip off.

Also, if you're like me and you want to spread your knitting out flat to see your progress, you'll need at least a 100cm circular needle to do it.

For the second block of Part 1 you work a colourwork chart of cute mushrooms. This section initially gave me two 'problems' to consider.

Problem 1 - the stranded colourwork is knitted back and forth. 

I much prefer to do it in the round. When you knit in the round the right side of your work is always facing you. So to make stocking stitch you knit every round. When knitting flat you have to turn your knitting and so to make stocking stitch you alternate between knit 1 row and purl 1 row.

Doing stranded colourwork in purl stitch upsets my flow and I don't do it often enough to get better at it.

I work my stranded colourwork using two hands. I have one colour in my left hand (which will be the Leaping dominant colour) and one colour in my right hand (which is the Receding colour). That means I knit continental style (picking) with the colour in my left hand and I knit 'English' style (throwing) with the colour in my right hand. This helps me maintain a consistent colour dominance, stops tangling and generally makes things speedier. I cannot do this on the purl side. 

Taking two steps back - fi
nd out more about colour dominance in stranded colourwork knitting here and two-handed colourwork knitting here.

The second issue I had were the long floats.

So, when you do stranded colourwork you are usually working with 2 colours on a row. You are only knitting (or purling) a stitch with one of those colours. The unused colour is stranded across the back of the work until it is needed. This creates strands or floats.

The first thing to remember is to make sure the stitches on the right-hand needle are neatly spaced before you strand across the back of them. Stitches can get bunched up on the right hand needle. If you strand across these bunched up stitches you will get some puckering on the front of your work.

 

The second thing to think about is float management. Many knitters catch/trap the stranded yarn at the back of their work if they are stranding across 5 or 8 stitches. This can keep your knitting neater and stop things getting caught in the strands at the back of your work. 

I don't normally do this. I recently talk about it in the blog post on Lunaberry - a children's jumper with a stranded colourwork yoke.

Given this is a blanket with the wrong side on show I thought I'd catch the floats this time.

Looking at the colourwork chart there are several instances in the pattern where the unused yarn would float across 5-8 stitches and I would have to catch/trap the floats on both the knit and purl rows. I decided to catch the float every 3 stitches (roughly).

I found these videos on YouTube which I found helpful in how to catch the floats and keep the sides neat and avoid holes.

Working on right side

Working on wrong side

But then! There was a third surprising issue - there are 2 rows where you are using 3 colours! That means you have to carry 2 unused colours along the back of your work. I don't think I've ever done this before. I also had to do it on the right and wrong side of the work.

But instead of taking my time and maintaining a consistent yarn position for the colours or even looking up how best to do it... I just did it... and I'm not happy with the outcome. 😞 

My yarns got twisted, I lost my colour dominance and I gave up catching floats. You can see the difference on the back of the work.

 

back of stranded colourwork

 

I would like to share a tutorial here of stranding with 3 colours in flat knitting but I haven't found one...😆

I think the advice I can give is to maintain your dominant colours and just take your time!

And remember, it's only 2 rows.

Overall it doesn't look too bad on the front but I really have to decide NOW if I've going to unpick it and redo the three colour row. But I think I won't really know how bad it is until I've finished that section - about another 20 rows to go - and washed it. Stranded colourwork always looks better after a soak.

 

unfinished blanket

 

Part 2 - Pumpkin Picking 

So! I decided not to unpick my wonky stranding-3-colours rows. And I powered through the last of part 1. I think washing and blocking will fix some of the distortion and hopefully the 'busyness' of the rest of blanket will distract from it.😆

 

autumn inspired blanket

 

Part 2 starts with a honeycomb cable section and then there's more colourwork (which thankfully looks straightforward).

(Actually, Part 2 starts with a increase! We go from 192 stitches to 236 stitches).

I'm not a fan of knitting cables. They can feel a bit stop and start, like I'm building something. 

Cabling is essentially knitting your stitches in a different order to how they present on the needle. This creates lots of 3D texture as the knitting appears to curve and weave in and out across the surface.

There are lots and lots and lots of different cable patterns. Some with relatively simple twists and others with much more complex weaves.

