As autumn rolls in here in Ireland, our Seasons Club members are enjoying two brand new designs by Eimear Earley. These patterns explore our autumnal theme with travelling stitches and the luxurious Nua Worsted.
Magical.
It’s the only word that we can use for our autumn club.
Why?
Because the moments that make up this transitional season are fleeting, yet we feel them so deeply. It’s like an internal clock is telling us to slow down and enjoy the cooler sun on our faces, and warm autumn breezes before the harshness of winter sets in.
It’s also when the colour palette of Nua Worsted truly shines.
Nua’s luxurious blend of merino, yak, and linen produces a squishy, warm base that’s a light beige before the colour is applied, so what you end up with are deep autumnal shades of all of your favourite colours on a base that exudes softness and warmth.
Now, take all the above and add in the joy of opening a package sent just to you filled with this squishy yarn in your favourite colours with extra seasonal treats and all the patterns and workshops you need to make the most of this package all wrapped up in a community live zoom with the club designer and a relaxed dedicated chat group.
See? Magical.
Now if you’re wondering what Eimear has designed with travelling stitches and Nua Worsted …
scroll on to find out more about these designs and hear from Eimear herself:
This might shock and appall some readers, but I have an admission: I love garter stitch.
And, possibly even more controversial, I adore 70s style prints.
I find the repetitive motions of garter stitch soothing – but I also like to add little extra touches. I like the squishy, flexible fabric of garter stitch, despite how it stretches beyond reckoning when trying to measure gauge!
Has that happened to you?
My childhood was spent surrounded by plenty of 70s homewares – all those bold prints and vibrant shades of yellow, orange, and brown – very much of the time. I still like to scour second-hand shops for items that survived the 90s purge of patterned items.
Looking through online images of 70s prints, I’ve noticed that quite a few wallpaper and textile designs are based on repeating leaf or floral-based images. Which, in turn, reminded me of falling leaves in autumn.
This Autumn Seasons Club includes the Coll Hat (pronounced roughly ‘Coll’, Irish for Hazel), and
Beith Cowl (pronounced roughly ‘beh’, Irish for Birch) – two patterns that explore repeating, leaf-
based motifs.
Both patterns are named for native Irish trees, and letters in the ogham alphabet.
According to mythology, the birch tree symbolises renewal and the hazel tree is associated with wisdom – did you know it features in some versions of the Salmon of Knowledge?
Seasons Club Yarn
The samples are worked in the seasonal colour option – Rolling Bales and Harvest Moon. I couldn’t
resist the yellow and orange combination, given my inspiration! Just take a look at these yarns together:
Both patterns feature travelling stitch motifs, worked over a striped garter stitch background. The
travelling stitches are worked in the same way as cable crossings – but with a very different
appearance.
Both patterns are worked in the round; the garter stitch background of single-round stripes gives
an appearance of blended colours. One colour is worked per round, with travelling stitches slipped
on contrast colour rounds.
The Coll Hat
The Coll Hat—written in 3 sizes—features a travelling stitch panel over a striped garter stitch background. It begins with a ribbed brim in the main colour, before joining the contrast colour for the travelling stitch motif. The leaf motif is then adapted to fit within the crown decreases
The Beith Cowl
The Beith Cowl—written for two sizes—features an all-over variation of the leaf-based travelling stitch motif you can see in the Coll Hat. The pattern begins with a border worked in the main colour only, before joining in the contrast colour and introducing the slipped stitch motif. It is worked without shaping, and ends with another border in the primary colour.
These reasonably small projects in worsted-weight yarn are a great opportunity to practise our club techniques if you are unfamiliar. Both patterns use the alternating cable cast on, with an additional set-up row for 2×2 ribbing and the cowl is finished with a tubular bind off. Of course, you could also
substitute for your own preferred cast on and bind-off methods if you wish.
The cowl comes in two sizes, a short one that fits the neck snugly and a longer version that will drape. You can see both in our samples above, the long version is shown in the seasonal colours (Rolling Bales and Harvest Moon) and the shorter version is shown in brights with Café Flamingo and Cerebellum.
Before I go, I’ll leave you with one last question – don’t we all love to maximise our yarn?
We make this easy in the club by alternating the main colour between the two patterns. This way, the pattern will match beautifully and you can use the yarn to its fullest.
Club Extras
Yes, this season our club members are enjoying an Irish breakfast tea and some gorgeous and top it all off the Cookbook Circle have created possibly the best brown butter and rye cookie recipe for the club. Believe me, Laura test baked these cookies, and they didn’t last 30 mins out of the oven!
They also pair extremely well with the breakfast tea.
Just saying!
Oh, and if you’d like to join us and nab all the digital sides of the club above, this section is for you 👇
Join The Club
You can now purchase the single Season Club Autumn 2024 digital version here. This gives you access to the pattern, all the step-by-step workshops, exclusive forums, and our live zoom launch and replay.
MEET OUR FEATURE DESIGNER
Eimear Earley lives in Dublin, Ireland, with two small humans and a supportive spouse. Eimear originally learned to knit as a schoolchild, dabbling with leftovers of yarn and absolutely no concept of gauge or ease during her teenage years. After spending her student years playing with molten glass, she now gets her creative kicks from knitting and spinning wool—much more practical pursuits. Eimear loves to reinterpret old Irish things into modern knitwear, from ancient gold artifacts to less ancient cable knitting.
Stay up to date with all of Eimear’s designs and publications here.