Sublime Natural Aran Yarn and Pattern

So, at the end of what has proved to be a rather busy month, I can finally reveal what I've been working on for none other than Black Sheep Wools! In order to promote some new yarn, they wanted me to review the yarn and create a brand new pattern that will be available for free download from their website. Having been creatively bone idle for most of the summer I was itching to do something and this was the perfect opportunity to get my hands on the knitting needles again. 

The yarn is Sublime Natural Aran in Ecru, Portobello, Smithy and Gracie. The colours are beautiful - Portobello and Gracie are really rich, almost jewel-tones while Smithy is more marly and makes for a nice contrast with the other colours.The yarn is really lovely to knit with and, although at first I thought it was quite lightweight for an Aran, it thickens out to make a nice soft and fluid material. It is 100% wool, so it is a little fuzzy but lovely and soft, and I reckon this will keep me nice and cosy during the winter months. It's also made in England and supported by the Campaign for Wool, so you can rest assured that by buying this yarn you'll be doing England's sheep and wool industry some good!

So onto my pattern, which I hope showcases just how gorgeous this yarn is. Interestingly enough, the colours that were sent to me are reminiscent of the colour palette of the Anglesey landscape, which is lucky for me as I already had an entire project's worth of research! However I decided to expand my research and develop my Final Major Project even more, moving away from my painterly, abstract knits and looking back at traditional Welsh or Fair Isle patterns.

After knitting a few samples up I became very interested by figuring out ways to translate woven patterns into Fair Isle. Weaving, especially tapestry weaving, gives you more freedom with the amount of colours you can use whereas Fair Isle only allows you to use two per row, so this involved some tweaking and simplifying of traditional patterns such as check or welsh blankets. I really liked my Welsh Tapestry Blanket sample - both the way it looked and how it links back to my original inspiration worked really well and so I got to tweaking it, crafting it into a cowl shape and size and voila! Ready to knit!

Welsh Tapestry Blanket example

My samples, and Sublime Natural Aran Swatches

I'm really pleased with how it's turned out and I can't wait to see what you all make of it too! The rib gives a nice border and prevents the edge of the cowl curling over to reveal the inside, something I wasn't so keen on in my other three cowls. It's nice and tall too - so it'll definitely keep you warm on the side of a Welsh mountain.

The pattern is available to download from Black Sheep Wool's free pattern page right now and you can get the yarn from here! Simples.

Seaweed Fair Isle Cowl

Last but certainly not least, (my personal favourite) is the Seaweed cowl.

This one simplified a loose ink drawing of seaweed into a knittable image, which becomes fairly abstract and organic when the cowl is being worn.

You can see the links between photo, image and knitting sample here - all with the same distinct seaweed shape but each material/technique obviously offering different qualities! When I made the knitting sample, I was exploring duplicate stitch, which is how I managed 3 colours. The pattern for the seaweed remained largely the same when I was translating it for the cowl knitting pattern, with the exception of dropping the duplicate stitch element.

You can see the resulting final pattern more clearly here. There are 3 repeats lengthways, and the seaweed motif is mirrored in the round, which I think adds to the organic effect. Colours were picked out from my matching silk scarf (to be revealed later!) and I think they compliment each other really nicely, especially thanks to the yarn I used (Rowans SilkTwist) which has an almost glowy effect. Again, this cowl is available to purchase from my Etsy shop right here or, if you want to knit it yourself in your own colours then you can buy the pattern from Ravelry!!

Heather Fair Isle Cowl

Now I've given you a brief introduction to how I designed my cowls, and showed you my Holyhead Mountain cowl - it's time to meet cowl number 2, Heather.

This cowl was born out of scanning and blowing up my paintings of heather by massive amounts. "That's a nice painting," my tutor would say. "Let's blow it up by 200% again!" The result was an abstract mishmash of colour and texture.

I, like before, took the information in the image and tried to replicate that in my knitting samples. I practised with different colour combinations, and found that using colours quite similar worked really nicely together, and created subtle, organic pattern. 

Intarsia interpretation, which I didn't like as much - blocks of colour are less visually appealing. 

The end pattern used 3 complementary colours in purple and pink tones, together with one turquoise contrast, mixed with pale green lace weight yarn to add extra depth and variation to the colour. I knitted this cowl with a provisional cast on, and joined it with kitchener stitch - rather than knitting it in the round as I did with the other ones. 

I really love how this pattern combines geometric and organic shapes to create a really unique and interesting design. 

Like the Holyhead Cowl, you can download the pattern from Ravelry, or buy the original cowl from my Etsy shop! Please take a look and have a go!