Knit a Jumper with Shetland Style

As I sat down to write about the Soorik pattern from Gudrun Johnston, the word “jumper” sprang to mind, though I doubt the designer would call this little dress a jumper. Where they live a jumper is no doubt what I would call a sweater in the States, but I don’t know what a more correct word for this design would be. I guess dress would work!

Whatever you want to call it, it’s a lovely little design with classic Shetland colorwork motifs on the bodice front and back as well as on the patch pockets. It calls for fingering weight yarn in five colors and is worked in one piece from the bottom up. It’s worked completely in the round so you will have some steeks to contend with, but that just adds to the fun.

It comes in eight sizes, and measures from the under bust ranging from 32.25 to 58.25 inches, or 82 to 148 cm. It’s designed to have 2 to 4 inches (5-10 cm) of positive ease in that area.

This looks like a lovely everyday dress to wear over leggings and a long-sleeved shirt when it’s cold out, or over a flowy lightweight shirt in the summer.

What’s really cool about this pattern (which is available on Ravelry) is that it’s part of Gudrun’s collection of patterns from The Shetland Trader, her mother’s made-to-order knitwear business. This pattern is part of her third collection from The Shetland Trader; this one has 11 patterns inspired by garments her mother made in the 1970s. (You can see all the patterns on Ravelry.)

You can purchase the individual patterns or the full digital ebook on Ravelry or buy a print book from pompom magazine. (They are winding down production this year so I don’t know how long printed books will be available.)

I love the idea of knitting these patterns that preserve the history of knitting in Gudrun’s family and in Shetland more generally, and this is just one of a series of collections she’s done, so if you like the idea you should check out her other collections, too.

[Photo: Ali Denney]

Knit a Dress without Knitting a Swatch

Knit Your Own Little Black Dress (Or Whatever Color You Want)

For the past few years I’ve taken part in a Christmas in July blog hop that encourages people to get a jump on their making for holiday gifts.

I love to use yarn I already have for these projects in the hope that people will consider what they already have that they can use to make projects for themselves or to give as gifts.

This year it was a couple of knit baskets made using partial balls of yarn left in my stash from other projects.

They use the same basic pattern but the first one is made with two colors of bulky yarn, and the second used two strands of worsted weight yarn held together, which made the gauge about the same, but I cast on fewer stitches to make a smaller version.

The bottom of the basket is square, though you can make them rectangular if you’d rather. Then I just knit up the sides in rounds until I was about to run out of yarn. This gave both baskets rather short sides — maybe more like a tray than a basket — but you can keep knitting as long as you like to make the sides of your basket as tall as you want.

They’re worked in seed stitch, which keeps the edges from curling and adds a nice texture to the baskets.

Of course this also allows you to use even more odd balls from your stash. I’d love to make a big one someday combining lots of different yarn. I mean, I’d probably use it to store more yarn, but that’s a fine thing to do.

As it is, these little trays are great for sitting on your desk or bedside table to hold little things that always seem to appear there. I like to use one to hold the supplies for whatever project I’m working on, things like little scissors, my tape measure, a crochet hook, etc.

And they would make good gifts on their own or as a container to hold some other goodies if you like.

You can find the free pattern for these stash busting baskets over at Our Daily Craft.

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