Knitting

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Yarn From Milk?

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This Spring, [tag]South West Trading Company[/tag] released the [tag]Vickie Howell Collection[/tag], a set of three types of yarn. These are [tag]Craft[/tag], made of 35% [tag]Milk Fiber[/tag] and 65% Organic Cotton; [tag]Rock[/tag], made of 40% [tag]Soysilk[/tag], 30% fine [tag]wool[/tag], and 30% [tag]hemp[/tag]; and [tag]Love[/tag], made of 70% [tag]Bamboo[/tag] and 30% [tag]Silk[/tag].

According to [tag]Knitting News Cast[/tag] review of the milk fiber yarn, the organic cotton has a softness and a wonderful drape due to the presence of the 35% milk fiber.

Stefanie Japel of [tag]Glampyre Knits[/tag] used both the Craft and the Rock in creating patterns for SWTC. She mentioned that she liked the yarns and loved the way they worked up.

Other than stores that sell the products, I haven’t been able to find any sites, blogs or usenets that have mentioned these yarns. They really sound like a wonderful addition to the yarn world and would certainly help those who are allergic to wool have additional choices in fiber.

Comments please if you have found the Vickie Howell Collection yarns at your LYS.

Comments

  2. Thanks Rhonda. I wanted to find more opinions of the yarn also. No one is writing comments on the ‘net about the yarn. Is it because it is hard to get, too expensive, or is everyone in the pool? 🙂

    Laura

Have you read?

Patchwork Blanket Knitting Patterns

Any time of year is a good time for stash busting, but if you can combine it with knitting a blanket that will keep you warm when it (finally!) gets cooler that’s even better. Let’s take a look at some fun patchwork blanket knitting patterns. 

If you want to keep it super simple, you can just make blocks of garter stitch and sew them together, like the beginner’s patchwork baby blanket from Mini Baa Baa or the color block blanket from Make and Do Crew. Both projects are worked in strips and sew together, with the baby version calling for two strands of DK or light worsted weight yarn held together and the larger one using bulky yarn. 

Add a little more texture with the mixed blocks of the cottage quilt throw from Mama in a Stitch. This one combines garter stitch and seed stitch and uses worsted weight yarn. She used a crochet join to make the chains on top of the blocks, but you can join them however you like. It calls for eight colors but you can use what you have, and there are three size options. 

Get a real sampler style patchwork blanket with this design from Knit Sew Make. It calls for worsted weight yarn and has four size options. All of the patterns just use knit and purl stitches so this one is still pretty easy for beginners. 

If you want a more complex colorwork project that will keep you entertained all season, try the Peace by Piece blanket pattern from Needle and Feather. This one is made up of two color colorwork blocks and calls for worsted weight yarn. You can choose to use just a few of the blocks and repeat them more often, or make multiples of the whole set. 

The knitted patchwork recipe from Martine Ellis (free on Ravelry) uses mitered squares in fingering weight yarn, so it’s perfect for using up all your leftover sock yarn and mini skeins. This one is a tutorial more than a pattern so you can make your blanket as big as you like or keep going until you run out of yarn. 

Susan B. Anderson’s 100 Squares blanket (find it on Ravelry) has a lot of mitered squares, too, but they’re arranged in fun ways and includes some quilt inspired designs as well. This one also is a bit of method more than pattern but it sure looks like a lot of fun for using all the leftovers. 

Of course you can totally improvise a patchwork blanket using the yarn and stitches you like, but I hope these patterns inspire you to look at your leftover yarn in a new way.