Guenevere Pattern Suggestions

In a previous blog post, I talked about picking yarn for lace shawls and how using a 2-ply yarn really makes lace pop. Guenevere is the 2-ply fingering weight yarn available for Round Table Yarns, and there are several skeins (including several colors with two skeins available) currently available in the shop. Although I picked Guenevere specifically to go with my Astolat Shawl pattern, there are a number of other options out there from other designers that would work well for Guenevere. I've made a quick list based upon some of the projects that I might knit myself using Guenevere.

Haruni - I still haven't made one of these myself (I do plan to some day!), but this very popular shawl would look great with Guenevere (2 skeins)

Ashton Shawlette - I was struck by the delicate look of the shawl in the pictures for this pattern. It looks like you could just make it with one skein of Guenevere.

Henslowe - I've become a big fan of knitted on borders, so this shawl caught my eye with its gorgeous border. (This one also might squeak by with just one skein of Guenevere.)

Dark Valentine - This pattern can result in a scarf or wrap and would use one or two skeins of Guenevere, respectively.

Dayflower Cowl - I really like the stitch pattern used on this cowl and think Guenevere (1 skein) would highlight the delicate nature of it.

Wasabi Hat - You have to go look at this hat! The image of the top of this beret is quite striking. I think I'll add it to my queue.

NOTE: You should always do a gauge swatch--not just to check to see if your gauge matches but also to make sure that you like the resulting fabric that you get. If you find that although you have matched the gauge but you don't like how the fabric looks, that might not be the right pattern/yarn combination for you, so give another pattern a try.

I'm looking forward to seeing what patterns you match up with Guenevere. And I'm always happy to help if you have any questions about matching up a pattern to any of the selections from Round Table Yarns. Just drop me an email or a Ravelry message!

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The content in this post was first featured in my newsletter (May 5, 2015). If you'd like to keep up to date on my designs and yarn and receive content like this right in your email inbox, make sure to subscribe to my newsletter.

Yarn Selection: Two-Ply Yarns

Along with fiber content, you should also consider how the yarn has been created. By that, I mean how many plies it has and how tightly it has been twisted. If you are a spinner, you probably know at least a little about twist and plying, but I know that it's not something I really considered a lot before I started spinning and even then I didn't fully move some of those ideas over into my choice of non-handspun yarns for a while.

To give a very brief overview, yarn is fiber that's been given twist. Some yarn has more twist and some yarn has just enough twist to keep the fiber from drifting apart while you use it. And how much twist your yarn has can have a pretty big impact on your project (which you'll quickly find out if you do something like knit a sweater from Malabrigo Worsted Merino, which is a loosely spun singles yarn that pills and felts as soon as you look at it. Not something you really want to happen to your sweater that you've put a ton of hours into.)

Sometimes yarn is made with just a single ply--meaning one "strand" that has been twisted. Yarn can be made with two and three strands twisted together (2-ply and 3-ply) or even a really large number of plies in various arrangements. And the number of plies and the way it has been plied also greatly affects the outcome of your project.

Side note: Talking about plies can be a bit confusing because in some parts of the world, yarn weight--aka worsted vs. fingering--is talked about in terms of plies. In those cases, it doesn't actually mean the number of strands that have been twisted together, so be careful about what a yarn label description really means when it says it is a 2-ply or 3-ply, etc. (fingering weight is also listed as "4-ply" for example). The best way to determine number of plies (number of strands twisted together) is to take your yarn and untwist it until you can see the individual strands that make up the yarn (you'll have to hold the yarn as you count because as soon as you let go, most yarn will spring back into shape).

So where is all this going? Some yarn constructions are better suited to particular stitch patterns than others. If you want texture and cables to really pop, get a nice rounded yarn, a 3- or 4-ply (or more). But if you want your lace stitch patterns to really stand out, rather than going for a rounded yarn, look for something with just 2 plies. Why? When you take two strands of yarn and twist them together (to create a 2-ply yarn) the strands are usually twisted together in the opposite direction each single strand was spun. And as these 2 strands of yarn rotate around one another, they create a flatter overall surface rather than the more rounded balance of adding in an additional ply. These 2 strands are also pushing up against each other. All of this works together in a knitted item to create a fabric that wants to remain more open and airy. And what is more open and airy than lace stitches? (Interestingly, I recently learned that 2-ply yarn also makes garter stitch look really nice.)

All of the above is the reason why when I was choosing yarn bases for Round Table Yarns, I knew that I wanted a fingering weight base that had just 2 plies with not too tight of a twist so it would be just right for doing lace patterns, especially shawls. (The resulting yarn is Guenevere.)

So when you're considering whether or not a yarn might be right for the lace shawl you're planning to knit, do a little investigation and untwist it to count the plies.

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The content in this post was first featured in my newsletter (April 20, 2015). If you'd like to keep up to date on my designs and yarn and receive content like this right in your email inbox, make sure to subscribe to my newsletter.