Tavis is an intriguing colourwork design featured in my new book, Evolution, a collection of 13 designs inspired by The Vintage Shetland Project.

About Tavis:

Tavis was inspired by the unusual construction used to create Helen from The Vintage Shetland Project, a tubular scarf with panels of panels of colourwork amidst bands of stocking stitch. I simplified this quite complex pattern and created Tait, which just like Helen commences with a provisional cast-on and ends with a grafted seam but is knit simply in the round until being joined into a tube at the very end of the knitting.

The colourwork pattern itself is inspired by the beautiful simplicity of the steek charts found throughout the book and in particular the very graphic steek chart of Hilda. I adapted these charts to create a colourwork pattern which creates the illusion of up to five colours in any one row, when in actuality, because of the construction method, there are never more than two colours worked in any one row.

Tavis was also inspired by Steek which features the same striking motifs. The cowl can be knitted in two lengths - the longer length shown here which can be wrapped around the neck twice, or a shorter length to be worn without wrapping.

As with Steek I have used my yet to be released yarn, Byre, a soft, fingering weight blend of Jacobs and Shetland fibres spun exclusively for me in a nearby Yorkshire mill. I have hand dyed four of the five shades to create a warm, autumal palette.

Please note the patterns from the collection are not available to purchase separately.

Requirements

Susan Crawford Byre, (Fingering weight) 100% British wool (100m/109yds per 25g skein)

1 100g skein each, shades Dry Stone Wall, Loam, Gate Post, Clay, Rusty Tractor

Suggested needles:

2 x3mm (US 3) circular needle (100cm in length for the longer length cowl)
2 x 3mm (US 3) circular needle (60cm in length for the shorter length cowl)
Crochet hook: 3.5mm (US E) hook

Notions:

Waste yarn
Removable stitch marker

Techniques:

Provisional crochet cast-on
Following a chart
Stranded colourwork
Grafting

Yarn kits are also available offering a considerable discount on purchasing the yarn separately.