Cosy knitting patterns, scrap yarn and clearing WIPs [Marina Skua Ep 77]

It’s my last public crafty podcast video for a few months! Join me to see my recently released knitting patterns and some knitting, spinning and embroidery projects that I'm hoping to finish soon for a bit of a clean slate!

Three (sort of) new knitting patterns, scrap yarn projects and finishing up some WIPs. 

I wasn’t sure if I was going to have time to film another podcast before going on maternity leave, but as you can see, I just about managed it! If you’re reading this before autumn 2026, I’m officially on leave, and honestly, I've been really excited for it. Things have been a bit manic recently, and I’m very much looking forward to a rest.

Before I semi-vanish for a while, I wanted to share a few craft projects I’ve been working on, some knitting, a little spinning, and also talk through a few knitting patterns that have been released since we last caught up.

My new knitting pattern releases

All of these have been previously released in various knitting publications and are now available from me as individual knitting patterns, either directly from my website or on Ravelry.

Frosty Mornings Sweater.

Firstly, the sweater I am wearing is my Frosty Mornings Sweater. This knit design was originally published in The Knitter, Issue 208, inspired by winter mornings in the garden. The design draws on the traces of frost on all the flowers and plants before the sun reaches them and everything melts. 

It's probably the most amount of swatching I’ve ever done for a single knit design, as the yoke combines stranded colourwork and cables at the same time. It’s a really enjoyable knit, but it does mean there’s a bit going on.

Because of that complexity, the pattern uses several needle sizes to help manage gauge across the yoke and keep everything consistent. The sweater is worked top down, with short rows added below the yoke to raise the back neck, and finished with corrugated ribbing and tubular bind-offs at the cuffs and hem.

I knit the sample using my hand-dyed Mendip DK, using the Clay colourway dyed on both the Cloudy and Sunny bases. The same colour behaves quite differently on each base - the sunny on the white base is this peachy apricot, and the cloudy on the grey gives an almost pinky taupe. Paired together, they give a softer contrast which I think works particularly well with this colourwork/cable sweater. The cables add texture and definition that help them pop a bit more alongside the colourwork.

If you’re brand new to either knitting stranded colourwork or cables, Frosty Mornings isn’t a knitting pattern I’d recommend, but if you’re comfortable and enjoy knitting both, it’s a really satisfying knit.

Find the Frosty Mornings knitting pattern on my website
Find the Frosty Mornings knitting pattern on Ravelry

Hayward Mitts

I designed the Hayward Mitts for Issue Three of The Annual by John Arbon Textiles. The name, Hayward, comes from 'Hay Wardens', who traditionally protected crops from cows, and so the design itself is inspired by traditional West Country shepherd smocks.  

The idea was to use various knit techniques to convey some of the details of the smocks, so we have stranded colourwork to suggest embroidery, a herringbone cuff to mimic smocking, and moss stitch because, well, I love moss stitch.

The Hayward Mitts are worked from the bottom up. The cuffs are knit flat with a button fastening for a closer fit, then the rest of the mitt is worked in the round, with stranded colourwork throughout. There are a few points in the pattern where you can easily adjust the length, either at the wrist or over the hand.

This particular knit design can also be worked at two different gauges using the same instructions. They can be knit at either a 24 stitch gauge in DK (I used John Arbon Devonia DK) or 27 stitches in a sport weight yarn (I used John Arbon Yarnadelic Sport). The latter comes out just a little bit smaller and neater. 

Find the Hayward Mitts knitting pattern on my website
Find the Hayward Mitts knitting pattern on Ravelry

Conflux Sweater

I’ve been wearing this one a lot recently, but this is Conflux, a textured ribbed jumper knitting pattern I designed for The Knitter, issue 212. 

Conflux is worked bottom up, with alternating sections of ribbing and moss stitch that appear to converge in the middle - hence the name. The body is knit in the round, then separated for sleeves and neckline, with the shoulders joined using a three-needle bind off. Sleeves are picked up and worked in the round, with the stitch pattern mirrored so the design flows consistently throughout the sweater.

One of my favourite unplanned details is how the hem sits slightly higher at the centre and dips gently towards the sides. The diagonal structure created by paired increases and decreases also causes the fabric to slope naturally at the shoulders, meaning no short row shaping is needed.

Conflux is very much a knitting pattern for knitters who love attention to detail. I enjoy how all the knitted elements fit neatly together; the way the ribbing flows into the textured sections, the symmetry across the body, and how the shoulder seam lines up neatly with the central column of purl stitches. It’s all just very satisfying knitting, and the kind of design work I love to create.