To change the order in which you knit the stitches you can use a cable needle to hold some stitches whilst you knit others from your knitting needle. The cable needle (like a short DPN) can be held at the front or back of your knitting creating stitches that curve left or right. Hence the stopping and starting. However, the actual cabling row is often just 1 row in several so it's not too bad.

 

honeycomb cable

 

For this honeycomb cable there are only 2 cable rows in the 8 row pattern repeat. Which is just as well, because on those cable rows you are knitting all the stitches out of order. So that's a lot of stopping and starting.😆

Over the years I've learnt to work cabling without a cable needle. This technique works well when the cable is worked over a small number of stitches - like 4 or 6. You are basically sliding stitches off the needle and letting them dangle free whilst you reorder them on your left needle.

Tin Can Knits has a great tutorial showing you how its done on a 4 and 6 stitch cable.

You do have to be gentle with your knitting whilst doing this. Working with a DK yarn does mean the stitches are a wee bit small so you have to be smooth and confident with your movements! But I find it definitely suits me better.

I'm still very slow though.

 

autumn inspired blanket

 

I'm only just half way through the cable section and there's still all the colourwork to do and part 3 will be released on 23rd October.😬

I'm feeling proud of what I've achieved so far. The stranded colourwork looks mostly good, I did not give up on the 3-colour rows and I'm cabling!

 

30th October update

One week later and I'm still working on Part 2! I only have about 6 rows left then I can move onto Part 3. Part 4 has of course now been released too... So I'm 2 weeks behind now.

 

unfinished autumn theme knitted blanket

 

The cabling was actually ok in the end. I felt not using a cable needle really helped my flow and I found it quicker to work and less frustrating.

 

unfinished autumn theme knitted blanket

 

The pumpkin colourwork section was also straightforward. There's only a few rows were I felt compelled to catch the floats. 

And once I stopped trying to do two-handed colourwork on the wrong side purl row it all went a lot smoother.

 

pumpkin stranded colourwork

 

Part 3 features twisted stitches and more stranded colourwork. Hopefully I'll be able to maintain my momentum before more cabling in Part 4!

 

(and lets not mention the Irish moss stitch border)

 

5th November update

 

unfinished blanket

 

I have just about completed half of Part 3 - Changing Leaves.

This half uses a combination of knits and purls to make a checkerboard effect.

 

checkerboard knitting pattern

 

You also knit and purl into the back of stitches to add even more texture.

Like the first half of Part 1 this is a relatively simple block although I found I had to pay very close attention at each pattern change. Turns out I can't watch TV and count to 5 at the same time.

 

The second half of Part 3 is more stranded colourwork which looks straightforward but it's over 46 rows so it will take some time to do.

I am very slow at purling stranded colourwork but I am happy with how neat it's looking now I have slowed down.😆

The back is looking good too (just ignore the mess of the mushroom 3-colour row.

 

back side of unfinished blanket

 

14th November Update

 

autumn blanket

 

Not much progress to report this week. I'm still on Part 3. 

 

autumn blanket

 

26th November Update

Still on Part 3! I've now completed 2 rows of leaves.

 

autumn blanket

 

Nicola brought her FINISHED Forager Blanket to our Wednesday night Shop Group. I'm using this as motivation to get mine finished. 😆

 

blanket

 

22nd December Update

 

I have finally finished Part 3!

 

autumnal knitted blanket

 

The stranded colourwork in this section is not complex. I'm not sure why it took me so long to complete. Probably a lack of knitting time and my enthusiasm waning. 

I also made a big mistake. Having completed the leaves at night, I picked up the blanket to finish the stranded colourwork section the next day and... used the wrong chart. It took me 4 rows to realise. One good thing is that ColourLab DK is quite a sticky yarn so I could remove my needles, gentle rip back the wrong pattern and then slide the stitches back onto the needle.

Part 4 begins with a 1x1 cable pattern. Which I'm definitely going to try and do without a cable needle.

 

Forager Blanket is a free pattern from WYS released in 4 parts in October 2024. You can download the patterns on the WYS website. We have kits to knit this blanket in the shop and online.

Fiona Wright
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