Settle in for some pom pom making with hand-spun yarn for some new felted slippers for my child, plus a look at my newly released Quickbeam knitting pattern, my finished hand-spun Pediment jumper, and current knitting and spinning projects.
New cardigan knitting pattern, a hand-spun jumper, silly felted slippers and more long draw spinning practice.
Winter is definitely settling in now, and it’s getting very chilly - something I’m enjoying because it means I can wrap up in lots of woolly hand-knits, but it also means the days are short, the light is scarce. I’ve gotten to the point where all I want to do is hibernate. I'm ready to just curl up on the sofa and knit and make things all day.
My attention has been scattered lately, but I’ve been having so much fun working on all sorts of craft projects. So, I thought I’d gather them all together and share what I’ve been doing.
I am wearing my Quickbeam Cardigan
If you’ve watched my recent podcasts, you might already recognise this knit design, but I have just released the knitting pattern for my Quickbeam Cardigan.
Quickbeam is a top-down, seamless saddle-shoulder cardigan with the buttonband worked at the same time as the body. The initial set-up around the neck is unusual, but I love playing with construction details, and the final fit is exceptionally satisfying. If you’re familiar with my Welanna Cardigan, it’s a similar set-up to that.
The saddle shoulders have a moss stitch panel that runs down the sleeve, morphing into these twisty details at the back of the forearm. I originally sketched this design out about two and a half years ago during a Patreon video, where I talked about how I turn what's in my head into something that can be knitted. That was a long time ago, so it's lovely seeing it out in the world, with knitters already casting on.
This is a top-down cardigan knitting pattern, and because the yoke shaping uses different rates of increases for the shoulders, neckline, sleeves and body, the pattern includes a yoke shaping table. You can tick off each row as you go and clearly see which shaping happens where. It’s basically a more formal version of the little coded charts I usually make for myself. It’s a little faffy, but as I said, it gives such a great fit around the shoulders, which I’m really proud of.
The yarn I used for this hand-knit cardigan is Rauma Finull, a bouncy, woollen-spun 100% Norwegian wool that sits as a heavier 4-ply wool. It's also very similar to my own Mendip 4-ply, so that’s a great alternative if you fancy knitting it in one of my own hand-dyed British wool yarns.
Find the Quickbeam Cardigan knitting pattern on my website
Find the Quickbeam Cardigan knitting pattern on Ravelry
I finished it with handmade wooden buttons
I finished my Quickbeam Cardigan with handmade wooden buttons made by Tom Dyson, which I stock in the shop. Tom makes these using locally felled trees from around the New Forest, near Southampton.
I chose the darker English laburnum wood buttons for my Quickbeam Cardigan in the 15mm size, but I also stock packs of the 20mm size too.
Alongside the laburnum, I also stock yew wood buttons, and I’ve recently added some cherry wood buttons, which are really, really pretty. They’ve got that similar warm tone to the yew, but with more variation from light to dark. Obviously, because they’re all natural wood, every button can vary.
Find Tom's buttons on my website
My recent sewing project
I sewed myself a comfy dress
You might remember this fabric from my summer trip to Somerset to visit Organic Textile Company with my friend Lorna from Thread & Yarn. I picked up 3m of this pretty purply-brown midweight organic cotton, with the plan of making a V-neck dress that I could layer under my hand-knit jumpers and cardigans - and that’s exactly what I have made.
I would tell you about the sewing pattern I used, an 80s Vogue Ralph Lauren pattern (Vogue 2497), but I went so far off piste from the original that it’s a little bit irrelevant. I used it as a rough guideline and then just changed… a lot of things.
I removed darts, widened and shortened the bodice, redesigned the sleeves, added pockets (of course), ignored the a-line skirt, removed an unnecessary side zip, and completely reshaped the front and back neckline.
As a result, my finished handmade dress bears very little resemblance to the Ralph Lauren design, but it was nice to have a starting point rather than having to draft an entire sewing pattern from scratch - especially when my brain wants to give up on things after a few minutes!