I knit this sample in my hand-dyed Mendip DK, just like Frosty Mornings, this time in Ore on the Cloudy base. This knit design really shows how stitch pattern affects yarn behaviour. Mendip has a lot of spring and bounce to it, which helps with the stretchiness of the cables across the yoke of my Frosty Mornings sweater, but also helps with the structure of the texture in the Conflux sweater. 

One important thing to note is that the stitch patterns for the body are charted only. Due to the scale of this particular knit design and the grading across sizes, written instructions just weren’t practical here. The PDF includes several charts, but you’ll only need the ones relevant to your size. If you’re comfortable working from charts, it’s not difficult to follow, but if you strongly prefer written instructions, this may not be the best fit.

Despite the complexity of the design process, Conflux is a jumper I loved knitting, and is a design I would love to make again - perhaps with some handspun solace blend, one of my own British wool spinning fibre blends. 

Find the Conflux Jumper knitting pattern on my website
Find the Conflux Jumper knitting pattern on Ravelry

My recent knitting projects

I finished my Scrumper Waistcoat using Black Isle Yarns

I also have a finished object to share - my third Scrumper Waistcoat. 

I never expected to love this waistcoat knitting pattern quite so much, or for it to become my most popular knit design, but I’m very happy knitters seem to be appreciating the grandpa vibes! 

I knit this in a discontinued Longwool Blend from Black Isle Yarns. It's naturally dyed wool yarn in a colour called Ginger, and I picked this up from Julie at the last Edinburgh Yarn Festival, so about 5 years ago now. It’s a slightly boucle yarn that’s labelled as a 4-ply but behaves more like a sport weight, and I’ve knitted it at a slightly looser gauge to get a really lovely, drapey fabric.

I don’t usually like reknitting patterns, although if you’re a regular of the podcast/blog, you’ll notice a trend towards me doing more of it!, but, for me, a shorter Scrumper is the perfect 200g knitting project -  a quantity of yarn I often find slightly annoying, so I love having a knitting pattern that makes perfect use of it.

The Scrumper Waistcoat is written for DK-weight yarn and is worked from the bottom up. The original version is longer, with six buttons, but it’s very easy to customise the length. This cropped version has just four buttonholes, something I’ve now done twice. I really love how wearable it is. I can wear it open over a dress or buttoned up and layered under a handknit cardigan for a bit more warmth, so I’m pleased to have another one in my wardrobe.

Buttonwise, I went through my stash and was considering using some more of Tom Dyson's handmade wooden buttons I used for one of my other samples (and so many more of my handknit cardigans, because I love them), but I ended up going for four metal buttons, which give it a slightly antiquey feel that works so nicely with the yarn colour.

Find the Scrumper Waistcoat knitting pattern on my website
FInd the Scrumper Waistcoat knitting pattern on Ravelry

I’m knitting a massive scrappy cardigan

This giant scrappy cardigan knitting project is something I’ve been working on for a while now (I think I cast on in 2021), and it’s basically one big hug of a stash busting knit.

It involves all sorts of scrap yarn; some handspun, some from a frogged cardigan, some leftover from a weaving project for fabric that I turned into a dress... I've been focusing on finishing up the smaller balls and scraps I have in my stash, with one glorious handspun one made with soy as the common thread throughout the whole project.

I'm knitting it up on 8 mm needles, and have just finished the hem and moved onto a big improvised shawl collar with some serious short rows to shape it. It's quite difficult to see what's going on just because there's so much visual chaos, but I love it. I often dislike scrap yarn projects because they can look messy or a bit clashy, and I'm not keen on that. However, these colours - all the reds and orangey shades - are very much my colour palette.

It would have been nice to have had it finished to show you, as I think this was possibly one of the last knitting projects I showed before going on maternity leave last time, but alas. It is working up very quickly though, so I'll finish that in the next couple of days. It’s slightly ridiculous how long I have been working on it for, but it’s been one of those projects that I keep putting off, probably because it requires my brain to make decisions about yarn choice, but now the finish line is in sight!  I can’t wait to wear it and be the cosiest person in the world. 

My Spinning Projects

I’m spinning up scrap yarn to make a rug

There’s a bit of a scrappy theme going on, as I’ve also been working on turning a bag of yarn chaos into a handspun yarn to make a scrappy rug. 

I’m using all sorts for this craft project. They’re all short lengths that I’ve been saving, lots of loom waste, leftover bits from my handwoven skirt, some from a weaving project I did for my brother, a little from my woed dyed scrumper waistcoat… various things from different craft projects, really. And these are all yarn scraps that are too short to use on their own

I chopped everything up and have been shredding them with my hand carder. I’ve not been too thorough - there are some intact bits that you can see in the handspun skein, but I’m just really liking how this is looking. I started this when I only had my rigid heddle loom, but now that I have a floor loom, it’ll be perfect for weaving into a super tweedy scrappy rug.

