Monday, August 18, 2008

Cape Spear Coverlet Yarn Requirements

Thanks for your comment, Kelly. I’ve put myself on the waiting list for an invitation to join Ravelry; it seems there are quite a few people on the waiting list ahead of me. I’m sorry I can’t post to a thread right now, but hopefully in the near future, I can.

The pattern I purchased is not in a book but a 2 page brochure. It seems to me that they wrote this to simulate the cover but not exactly reproduce it. They call for South Maid or Coates no. 40 crochet cotton, but they don’t state a yardage requirement, they state a weight; 4 kg for a double bed and 2 kg for a single. The pattern recommends using 2mm or 2-1/4mm needles. The resulting shell would be 3.8 cm (1.5” from top to bottom) and 4.4 cm (1.75” from side to side). It says you need to make 1,536 shells for a double bed or 800 for a single bed.

This shell dimension seems to me to be much smaller than the shells I see in the coverlet on the bed in my blog dated May 11, 2008 or the Yarn Harlot’s blog dated August 7, 2008. When I tried to estimate the count I could see in the picture, I get 510.

I’m doing my own thing on this. I’m using the Butterfly Super - 10 mercerized cotton and 3.75mm needles to produce a shell measuring 8.5 cm (3.3” from top to bottom) and 16.5 cm (6.5” from side to side). Each skein is 125 grams, 230 metres. I purchased 12 skeins for a total of 2,760 metres or 3,018 yards, 1.5 kg. At the time, I had estimated that with the dimensions of my shells, I would require approximately 500 shells for my bed. I now have a larger bed and probably not enough yarn – oh well. I’m considering buying more even though the die lot is different, but using it to border shells in the centre. We’ll see; I haven’t gotten that far yet.

Hope this helps!

8 comments:

Bodkin Dragon said...

Hi Fran,

I posted a link to your blog so everyone can come and see your information.

Thanx for providing it. BTW, is there a copyright on the brochure? If not, are you able to scan it and email me a copy? I would really appreciate it.

Nobody seems to be able to find it anywhere.

Ayla said...

i even email the cape spear national site people and I got a mail failure response from yahoo. They were unable to deliver my email because the email address "doesn't exist". So if you could please email me the patten as well that would be greatly appreciated!

Fran said...

Thanks for posting a link to my blog, Kelly. I appreciate it.

I did a google search and found yet another e-mail address to try but that didn't work for me either. Sorry, Elizabeth.

I'm afraid that because I don't own the rights to the pattern, I cannot legally even electronically disseminate it.

Anonymous said...

500 shells? That's not bad. If you want to get really crazy, time yourself to see how long it takes you to do one shell, and then multiply. Or not.

We were discussing coverlet construction yesterday, and one lady came up with a neat way to avoid weaving in so many ends. I don't want to re-hash it all right here, but let me know when you do get on Ravelry, and I'll steer you to her post. Basically, it involves going diagonally and picking up stitches from one motif and casting on more to do the bottom edge of the next one.

Fran said...

Thanks, yarndork. I considered that too for the base row or the left edge, but only after I started the individual piecing (for the right edge, you would have to cast on first then pick up along a diagonal edge of another piece). I also considered that on subsequent rows, I could pick up and knit the whole scallop from the pre-existing pieced together coverlet (the way you with mitred squares for example). There are three things holding me back from doing that. One thing is that I’m afraid the picked up and knit version will significantly differ in appearance from something that is manually sewn together. The second is that part of me wanted to stay true to the original pattern construction. The third is that with individual pieces, you don’t have to lug a whole coverlet with you everywhere (like when you go on vacation) and you don’t have something large and warm on your lap in the summer.

Then there is that other part of me that argues, “But if I pick up and knit, I don’t have to weave in so many ends and I will use less yarn, too.” I don’t know. Am I crazy? Do you think the appearance of picking up and knitting will be indistinguishable from sewing pieces together?

Anonymous said...

On whether there's a difference or not, I think the only way to tell would be to try some of each and then ask several knitting friends. I agree with you on the lack of portability as well as the traditional aspect. I think if I ever make one, which I would like to do, I would do a small one first, to get the feel of it, and do the picked up stitches one. Perhaps I'll make a pillow top or one of those things you put at the bottom of the bed, like for decoration. I too think I'd like to stick with the more traditional aspect, but I'd probably at least sew them up as I went so I wouldn't have an almost insurmountable seaming task at the end.

Anonymous said...

I'm one of those people who tried contacting the gift shop to no avail! Being now obsessed with this coverlet, I eventually found the following link:
http://knitting-and.com/wiki/Shell_for_Counterpane

Stepanie says it is very close to the original, just make one less row of eyelets.

I am still contemplating how to do the edges but for now, I will continue to knit shells using #3 crochet cotton, double strand on 4mm needles. This is giving me shells which measure approximately 7.5" across and 4.5" down. 2 x 150 yd balls = 5 shells.

I know these are bigger than the original so I'm calling it the "spirit" of Cape Spear or else I'll never finish it!

Fran said...

Thanks for the link Sharon! I agree with Stephanie's assessment of the pattern. Best of luck with the coverlet.