I have been working on this pattern for several months, and while I’ve made one other pattern using hand spun yarn to date, Brazeau are my very first pattern top to bottom that was made with hand spun. I chose a wool I wanted to use specifically for this project, I dyed the yarn, and I made the pattern as one holistic piece.
For the wool, I went with a local North Country Cheviot (available right here in the shop) for these hand warmers, specifically because I wanted something with some bounce and life to it. I also chose this wool because I wanted a finished knit that could take some abuse – North Country Cheviot is a wool that can take friction, and laundering (you can throw it on the delicate cycle, and hang to dry and it won’t felt!).
Perhaps more importantly, I designed the pattern to be easily adjustable at several points so that you can use up that entire precious skein of hand spun yarn. Knitting from the fingers down, all you have to do is weigh your skein, knit one hand warmer until you’re halfway through, bind off, and knit the other. If you’re anything like me you hate having weird amounts left over of your skeins, and Brazeau is designed to leave very little left over yarn.
In the PDF you not only receive the knitting pattern, but also the spinning recipe and dye recipe. All you need to bring is your fibre – there are complete steps to making this yarn included in the PDF including grist, twists per inch (singles, unfinished yarn, and finished yarn), prep and draft method, and more.
I had an absolute blast designing this yarn and pattern, and it’s something I’ll be doing a lot more of in the future. Creating a pattern from the yarn up has been an extremely satisfying process for me, and I hope you guys have an equally satisfying time knitting it.
You can check out the all the details here, and purchase the pattern through Ravelry right here.
