Details

Pattern:

Little Gemstones by Clare Spade

Yarn:

Bluebell Yarns BFL Shetland Alpaca 4 ply 2024 Advent Calendar (24 x 10g minis plus 1 full skein). 1,190 metres.

Cost:

Pattern: £5.50

Yarn: £80 (but I still have 473 metres left) so used about 60% of total yarn.

Plenty left to make some wrist warmers.

Timeline:

Started – 10th April 2025

Finished – 21st June 2025

Link to Ravelry Page

Pattern summary

Review

The pattern is fun to knit, not complicated, there’s no picking up stitches, no purling, no sewing together required. It is all done in one go, you never cut your background colour and the ends for the gemstones can both be woven in as you knit!

It took me a while to memorise the turn sequence but eventually I started to see when to turn and could stop counting every stitch. In all honesty this was about gemstone 60 of the 78 😂

This would be ideal to use up scraps or when you have some handspun advents (which I do…maybe next one).

I used 20 of the 24 colours (because I didn’t want yellow/orange colours in it). 10g is enough to do at least 4 gemstones. I used most 3 times. If you were using an advent with all 24 colours you’d easily be able to do an additional row (or maybe more!).

Modification

I did modify the pattern slightly. The short rows are written for Wrap & Turn, I used German Short Rows.

If you make this pattern, and would also prefer GSR then it is simple to modify; you just knit 1 more stitch than the pattern says before you turn your work. For example, if it says “K24, W&T”, you K25 then turn your work, slip that stitch back to the right needle and pull it up. If you don’t use GSRs this may sound like nonsense 😂

Top Tip

When you have finished a gemstone both ends of that yarn are together, right next to where you are going to use your background colour to go across the top. So you can easily weave them in by wrapping both ends (at the same time) around the background colour as you knit across the top of that gemstone. (Gosh I hope this is making sense). It’s so easy to do and it means at the end of the project I only had 2 ends to sew in!! This is pretty impressive when there are 78 gemstones and so you could be sewing in 156+2=158 ends.

Woolly wormhead (a different designer) has a video on YouTube of how to do GSR without turning your work, but knitting backwards instead!! This video came out part way through me knitting this so I didn’t try it as my tension may change, but if I knit it again I may give that a go!

What I’d do differently

When I was deciding on the colours for the next row I laid out the project and then tried not to place similar colours together.

In hindsight what I should have done was concentrate more on making sure that the centre and each end used all 20 colours. What’s happened is, when it’s worn I’ve ended up with many of the same colours appearing twice or more in view and in some cases right opposite each other, whereas some colours totally hidden.

I accidentally have two Gemstones with the same colour in the centre line and the beige is a bit similar.

Yarn Summary

The yarn is non-superwash blend of 40% Bluefaced Leicester, 40% Shetland and 20% Alpaca.

It is a toothy yarn and there are some scratchy thicker hairs occasionally in it. I’m hoping my neck will tolerate it fine, but if you aren’t keen on woolly feeling yarns then this wouldn’t be for you.

The colours were inspired by Kingston Lacy House, so the pallet has a lovely natural feel. The green background colour gives what could be grass around a flower border feel to me.

1. Spring tulips
2. Marigold
3. Kingston Lacy House
4. Stables
5. Propagation
6. Autumn Leaves
7. Bamboo
8. Duckweed
9. Tree stump
10. Parterre
11. Gravel Garden
12. Viper’s Bugloss
13. Clear Skies
14. Lamb’s Ear
15. Wisteria
16. Catmint
17. Bear’s Breeches
18. Moonfire
19. Phlox
20. Verbena
21. Armenian Cranesbill
22. Ornamental Planter
23. Blackberry
24. Greenhouse Dahlia

The yarn/fabric didn’t really change after blocking and I don’t think it grew or shrank. I probably could have got away with not blocking it.

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