Jane Austen and a Bonus Duplicate Stitch Tutorial

The Shining Sequence MKAL is more than half way done! Despite an error in the title of yesterday’s clue update (it was marked clues 1&2, when it was actually 1-3) things have gone smoothly. I feel like maybe I shouldn’t say that out loud. I don’t want to tempt the universe. I guess, if all your beads start exploding or something, you can blame this right here.

The Book

This week I’m reading Jane and the Twelve Days of Christmas. It’s amazeballs. A. Maze. BALLS. It’s like Clue and Downton Abbey had an illicit love child and it was adopted by Austenland. Admittedly, all the hithers and whilsts are just not my thing. But it turns out, when you put them in an audiobook, they don’t irritate me any more. It’s basically, the perfect thing to knit to. The story centers around Jane Austen, a 50 something spinster visiting family for Christmas. The scenes with her immediate family are my favorite. They’re so deliciously dysfunctional and relatable. Read it. And then come talk to me about her sister-in-law.

So she’s home for Christmas, and they get invited to a super exclusive Victorian* slumber party and there is a murder, because of course there is. And Jane clearly will solve it. I haven’t finished it yet, but I’m really enjoying it. I honestly don’t think I’d like it as much if I were just reading it, but it’s been an absolute delight to knit to. When I finish up Jane, I’ll be moving on to A Clockwork Christmas. I’m in the mood for short stories, so a steampunk Christmas anthology sounds perfect.

The Project

Last week, I took you through a picture tutorial of beading methods. This week, let’s explore duplicate stitch. Beads or duplicate stitches are great ways to make a pattern pop. On the Shining Sequence Mittens (progress photos are at the bottom of this post), you can use either to put the secret pattern onto the mitts. While duplicate stitch is super easy to do, there is a little bit of a learning curve. I’s worth working up a test swatch to get used to it first. I had originally thought maybe I’d do a Geek-A-Long Square for a swatch, but then I was watching my Nasty Spirit Animal, Samantha Bee, and I realized what we really need here is a Nasty Woman badge of pride. The pattern includes the chart, and you can put it on whatever you want. If you nastify your knits, tag me on Instagram so I can ooh and aah. Download it below.

Download the free pattern for the swatch HERE.

The printable instructions are meant to pair with the following video tutorial to make anyone a lean, mean, duplicate stitching machine.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BWx_bMVDmPv/?taken-by=doctor_llama

Clue 3 of the Shining Sequence MKAL went live on Ravelry yesterday, and I think it’s time to show off some project photos!

Stellarian is doing hers in darks with green beads, and I couldn’t love it more.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BWpmK70gwEv/?tagged=shiningsequencemittens

https://www.instagram.com/p/BWjEZKsDLDC/?tagged=shiningsequencemittens

Color and bead choice make a huge difference on this project. Here is just the knitting from clue one, shown side by side in different colorways. for the blue and white I chose gold beads, and for the black and pink I went with a cream duplicate stitch instead of beads.

~Megan-Anne

If you’re about to tell me that Jane Austen wasn’t Victorian I know that. But she was Victorian adjacent, and that’s good enough for me.