A Woolberry Shipment Has Arrived!
Oh my, this My Sister Knits’ blog post/newsletter has led me down a rabbit hole! Let me tell you the story.
I wanted to let all of you know about the lovely new Woolberry yarns we have. The colors are just right for spring/summer knitting. This yarn is non-superwash, which we love. To be clear, superwash has its advantages but NSW is so much better for the environment and isn’t covered with a plastic coating. Plus, the finished project is lighter weight and it won’t grow as it’s worn. Woolberry is local and we like to support local indie dyers, especially when their yarn is this beautiful!
colorways left to right: Sandcastle, Fresh Eucalyptus, Pasture, Sunday Lilacs, Beachcomber
We have a collection of their Berry DK colorways along with matching Berry Suri lace weight ( blend of 74% Suri Alpaca and 26% silk). These are each beautiful on their own but when you put them together you create something exquisitely soft and luxurious!
I wanted to look up patterns as possible suggestions for you to consider. However, I needed to figure out what weight the DK and Suri held together would be before I could do that. Here comes the rabbit hole! Originally I thought it might be worsted but that was just a guess. I could suggest that you all swatch, holding both yarns together, and see what gauge your fabric is. Then you could look up patterns based on their gauge. That’s still a good option and we always encourage that.
You could use a matching color or a contrasting one! The color on the left is Sheep Seat and the two colors on the right are Nook.
My challenge was that I wanted to be more specific. I asked Google what DK and lace weight held together would be and ended up with a list of possibilities.
I checked a few out and the most thorough was this article. I used the suggestions under the heading ‘Different Put-ups of Different Yarns Held Together’. To double check my math, I also did the calculations under the heading ‘Two Different Yarns Held Together: An Easy Example’. After my brain turned to mush from doing all of that math, I ended up with the same answer: 211m/100g. I then checked the Yarn Weight Chart in the article and found that the resulting yarn weight is Aran! Whew!
© Kiyomi Burgin The Cheslie Toque would be a good option, found when I searched lace + DK
I wasn’t done yet! Now that I had the weight, I wanted to find patterns. I used a filter on Ravelry that I hadn’t used before. If you scroll down through the filter boxes, you come to ‘Yarn held together’. In that box you can choose Individual yarn weights. I chose lace and DK and then I also made sure that under the ‘How should these filters relate’ question I chose AND. This gave me three pages of patterns that specifically use both a DK weight yarn and a lace weight yarn.
Of course, you could just look up Aran weight patterns but this gives you specific patterns made with DK and usually a Mohair or Suri lace weight.
© SoHo Publishing #17 Tawny, designed by Erika Knight, found on the Aran weight patterns page
You can also go to the Woolberry Berry Suri page and look at the ‘Pattern Ideas’ tab.
Ravelry was a huge help in finding patterns once I knew the weight of the two yarns held together. Using the filters makes all the difference in the hunt for what you want to create. I encourage you to set aside some of your precious knitting time to explore them!
Come into the shop and choose the Woolberry colors that are calling to you; usually they’re the ones your eyes fall on first! And of course we’ll help you find a pattern if you so desire!
Happy knitting,
