A Highland Fling is a Scottish dance. The Highland Bling is our gorgeous, sequinned, cabled sweater that you can dress up or down and make as bling-y as you like.

The sequins here are knitted in, not sewn on afterwards. It’s easier that way. To make threading the sequins onto the yarn easier they’re threaded onto Rowan’s Kid Silk Haze (or Debbie Bliss’ Angel or any similar yarn. You could even use fine laceweight if you have a thing against mohair). Then you knit the end of KSH along with an end of the Knit By Numbers. Instructions are given in the pattern as to how to knit the sequins in so that they lay flat. We may even make a video of this. Really, it’s harder to explain than it is to do.

The Highland Bling is meant to be an easy, slightly sloppy-joe-esq sweater, so you definitely want ease there. At least 10cm - 4”, but more wouldn’t hurt. You want to look like you’re not trying too hard when you wear it - ‘oh, just something that I flung on…’.

The possibilities for colour combinations is huge. John Arbon’s Knit By Numbers comes in many colours, so does Kid Silk Haze. Josy Rose, purveyor of fine sequins from East London currently has 67 colours of 8mm sequins. We used ‘cup’ sequins, so you have to be careful to thread them all the same way onto your yarn, but flat sequins would work just as well.

So, further details:

To fit bust: 71-76(76-81, 86-91, 91-96.5, 101.5-106.5, 112-117, 122-127)cm / 28-30(30-32, 34-36, 36-38, 40-42, 44-46, 48-50)”.

Finished size: 83(92, 100, 109, 118, 127, 136)cm / 32¾ (36¼, 39¼, 43, 46½, 50, 53½)”

Yarn:
Knit By Numbers:

MC: 5(5, 5, 6, 6, 6, 7) x 100g
CC1: 1(1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2) x 100g
CC2: 1(1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1) x 100g

The CC2 here is the second contrast colour - the deep red in the pictures that the crosses on the yoke are in. Obviously you don’t need an entire 100g hank for this, but it’s what we used so we’ve put it in. You need enough yarn at most to crochet a chain about 7m long. Well, actually you crochet 4 shorter chains that add up to about 7m but that’s being very precise.

Rowan Kid Silk Haze:

CC3: 1(1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2) x 25g

Sequins:

Approximately 1450(1600, 1700, 2050, 2250, 2450, 2500) 8mm sequins (this number includes wastage as you’re bound to drop some. Possibly lots). Anyway, this works out to:

6(7, 7, 9, 9, 10, 10) x 3.5g packets from Josy Rose.

Sweater here shown in:

MC: Natural (KBN55)
CC1: Charcoal (KBN02)
CC2: Prune (KBN 075)
CC3: Anthracite (639)

Sequins: Metallic Gunmetal