I’m really pleased with how it turned out. I might tweak the sleeves later, but it works for what my body is doing now, and I will be able to wear it after the baby arrives, too. It might be a little wide by then, but that just means it'll be comfy and something I can wear all year round - which is good as I’m definitely someone who wants maximum wear out of my handmade clothes.
My recent knitting projects
I saved my Pediment Jumper with sweater surgery
If you’ve been following along, you’ll know that my hand-spun Pediment sweater has caused some drama.
I knew I was going to be playing a game of yarn chicken when I chose this hand-spun yarn, but we’re struggling with some attention problems at the moment, and when I knit the body too long, it meant I didn’t have enough yarn to finish the sleeves.
So, I chopped up my knitting.
I cut a section out of the middle of the body to reclaim some of the hand-spun yarn, then grafted it back together. I’m actually very proud of how invisible my graft line across the chest is. I could probably use another centimetre or two of sleeve length, but bracelet-length sleeves are actually very practical for knitting and spinning, so I’m happy with that.
I was admonishing myself for choosing to knit a bigger size when I knew it was going to be a yarn chicken situation, but I went ahead anyway. It was foolhardy, but thankfully, it’s all turned out all right. I now have a really comfy, slightly oversized hand-knit jumper which is exactly what I wanted.
This Pediment jumper is knitted using a rather special hand-spun yarn. If you’d like full details on the yarn, then go back to podcast episode 73 as I spoke about the three different spinning fibres I blended to create it. It’s been sitting in my yarn stash for a while, just waiting to be made into something, so I love that I have turned it into another hand-knit sweater for my handmade wardrobe.
Find the Pediment Sweater knitting pattern on my website
Find the Pediment Sweater knitting pattern on Ravelry
Silly slippers made from fun hand-spun yarn
Talking of stash yarn. These knitted slippers were a bit of a stashbuster project, and I love them.
I knit these up for my little boy in a single day, and I can’t see them without laughing. He had a pair of grey slippers with a very tasteful pom pom on each one, and was distraught when he grew out of them. So, as a treat, I told him I’d make a new pair, and I let him choose the yarn.
We went through my yarn stash together, and I pointed him towards a fun hand-spun yarn I spun years ago and didn’t know what to make with. It has sparkles, so he immediately wanted slippers with sparkles.
This is not a yarn I would spin now (sparkles are not very me), but it’s a chunky yarn with a lot of merino, a bit of silk, lots of orange, some white and, as I said, sparkles.
I loosely followed a felted slipper knitting pattern, but the pattern itself wasn’t really to my taste, so I used it for the basic construction and free-wheeled from there (again!). I also added ridiculously oversized pom poms that are so unreasonably sized, but completely adorable.
He’s already tried them on, and I cannot wait to see him running around the house with those stupid pom poms - they're such a joyful knitting project, I kind of want a pair for myself.
I might stitch on some thick wool felt soles for durability, and I potentially have enough yarn left for a matching hat. I suspect that might happen soon, as super chunky knits are loads of fun.
I'm still knitting my Scrumper Waistcoat
This knitting project is still in progress, so just a quick update.
I’m knitting a Scrumper Waistcoat in a naturally dyed Longwool Blend from Black Isle Yarns in a lovely goldy orange shade.
The back is finished, and I’m working on the fronts two at a time. I love knitting two at a time for sleeves, socks, mittens, slippers… anything. When you’re knitting flat pieces, though, it’s much easier to get muddled, so I never stop halfway across a row. I always knit right across both pieces in one go.
I also use a little bulb stitch marker to hold the two fronts together in the middle, so that I can work them straight across. Obviously, I need to change ends of yarn in the middle, but it makes it much easier to keep track of them.
I’m hoping I might have it cast off in time to show you in a video, but you might have to wait and see…!
Find the Scrumper Waistcoat knitting pattern on my website
FInd the Scrumper Waistcoat knitting pattern on Ravelry
My recent spinning projects
The Big Spin
I've been working towards this spinning project for a very long time: my naturally dyed wool/flax blend. It’s a big, ongoing spinning project which I have been documenting in a playlist on Youtube. I prepared all the fibre and have finally started spinning it, and it’s behaving much better than expected. The fleece and the flax do behave quite differently, so it’s interesting to have to adapt my technique constantly, but it’s making it an engaging spin and generally a really pleasing craft project.
