Initially released late in 2019, Magic Circles Scarf is a beautiful scarf (it's called that but we'd describe it as a wrap tbh!) design from Janie Crow. She had previously released Magic Circles as a blanket but then saw the Milburn DK range and was inspired to make a scarf design using the same motif.
Introduction by Jane:
“I love looking at how shapes fit together and have wanted to create a tessellating circle design for some time. Circular motifs can be tricky to fit together and it is common to find the circular shape becomes slightly distorted when motifs are pieced together, so rather than create motifs that are square or octagonal, I designed cross-shaped infill pieces that protect the shape of the large circles."
This is a great project to work on in between others as you can just pick it up and make a few motifs in very little time. It is really soothing to see the stacks of circles piling up and then piecing them together at the end is really satisfying. The mini pom poms are a great way of using up left over bits of yarn and playing with the colours of the wrap.
Jane used nine of the 20 shades of Milburn DK combining some shades we wouldn't have thought of putting together; but they work so well! A while after the pattern was released the Autumn Fields colourway was discontinued. This was not an easy decision but it just didn't sell very well as an individual colour. This obviously meant we had to experiment to see which other colours would work in the Magic Circles palette. If you read our blog posts regularly you will know that Black Tulip is a real favourite of ours as it is really versatile and works with most other Milburn colours. This made it an ideal replacement despite being that much darker than Autumn Fields.
Autumn Fields as part of the Milburn palette was replaced with Compost, a darker earthy brown. As much as we love Black Tulip in the Magic Circles pattern it did make the overall tone much darker. Compost gave an option to keep it softer and closer to the original colour scheme.
The ECY team couldn't decide which we preferred so we decided to offer both options which you can find as yarn packs with or without patterns on the website HERE.
A while later a delay in the Milburn DK production schedule left us without the Althaea (light dusky pink) colourway for a long period of time. Rather than not being able to offer the yarn packs we again took a dive into the available colourways to seek out alternatives. With the different tones of the Black Tulip and Compost packs, there wasn't a single colour which would suit both so instead we created an option for each pack. These can be found listed as VERSION TWO on the website in the link above.
The coolness of Black Tulip really suited Rain which is a pale bluey-grey.
In the Compost pack, Natural added a light warmth.
Victoria used the Black Tulip pack and her finished scarf looks like this:
Being far too beautiful to fold up and store when not in use, this enjoys the privilege of living on the back of her sofa. She didn't add the pompoms around the edge and is still conflicted about doing so...
ECY yarn-enabler Claire wanted to have a bash at a crochet project and decided to make Magic Circles but in a completely different earthy palette to match her living room. She had a lot of creative fun putting the palette together, using our Milburn DK Colour Pops (HERE) which really helped with the process. She also used colouring pencils to sketch out her ideas on paper. Claire reported that she found the instructions easy enough to follow as a novice with joining the background pieces together being the most tricky part. However, Jane has released a video to assist with this process which can be seen HERE.
Yarn packs have been set up for this new palette and you can find them listed as the Autumn Woodland palette on the website HERE.
Jane has recently released a new colour palette for the scarf using Dusk in place of Autumn Fields and it is stunning! We have yarn packs for these on the website HERE.
Since releasing our yarn packs for the Magic Circles scarf we have had several requests for blanket packs using Milburn DK. The blanket pattern is available on Jane's website HERE. The blanket uses double the quantity of yarn as required for the scarf to create a blanket 117cm / 46in square. Blanket yarn packs are available for all colour palettes on the Magic Circles page HERE.
Our lovely customers have also chosen their own colour palettes for Magic Circles including this one expertly modelled by Percy the Whippet. Dawn used Black Tulip, Thyme, Charcoal, Dusk, and Fern for their version.
If you would like to share your Magic Circles projects with us please send an image and any other information about it to info@edencottageyarns.co.uk .