Lightkeeper Yarn Bundle - DK

From the many patterns I sifted through, the Lightkeeper design stood out as beautifully elegant, and I thought it would look marvellous knitted up in our vintage 23 DK, in Natural Grey. And it would fit a 2-litre bottle! 

I knew just from looking at the beautiful imagery in the Lightkeeper pattern that there would be some challenges for me in there. And that was confirmed when I read the Pattern Notes. I was thrilled, for instance, to do my first winding cast on which creates a seamless bottom to the bottle cover. I realise that sock knitters are probably using this method all the time but, not being a sock knitter, I was thrilled to master this technique for the first time on my bottle cover. 

The main body, which is perfectly charted in the pattern and easy to follow, comprised another couple of new techniques for me. The Right Twist and the Left Twist, which create the lovely cable effect on the main body, once practiced a couple of times became quite a rhythmic process and the finished fabric is a joy! Finally, I felt elated when I mastered the ‘afterthought’ opening (where the bottle slips into the cover) AND the i-cord finishing with a button loop! 

 For a small accessory, this beautifully designed hot water bottle cover, with its invitingly plush texture, is so much more than a functional item. It’s become a decorative piece in our house!

 Details:  I used size 3.25mm needles, 3 skeins of vintage 23 DK in Natural Grey (this allowed plenty for practice swatching).  I used my hot water bottle as a model during construction and when knitting up the main body I needed a few less chart repeats than the pattern to get the right body length. Similarly, I needed slightly fewer rounds than the pattern to get the right neck length.

The pattern was published by KDD Designs and is available here or Ravelry here

A bit about vintage 23

You know the joy and sheer satisfaction of turning beautiful wool into favourite garments? Well, you’re going to love vintage 23!  It’s our latest yarn blend and, in keeping with the wool decanted aim to create the softest British yarns, vintage 23 is right up there on the softness scale. It’s deliciously next to skin soft! 

How did we produce such a soft yarn?

We chose our fibres carefully.  Starting first with the white of Falklands Polwarth with its long staple length which produces a strong, smooth, and silky yarn. It’s soft enough to be worn next to the skin. Then we added some white Romney fibre from Kent, with a long and lustrous staple, and well-defined crimp, adding a bit of depth and strength to the blend. We knew, from creating our vintage 20 yarn, that adding a small amount of coloured fleece to the white would create a uniquely coloured base.  We added just a touch of black Shetland fibre to the white.  Rich black Scottish Shetland locks, from the softest part of the Shetland fleece, mixed with the pure white of the Polwarth and Romney created a beautiful, natural, light heathery grey base.

What about the colours?

Dyed as blended tops, the light grey base has allowed for colour of a special richness in our 8-colour palette.  We’re going to be able to create some great colour combinations, and the natural grey works with all of them!  We’ve replicated many of our existing colours and added the natural grey, Bottle Green, Claret and Island Dusk (a beautiful dusky pink).