However, it is phenomenally slow because I am spinning very fine. I have eight bobbins to spin and then ply together. I’ll make a proper video about it, but it depends on how much spinning time I manage to find in the next couple of weeks. We shall see…
More long draw spinning practice
In the last podcast (episode 75) I talked about practising my long draw spinning using Shetland fleece kindly sent to me by Marie, one of my lovely Patrons. Spinning them up was so much fun, and Marie very kindly sent me some more of Dotty’s white fleece, because I'd enjoyed spinning that, so a huge thank you for that, Marie.
I have been continuing to practise my long draw technique with various samples:
Carding waste from Wingham Wool Work.
The first little sample was using the carding waste Wingham Wool Work uses for packaging. They create my British wool blends of fibre I use for my hand-dyed wool tops, and they come packaged in this and other wool. I assume it's just a mixture of undyed wool - I don't know what breeds of sheep, but it spun up really enjoyably. It was all just random batting, so I pulled it out into something resembling a roving, spun it up, and I'm so pleased with it. It's possibly one of the more consistent long draw ones I've spun. I am trying to spin thicker with my long draw because my larger spinning projects are really quite fine, so spinning up a nice, relatively big skein of yarn in a very small period of time is very gratifying.
Zwartbles sliver
My second long-draw spinning project is a continuation of a Zwartbles sample I did a couple of videos ago. I got a bunch of Zwartbles fleece from a local farm, which I had prepared into sliver for spinning and a DK yarn. All of the fibre sold out very quickly, but there is still some of the mill-spun Zwartbles yarn in the shop if you’re interested.
My own hand-spun Zwartbles is coming out at around an aran weight, and I’ve been using this to practice, as ultimately I'd like to do a completely unsupported long draw. So, basically just drafting with one hand against the tension of the spinning wheel.
Scottish fleece
Finally, I had a little bit of wool fleece that a friend gave me years ago from her partner's farm up in Scotland, and it spun up beautifully. I left out a bit of kempy fibre, but the rest created a lovely bit of hand-spun yarn. I made it into rolags on my big hand carder, which I haven’t done for years, and I had an enormous amount of fun with it.
Future videos and maternity leave
That brings you up to date with all my main craft projects right now.
I’m not sure if this will be my last podcast blog before maternity leave. I’m hoping to get one more out, and there will be at least one more video on YouTube before I vanish for a few months.
While I’m on maternity leave, I won’t be making new public YouTube videos, but I will continue making exclusive videos for Patreon. These are usually monthly, but while I’m away, they’ll be released on a more casual and less predictable schedule because it’s going to be much harder for me to scrape together time to record.
If you enjoy my video content and want to stay in touch, becoming a Patron is probably the way to go.
Join my crafty community on Patreon
Being a patron also comes with other benefits in addition to the exclusive videos.
You’ll have access to the whole back catalogue, so if you sign up now, you have hours of crafty chat to catch up on. You’ll also receive access to my Discord channel and become part of my wonderful crafty community (probably my favourite part of it all).
Whilst you won’t have early access to shop updates whilst I’m away, certain tiers still get discounts on yarn, patterns and notions I have in the shop. The online shop will stay open while I’m away, but I won’t be dyeing new yarn until I’m back in Autumn 2026.
I’ve written a full blog post with all the practical details around orders, dispatch, and Patreon if you’d like to read more.
If you’d like to see what craft projects I’m working on (because I do have a lot of crafting plans), I’ll still be posting on Instagram, so do follow there if you're not already.
That's all from me for now. Hopefully I'll speak to you soon.
Until next time!
Stay connected with all things Marina Skua
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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.
For more casual life and crafting updates, you can follow me on Instagram, where I’ve been posting a bit more frequently, or join me on Facebook if that’s your preference.
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See you next time.
