Texture addiction is the key word for this design. I love how the colors came all together at the photoshoot. Photographer Eivind Røhne suggested we use the staircase on the side of the restaurant, and the result blew my mind again! To wear Keya with a pair of camel colored silk trousers was make up and hair artist Sissel Fylling’s advice since the wedding gowns looked to white against the sand colored shrug and scarf. Gorgeous model Alexandria Eissinger is wearing Keya Shrug with and without the extra back piece and the Keya Scarf as a collar as well as jewelry by Kaja Gjedebo Design. The Norwegian pattern will be published on Ravelry at the end of February as soon as I receive the pattern back from my Tech Editor. The English pattern will be test knitted in my Ravelry group before its release.
I knitted the scarf while I was waiting for sponsored yarn to arrive from Permin, Rowan’s agent in preparation for our meeting at Made by Me in august 2014. Then we decided to leave it out as it did not fit in the blue and grey color mix. Now with dress designer Judith Bech’s wedding gowns I decided to include it and design a shrug to go with it. Here is my introduction to the pattern: Voluminus hidden sand cables in a tweed mixture made of Rowan Lima and Rowan Fine Tweed, creates a divine texture for this shrug with bell cuffs worked sideways in one piece. You begin at one cuff and shape it in the round until the back where it is worked flat until the opposite sleeve. Why not lengthen the back by adding a loose back piece attached with an earring or a brooch? Make a loose reversible Keya scarf and use it as a collar for the shrug; named Keya after the bloom of a flower.
The shrug comes in size: XS/S (M/L, XL/2XL), while the scarf is one size. The shrug is worked from cuff to cuff with bell shaping at each end. The cuff and sleeve is worked in the round until armhole, then worked flat across the back to the opposite sleeve where it is worked in the round to the final bind off at the cuff. Only the width varies between the different sizes, not the length. You can easily adjust the length by removing or adding pattern repeats to each sleeve if desired.
Sample knitter Grete Jenssen, aka ma9 on Ravelry, knitted the shrug at her usual speed and perfection using 5.5 mm/US 9 needles. That is the recommended size for Rowan Lima but since I wanted the sand cables to pop I decided to use the same size even though the yarn is held together with the Rowan Fine Tweed. By holding the yarns together the color becomes richer and the texture even more pronounced. The yarns were generously sponsored by Rowan Yarns’ Scandinavian agent Permin.
The gauge is 16 stitches and 27 rows in garter stitch using both yarns held together. I often choose two thinner yarns held together, both with good meterage/yardage to create a denser texture, popping cables and a lighter garment instead of choosing a thick yarn usually with a shorter meterage/yardage that results in a heavier garment.
The loose back piece is attached using a gold brooch by Kaja Gjedebo Design at the center back of the shrug. It is knitted as a rectangle and meant to be pinned on when you need extra warmth on your lower back. An option would be to add buttonholes along the bottom of the flat back part of the shrug. In the photo above you see the scarf lying over the shrug as a collar from the back. Alexandria was ever so pleased that I kept her so warm in the cold October weather. This is one of the design that needed time to evolve, as some of them do.
