A New Free Crochet Project

Ah, February. Even after all these years, I am still not used to a cold birthday month. I yearn for long warm evenings, the buzz of the crickets, even the tossing and turning and complaining that it’s too hot to sleep!

But, if I look out the window today, the sun is glorious.  It may well be below zero, but after the darkest northern European winter in history, I’ll take what I can get.

Because it’s still so cold, I’m taking full advantage and making warm stuff.  I have a new project in the pipeline, if you subscribe to my newsletter (you should, by the way.  Loads of fun stuff in there each fortnight), you’ll have seen some of my swatching.

I have a few balls of the new Scheepjes yarn, River Washed XL to try, and I’m making a snuggly cowl.

River Washed (regular and XL) has the same construction as the hugely popular Stone Washed.  Except in the River Washed the core is dyed as opposed to white, and the fuzz is a contrasting or complementary colour.  It’s a fantastic winter yarn. the cotton core is so soft, and the acrylic fuzz traps heat, making anything you make deliciously warm.

I’ve decided to use a combination of these four colours.  From left to right we have 982 Steenbras, 981 Colorado, 989 Yarra, and 988 Danube. These are all combinations of my favourite colours, so now I have to make the stitch pattern I have in mind work.

I’m going to use the braided puff stitch, which is fun but a little tricky to get just right, so right now there’s a LOT of frogging going on.  Luckily the River Washed is up to the task. It’s not the best yarn to frog, but luckily I’m not working a bunch of tight stitches, but lots of loops.

If you haven’t tried River Washed yet, now’s a great time.  This pattern is only going to use three balls of yarn, and at 3.30 euros a ball (or 2.99GBP/3.46USD) it’s a very affordable yarn.

Buy the yarn at Wool Warehouse*, who ship globally.

Or you can go to Caro’s Atelier* in the Netherlands

For more retailer choices, head to Scheepjes.com for the full list of stockists.

Stay tuned next week, I’ll have some progress shots, if my fingers haven’t fallen off from the cold!