November's design: Yellow Wagtail scarf by Sarah Hatton

I can't believe we're now three-quarters of the way through the patterns from A Year of Techniques! It's been such brilliant fun, and we are so looking forward to seeing everybody's projects popping up on Ravelry and Instagram! Thank you all!

By November the weather will have turned cooler, and we'll be reaching for warm and cosy knitting projects. Sarah Hatton's Yellow Wagtail scarf couldn't be a better match for this time of year!

The perfect project for practising your cables. Image © Jesse Wild.

The perfect project for practising your cables. Image © Jesse Wild.

Sarah Hatton is an absolute master of texture, and she has worked for many of the top UK yarn companies. Her smashing design for A Year of Techniques absolutely fulfils our brief to create a cabled pattern that will allow knitters to really master knitting cables from charts. There are two different cable panels, with a centre worked in garter stitch. Increases and decreases are used to create an asymmetric shape, with the shaping worked on the same chart rows each time - making the pattern simple to follow.

The instructions come in both written and charted formats, so you can choose to work from written instructions to get going with the pattern before focussing on reading the charts once you have the pattern established.

The asymmetric shape allows some extra warmth around your neck, whilst not having too much fabric hanging down at the ends. Image © Jesse Wild.

The asymmetric shape allows some extra warmth around your neck, whilst not having too much fabric hanging down at the ends. Image © Jesse Wild.

I'm not sure I want to give Sarah back her beautiful sample that she knitted for us - it's SO deliciously cosy! Luckily I've already cast on for my own version, so I just need to get cabling in the knitalong in November so that I can have one for myself. Although I will need to keep the kids from stealing it!

I need to get cracking with my scarf once it's knitalong time! Image © Jesse Wild.

I need to get cracking with my scarf once it's knitalong time! Image © Jesse Wild.

The video tutorial for reading cables from charts will be available on Mason-Dixon Knitting from 1st November, which is also when the official knitalong (with prizes!) will start.

We have yarn available for making your Yellow Wagtail scarf - Jamieson & Smith Shetland Aran Worsted. The scarf uses 7 balls of this squishy, soft wool. We have a selection of colours available for you to choose from, ranging from deep red through to moss green. The Winter Kits (£42.00) are now available to pre-order and we will be shipping them in the week commencing 11th September once we have finished sending out all of the books!

Thank you once again to Sarah Hatton for designing this fantastically snuggly warm scarf for us! It's not too late (at all) to join in with A Year of Techniques - if you order a print + ebook combination (£19.99 plus shipping) you'll get the first 6 patterns now, with the remaining 6 delivered on 6th September, and the print book will be shipped very shortly. We can't wait to share it with you!

Tomorrow we will be revealing the first of the Winter designs, so do come back and read all about it!

March 2022 Update: We are now managing wholesale ourselves. Our books are currently available from Purlescence (UK), Modern Daily Knitting (USA) and Strickmich (EU).