I don’t care what the weatherman says, as far as I’m concerned it’s Spring. I’m so in the mood for happy, soft and airy cotton-blends. Nice, cheerful tops made of drapey, soft materials that feel cool on your skin.
I noticed I’m gravitating towards TinCanKnits designs. Probably because they have a lot of pretty amazing desings for small children, and I think I have a good excuse to test out some new summer yarn.
This pattern is Prairie Fire and it actually calls for lighter weight yarn than the yarn I chose for this project. The pattern calls for 3,5mm and 4,0mm, but I knit my version with a 5,0mm needle.
I cast on for a newborn size to get a project that would fit my 10 month old daughter and I’m very happy with how it turned out. It’s a bit longer than I intended, but I guess it’s more a dress/tunic than a top.
The great thing about this pattern is that it’s been written for both kids and adults, so you can make one for your mini you and then you can make one for yourself! I think I’m going to make another one using finer yarn too. The pattern is very well written and easy to follow.
Of course I need to write a bit about the yarn as well! I should actually say “Summer yarns”, because there’s more, but I’ll save that for another post. This yarn is Rico Desing FAshion Silk Blend DK. One ball weighs 50 grams, has a yardage of 220m/ 241 y and consists of 45% cotton, 45% silk and 10% polyamide for durability and strenght.
This dress was made using less than one ball and it could’ve been made longer. The texture of this yarn is very similar to the Alpaca Dream. This yarn is shaped like an I-Chord too and is very airy and light because of it. This type of construction also makes for a very ’round’ yarn that behaves like a 5ply yarn as far as texture goes.
What I mean by that is that this yarn makes textures pop in the knitted fabric. The rounded shape of the yarn makes for a great stitch definition that can result in amazing textures in cables, lace and textured knitting in general.
One difference between this type of yarn and a 5ply yarn is that this yarn is hollow, which makes for a very lightweight fabric. Because of this hollow-ness and the 10% polyamide the fabric will retain it’s shape.
The new yarns will arrive in the first weeks of April. I’ll be sure to write about the other yarns as soon as I’ve finished the samples I’m working on 🙂
Either way, I’m very happy with the way this yarn behaves and I can’t wait to start another project 🙂
Our little model enjoyed posing for this project so much I think I’ll be knitting more for her to model!
