Knit by Numbers Pattern Ideas — 4ply is back!
With the long-awaited return of Knit by Numbers 4ply, we round up our favourite fingering weight / 4-ply pattern ideas.
Knit by Numbers is our painting-kit-inspired range of over 100 different shades with each colour being available in a gradient from dark to light, all blended and spun at our mill in North Devon. With its brand new blend of 50% Falklands Merino and 50% British Bluefaced Leicester, it has a wonderful balance of next-to-the-skin softness, shine, drape and elegant stitch-definition. And with such a large choice of colours it’s perfect for gradient and colourwork projects, toys, shawls and garments.
As you can imagine, spinning all the colours in the new blend took quite a while but finally Knit by Numbers 4ply has arrived and it’s time to cast on ALL THE THINGS! We’ve really missed having this yarn available in all its glorious colours and we know many of you have too! We’re happy to say all the colours are back in stock and you can now choose from the vast array of patterns designed for this extensive palette.
Here are some of our favourites:
Mouche and Friends
Top of the list are the adorable knitted animals in Cinthia Vallet’s book Mouche & Friends! We have a Hazel (a squirrel in a 60s-style dress) and a Mouche (a bear in mill-friendly dungarees) in our showroom. They are just the best guardians of all our yarn-filled shelves. We have kits available for both of these, and in fact we were so eager for everyone to be able to knit their own little buddy that we spun these colours first out of all the 100+ shades we had to spin 😀
Mino Pullover Vest — Sylvia Watts-Cherry
Now that the weather is warming up we’re also looking towards lighter knits and eyeing up the Mino Pullover Vest by Sylvia Watts-Cherry. This cute peachy vest has a simple geometric style colour pattern on it, and would look great in a variety of shades – we recently saw a moody version that’s making us think that a navy (KBN122) and raspberry (KBN129) with yellow (KBN99) pops might be amazing! The original is in the palest orange (KBN18) with burgundy (KBN76) and teal (KBN94) for the contrasts.
Colourwork Cowls — Felicity Ford
We are always in awe of the amazing creations of our friend Felicity (Felix) Ford, who has made several of her intricate colourwork cowls using KBN 4ply. Think Like an Artist, Flombre and Polkamania! cowls are all knit as long tubes of different patterned sections, using the gradients to full effect as well as having fun with the pattern ideas.
Polkamania! uses the entire orange gradient (KBN13-18) with the brown gradient (KBN07-12) and we have a sample knitted up in the Turquoise (KBN37-42) and black (KBN01-06) gradients too which is stunning.
The Flombre set uses the Navy (KBN122-127) and Raspberry (KBN128-133) gradients.
Think Like an Artist: Ravelry | Polkamania! (Ravelry) | Flombre (Ravelry)
Crochet Shawls — Fay Dashper-Hughes
Another lovely friend, Fay Dashper-Hughes, has made some of our longstanding favourite crochet shawls in KBN 4ply – the geometrics of the Basalt Shawl in the neutral greys (KBN04 and KBN02) and the vibrant gradients of the Loft shawl (teal – KBN93/95/97 and the knitted version in copper – KBN116/118/120 ) show the palette to its full potential. The Loft shawl patterns are also available for DK weight.
Basalt: Ravelry | LoveCrafts
Loft (Knitted, 4ply): Ravelry | LoveCrafts
Loft (Crocheted, 4ply): Ravelry | LoveCrafts
Dracaena Cuffs — Sonja Bargielowska
A show sample favourite of ours that uses the 25g mini skeins is Sonja Bargielowska’s Dracaena Cuffs, which use a gradient with a hidden contrast colour pop on the inside hem which is a nice fun quick pattern. These are in the navy gradient (KBN123/125/127) with white (KBN55) and raspberry for the pop (KBN128).
Dracaena Cuffs: Ravelry
More garment options…
If you’re looking for garment inspiration, some of our favourite 4ply patterns are the Risttee by Aleks Byrd ( Ravelry | aleks-byrd.com) which uses the copper gradient (KBN116-120) with a grape (KBN86) contrast to show off the clever colourwork in the yoke of this sweater, or the simple texture of the Vaffel Tee by Kari-Helene Rane (Ravelry | Kari-Helene’s Website | LoveCrafts) is always a winner (worked in KBN90), and one of Sonja’s favourite jumpers is the Viburna by Fabienne Gassmann which is knitted sideways for some added intrigue! (shown in Mustard KBN113) (Ravelry | Laine Issue 12)
Let us know what you’re planning to make, as we love to see your projects and get inspiration from your amazing colour choices! Of course, if you’d like our help with picking your colours we also love doing that! Just pop us an email to [email protected] if you have any pattern or colour questions or suggestions and Donna will have a lovely time looking at all the options 😀
