Back in July, when Amy & I met-up at Knit Wit to check out the Quince & Co. Yarns, we both decided that we wanted to design something new with it. In making this project, Quince & Co.’s Chickadee has quickly become one of my new favorite yarns – and it’s seemingly endless color range has pushed me into a bit of a colorwork phase.
As soon as I had my colors in my hands I knew I wanted to do some kind of diminishing colorwork pattern with the yellow fading into blue. The color combination also had me thinking of the Swedish flag, so I did some internet searching for inspiration and came up with the concepts that became krona. Krona means crown in Swedish and a Swedish crown is both the literal Swedish royal crown as well as a braided hairstyle, both of which I tried to reflect in this pattern.
The braided band on both the tam and mittens is knit flat and seamed, and then the main pattern stitches are picked up from the band edges and knit in the round. The mittens are identical on the front and back and can be worn on either hand.
Because Chickadee is a sport-weight yarn, I lined the mittens from the braided band up for extra warmth.
The tam sports the same colorwork pattern as the mittens, adapted to the hat shape. The tam is designed for head 20-22 inches in circumference and sits shallowly on the head.
I received a good deal of good-natured ribbing from my knitting friends while working on this pattern, because I tended to unconsciously match my outfit to my knitting (does anyone else do this?), so my outfit in the photos is a tribute to the Portland Knitters on the Town.
You can queue up the tam and mittens on Ravelry.
You can buy the patterns individually here:
Mittens – $5.00 USD
Tam – $4.00 USD
or together for a $2.00 discount
October 31, 2010 at 6:28 PM
They’re just beautiful! And super-timely, given the temperature when we trick-or-treated this evening.
October 31, 2010 at 7:17 PM
It was pretty cold here too, but I only had to open the door for the trick or treaters
I saw you posted your Quince design tonight too. We must be on the same wavelength.
November 1, 2010 at 1:16 AM
so so so cute.
November 1, 2010 at 1:53 AM
Heh, being a Swede my first thought was “I wonder if she means the Swedish word”. Then I saw the colours and became more convinced. Krona is also our currency.
The cap and the mittens look very good.
November 1, 2010 at 5:41 AM
Whew!! I’m glad krona meant what I thought it did. I’m glad you like them
November 1, 2010 at 12:57 PM
They are so fun!
November 2, 2010 at 1:54 PM
I love it! Perfect colours!
November 3, 2010 at 3:53 PM
This is lovely! The tam looks like a crown!
March 21, 2011 at 1:40 PM
[...] of our Quince and Co. Someone-Else-Did-It patterns: The lovely Krona hat and mittens designed by Leah Thibeault. Knitted in Chickadee colors that remind us of blue skies and daffodil fields. Note the details: [...]
March 21, 2011 at 7:50 PM
[...] other news, my Krona knitting patterns were featured today on the Quince & Co. Website. Much thanks to Pam for [...]
April 24, 2011 at 3:13 PM
I followed the link from the Quince website because I was convinced you are a Swede after seeing your design. Really! The Crown is also their currency. You seriously did a great job of making something very Swedish. “Bra gjört! (I think that means “well done!”)
Cheryl
April 24, 2011 at 4:36 PM
Not a Swede unfortunately, but when I lived in Chicago I was in Andersonville, a historically Swedish neighborhood – that served as some of my inspiration. Glad to hear I did a okay job passing as Swedish though
July 21, 2011 at 7:20 AM
[...] yarn producer opened up shop literally up the street from where I work, I’ve been a huge fan and when the opportunity arose to publish this shawl pattern with them, I leapt at the [...]