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  • Knit Now Design Challenge

    August 14, 2015 3 min read 0 Comments

    THE CHALLENGE

    Earlier in the year I was contacted by Kate Heppell the editor of Knit Now. Kate said she'd like to feature the Mabel & Ivy Coast Ombré packs in their design challenge. The design challenge is a regular feature in the magazine, each month the Knit Now Design Team are set the challenge of designing something new using less than 100g of yarn!

     

     

    THE YARN

     

    Each pack of Coast Ombré contains five shades of Mabel & Ivy Coast in complimentary or contrasting shades, each cake of yarn is 10g / 75m so there's 50g of yarn altogether!

    Coast is a blend of cotton and lambswool, it is a light fingering weight so not quite a lace weight yarn. It has a wonderful drape to the finished fabric and lends itself beautifully to lightweight summer knits. 

     

     

    THE DESIGNERS

     

    The three designers to take up the challenge were Aurelie Colas, Jacinta Bowie and Sarah Knight. Each designer were given a different shade pack and here's what they did with them....

     

    THE DESIGNS

     

    The Mini Hap Cowl is Aurelie Colas' interpretation of the traditional Shetland hap shawl. Aurelie has used pack two which includes Geranium, Redcurrant, Begonia, Fairy and Ecru. The centre is knit in garter stitch and then edged with a feather and fan border. An easy to wear piece which with certainly keep you warm on chilly summer evenings.

     

     

    Jacinta Bowie made clever use of her shade pack. Her lightweight beret is knitted flat with short-row wedges in the five different colours of pack one; Harbour, Tweed, Kingfisher, Robins Egg and Dove. Roberta Beret can then either be felted with a quick wash or left depending on the look you want. Jacinta finished off the look with a cute pom-pom!

     

     

    Designer Sarah Knight loves doodling as much as knitting! Her design, the Geometrice e-Reader Cosy is inspired by her sketches and uses the five colours from pack four to full effect with stripes, triangles and diamonds. This would make a great first time colourwork project as Sarah's design only uses two colours at any one time.

     

     

     

    All three designers have certainly rose to the challenge I think you'll agree! If you fancy knitting any of these projects they can be found in Knit Now, issue 50. You may still be able to pick up a copy from the supermarket otherwise it can be ordered online. 

     

    Designer Michael Harrigan was also up for the challenge! He took two Ombré packs and produced the most beautiful asymmetric shawl design. Forest Fantasy incorporates five different lace patterns each are knit in one of the colours from pack two from Geranium through to Ecru. This would be a great project if you are looking to broaden you lace knitting skills, the pattern is now available to purchase on Ravelry 

     

       

     

    Should you decide to use a Coast Ombré pack in your next knitting or crochet project do share with us what you make. You can find us on Twitter as @TangledYarn and Instagram as @tangledyarnuk, use the hashtag #tangledyarnuk

     

    About the Author

    Rachel Owen is the owner of Tangled Yarn. As a mother to two teenagers life is never dull! When she's not knitting can be found wandering the Pennines with her faithful cocker spaniel Bailee. Her favourite colour is blue or is it green? And she could sink a ship with the amount of tea she drinks!