What's in a name? You may wonder where the name for my new design came from. The Allotment Shrug is inspired by the very yarn my version is knitted with. Down the Allotment is a range of double knit yarn created by John Arbon Textiles here in Devon to celebrate their Virtual Mill Open Weekend. It was a great weekend of guest speakers all over the powers of Zoom, from designers and dyers to inputs on colour theory I really enjoyed it. So, when I found out there was a special yarn to go with such a great weekend it seemed rude not to buy some. I went for two sets of the minis. This consisted of all ten colours in 10g skeins. I knew when I got it that I wanted to stripe them and have a wearable and so was born the idea of a top down, no sewing up shrug to really show case such great yarn.
This shrug is worked from the top down, I have stripped the yarn as it came out of the bag, before it splits for some back shaping and then the arms, with more stripes and an Icelandic cast off which was something very new for me and gives a really lovely edge to the garter stitch edging.
This would look fantastic in any sort of yarn or even more stripes and scraps so you really can have some fun with it. I knitted it over a week away and it really did take no time. Knitted in one piece means you create the raglan sleeves until you split to create just a little bit of body that is shaped to sit across your back, before returning to the sleeves. These are knitted in the round, I do love a double pointed needle so they are my go to for sleeves but you could do the mystical magic loop with a circular (something I just can't get me head around for some reason). The sleeves are three quarter length but with more yarn you could extend these.
It's a lovely snug fit and as my wonderful tester would confirm doesn't need blocking (although you can, of course). I don't often share pictures of me wearing my creations but I think this one is a must so you can see how it fits on the body.
I wore this for the first time in public at Stitch Fest. It's a yarn show at Newton Abbot and I was thrilled that it got lots of lovely comments. You never quite know when you design something how it will be received so when a perfect stranger likes what you've made it really makes your day.
I hope you will enjoy making this as I have in designing it. The pattern will go live both on here and in my Ravelry Store on Tuesday 5 December - here's the link: Payhip