The Big Spin

I’m still working on my wool fleece and flax blend and have finished my first bobbin of handspun yarn. I’ve set aside fibre for my second bobbin to ply with the first, and then there will be a third and fourth bobbin to follow suit. 

This spinning project is part of a much larger project that I am sure you are familiar with by now. I am spinning wool that I've naturally dyed and blended with toe flax, which I will eventually use for a weaving project. If you’d like a recap on the process, I’ve been documenting it in a playlist on YouTube. 

I am in the process of making a video about spinning the yarn, something I’d hoped to get it done before my maternity leave, but it is not happening. Unless you want an unsatisfying video in which I start spinning some yarn and don't finish it, which I don't think is very enjoyable. So the whole video will probably come out in the autumn next year when I am back after my maternity leave. 

I’m embroidering an old cashmere sweater

I did say we were clearing the craft project decks, and this is another very long-standing work in progress. I’m slowly embroidering my father’s old cashmere jumper. It had a few holes in it, some repaired by me, some repaired by others, and I’ve slowly been embellishing the more obvious repairs with embroidered autumn leaves. I’ve done a rowan and an oak leaf already, and I’m currently working on a sycamore. 

Theoretically, once I finish the sycamore leaf, the jumper will be wearable, with a sort of cascade of leaves coming down one side. It would be nice to have more leaves for balance, perhaps on the other side or down a sleeve, but for now, I would just like to be able to wear it. It’s a really lovely, very soft jumper in a colour that I enjoy, and I really like how the tealy blue contrasts with the autumn colours.

I have a new yarn to try from Wild Alpacaway

Wild Alpacaway kindly sent me this light aran, heavy worsted weight wool and alpaca yarn for me to try, all the way from the North West of Ireland. It’s 50% alpaca, from their own alpacas and 50% Blueface Leicester, from a flock of sheep very local to them. The yarn itself is a glorious, warm grey which is just so beautifully soft, and I know it’s going to have loads and loads of drape.

I have a couple of 100g balls, which at 175m each means I have 350m to work with. I want to do something lovely with it, possibly for one of the small children, but possibly for me because it’s just so lovely and soft and beautiful, and I don’t want it to be spoiled by said small children! So, I’m undecided on its fate.

It’s on my mind for a fresh, exciting cast on, possibly before Christmas, and so I’d love ideas on what to make with this yarn. Ideally, a knitting project that uses most of it without leaving leftover scraps. I’ve done some Ravelry searches using meterage and yarn weight, etc, but I would love to hear if you have any thoughts or recommendations or ideas or inspiration for this future knitting project.  Any input from you would be delightful. 

Bye-bye, for now

Before I wrap up, I want to say I am not disappearing forever. I will be back! While I’m on maternity leave, I’ll still be sharing the occasional video, but these will be much more casual and less frequent. These will be available as members-only videos on YouTube and Patreon, and will likely be filmed when I have a little scrap of time.

If you’d like to keep in touch and see what I'm up to, Patreon is the best place to find me over the next few months. There’s also a large back catalogue of videos there if you fancy binge-watching old episodes and catching up on previous crafty endeavours.

As a side note: if you do choose to join Patreon it’s much more expensive to sign up from the Patreon app on an iPhone or iPad - and the fees go straight to Apple, rather than me or Patreon. So, if you’d like to spend your money in a way that best supports creators, please do register on a desktop. 

The shop will remain open throughout my leave, so you still have access to my hand-dyed Mendip yarn and notions; however, orders will be shipped less frequently than usual. Knitting pattern downloads, of course, are instant and are 25% off until the end of December, with no code needed.

Thank you so much for being here. I’m so appreciative of everyone who watches (or reads) along and follows what I'm up to and leaves lovely comments. I shall be back next autumn, probably with lots of crafty things to talk about, so I'm looking forward to catching up with you then. 

In the meantime, I hope you have a lovely, lovely time and some happy crafting. 

Bye-bye for now.

Stay connected with all things Marina Skua

If you’d like to keep up with everything I’m working on between podcast episodes, please do subscribe to my newsletter. It’s the best way to stay in the loop about events I’ll be attending, shop updates, new product releases, publications, and additions to the website. You also get a 10% discount code with your next order.

I’ve also recently added an events page to the website, where you can see all the upcoming places I’ll be. Whether it’s events I’m attending, talks I’m giving, or markets where you can come and squish some hand-dyed British wool yarns or just have a chat in person.

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See you next time.