Coquille: Saint Jacques

Shortly after I began knitting the yoke of the original Coquille sample in that gorgeous honey hay color the yarn maker – Julie Asselin – calls Compass I began to hanker for another version that would pick out the garter rows in a complementary color. This would be my interpretation of the stained glass effect some of my Prada Shell students have spontaneously come up with. This is the kind of thing I’m talking about:

See how the black lines really pop those colors? It’s a whole different interpretation of the short row shell that I’ve been a little obsessed with. It’s accomplished by finishing the row of shells, as you do, then returning to the beginning of the row again and knitting one round of the black yarn so there are black stitches to pop forward with the garter ridge you make when you finally knit back on the wrong side.

As much as I love this, I felt like I wanted to do something else yet again with this idea. Which is exactly when I tripped over the brand new yarn at TNNA that Rachel and Kate of Spincycle Yarns were calling “Dream State”.

I bought a sweater quantity of another color of Nurtured (Chambray) to match the skein the Spincycle gals had gifted to me (Deep Bump) and knit as much as I could between deadlines. By the time I released the actual pattern, I had only gotten to the yoke portion of the Chambray/DreamState combination, so it was an exciting moment when I dug into the first pair of rows that would pop forward those amazing marled Spincycle colors.

See what I mean? After that, it was a sprint to finish since I couldn’t put it down. I was a bit in thrall to the emerging combination as the shells got smaller and the charm of the garter ridges became more prominent in the design.

At the conclusion of the round of shells, you cut the main yarn and then join the contrast yarn. Knit a round and then purl a round (on decrease rounds you work the decreases in the second round of the contrast), and then cut the contrast yarn. Each round of shells in the regular version of the pattern concludes halfway across the first shell in the coming round (you’ll see what I mean if you read the actual pattern) so instead of knitting to finish the first row of that first shell, you slip back to beginning of that first shell for the round before joining the main yarn again.

I wasn’t kidding about the ends.

But I feel like it was so very worth it. I’m crazy about this sweater.

so why did I call this particular post Coquille Saint Jacques? Because scallops by themselves are yummy, but add a simple cream and wine and butter sauce to them and you have delicious.