Bound for Beauly: The Story Behind Corinne's New Sweater

The Beauly Sweater has arrived at The Woolly Thistle, and longtime Thistlers may already recognize it from an early sneak peek!

Corinne first shared the Beauly Sweater at our recent retreat, where attendees had the chance to see the design before testing was fully underway. Since then, a group of test knitters then put the pattern through its paces while Corinne refined the final details, and Beauly is now ready for knitters to cast on.

Beauly is a DK-weight, top-down yoke sweater with an eyelet pattern carrying a little piece of Scotland within its design. Its name, lace, and even one carefully placed detail in the yoke all trace back to a Highland village Corinne remembers well.

The Village Behind the Name

Beauly is a small Highland village about 11 miles west of Inverness, set close to the River Beauly and Beauly Firth. Its history stretches back centuries, and at the heart of the village stand the ruins of the medieval priory that would eventually lend Corinne part of the inspiration for this sweater.

Corinne stayed in Beauly with her friend Amber around a decade ago during a family trip to Scotland. She remembers boxes spilling over with flowers during an unusually hot Scottish summer. The place remained in her memory long after the trip, and years later, as this sweater began to take shape, Beauly offered both its name and the architectural detail that helped define the yoke.

Lace Inspired by Stone and Saltire 

Beauly Priory was founded around 1230 after local landowner Sir John Bisset invited monks of the Valliscaulian order to settle beside the River Beauly. The Valliscaulians originated in Burgundy in France and followed a particularly austere monastic rule. Beauly was one of only three Valliscaulian priories established in Scotland, alongside Ardchattan and Pluscarden. Religious life continued at Beauly for more than 300 years, and the surviving church still preserves architectural features dating to different periods of its medieval history.

Today the church stands roofless, its stone walls framing tall arched openings and windows that are open to the sky. Those surviving shapes came back to Corinne's memory as she saw a connection between the openings in the lace and the glassless windows of Beauly Priory, giving the eyelet pattern a link to the place behind the sweater's name.

She then worked a Scottish symbol into the yoke: a cross inspired by the Saltire, Scotland's flag of St. Andrew. The detail sits within the lace as Corinne's own small nod to Scotland, joining the priory windows as another piece of the landscape and history carried into the design.

The Beauly Sweater Closeup

Beauly is worked top down in the round, beginning at the neckline. Short rows raise the back of the neck slightly before the knitting moves into the eyelet yoke, and the lace instructions are provided both charted and written. Corinne describes the pattern as straightforward, with the patterned section giving way to a relaxed body once the yoke is complete.

There is no waist shaping in the written pattern, though knitters can add it if they prefer. The sleeves also keep shaping fairly minimal through most of their length, with faster decreases worked nearer the cuff to create Corinne's relaxed sleeve shape. She designed the yoke so that the lace finishes just above the wearer's widest point, keeping the openwork concentrated across the upper portion of the sweater.

The sleeves are worked to a bracelet length, a detail Corinne also used in the Vanilla Sweater. It is a practical everyday length that keeps the cuffs clear while you are cooking, working, or knitting, and it gives the sweater an easy shape that does not need to be pushed or rolled back throughout the day.

The construction keeps much of the interest near the beginning of the project, followed by long stretches of uncomplicated knitting through the body and sleeves. Corinne describes it as a quick, enjoyable knit, and and the samples and test versions show how the same design changes character in two different DK-weight wools.

Beauly in Rauma Strikkegarn

Preview Beauly in Strikkegarn (opens in new tab)

When Corinne begins developing a new sweater, she often reaches for yarns in the Rauma family. The Norwegian mill has been part of The Woolly Thistle since the early days, and Corinne knows these yarns exceptionally well after years of knitting with them, designing with them, and seeing how they hold up in finished garments. Strikkegarn was therefore a natural starting point for Beauly, giving her a familiar foundation to work with as she developed the yoke, proportions, and lace.

Strikkegarn has been in production since 1927 and is still carded, spun, dyed, and balled at Rauma’s mill in Norway. Its round 3-ply woolen-spun construction gives it a buoyant, substantial feel while keeping the finished fabric relatively light. The yarn wears well, resists pilling, and has the structure required to show off the eyelets clearly.

Strikkegarn also became the yarn for one of the earliest test versions of Beauly. Renee was Corinne's first tester as the pattern was being prepared for the wider test knit, and Beauly was also her first sweater knitted in Rauma Strikkegarn, a yarn that quickly won her over.

Although Renee does not consider herself much of a lace knitter, she found the Beauly eyelets very manageable and completed her sweater in just four days. That pace will naturally vary by knitter, but her experience gives us an encouraging early look at the rhythm of the pattern. Renee has since filmed the "Knit the Beauly Sweater Course" video sharing the tricks she used for the lace, so lace-shy and new knitters can follow along with her.

Her first version follows Corinne's specifications, including the shorter sleeve length, which lands around bracelet length on Renee. It is already marked out for regular wear this fall.

Shop Rauma Strikkegarn (opens in new tab)

Beauly in Peer Gynt

Preview Beauly in Peer Gynt (opens in new tab)

Corinne also likes to use her patterns as an opportunity to spend time with other yarns in the shop, and for her second Beauly she chose Sandnes Garn Peer Gynt. Like Strikkegarn, Peer Gynt is a 100% Norwegian wool with a long history behind it, and it belongs to the group of traditional Norwegian yarns Corinne returns to again and again for their durability, structure, and unmistakable wool character.

As a worsted-spun yarn, Peer Gynt produces a different fabric than Strikkegarn, which is exactly what Corinne wanted to explore in a second sample. She describes it as more drapey and a little heavier, with a denser feel that gives Beauly another expression while keeping the yoke crisp and the sweater warm. The red sample also shows how the same design can shift in character when knitted in another familiar Norwegian wool.

That contrast is part of what Corinne enjoys about designing with yarns she knows well and then trying the same pattern in another shop favorite. Strikkegarn brings the airy, woolen-spun character she instinctively reaches for, while Peer Gynt gives Beauly a smoother, weightier fabric and a different sort of movement on the body.

Corinne's Peer Gynt sample is knitted in a rich red that she can already picture wearing at Christmas as well as throughout the colder months. Renee has also knit a Peer Gynt Beauly of her own, offering another look at how the design moves in this yarn.

Shop Sandnes Garn Peer Gynt (opens in new tab)

Ready to Cast On!

The Beauly pattern is officially out, shaped along the way by feedback from Corinne’s incredible team of test knitters, to whom we extend a warm thank you!

Beauly kits are available in both Rauma Strikkegarn and Sandnes Garn Peer Gynt, so you can choose between the two yarns Corinne used for her samples: the springy, woolen-spun loft of Strikkegarn or the smoother, denser fabric of Peer Gynt. Each kit includes the pattern along with the yarn for your chosen size.

A Highland village, the open windows of a medieval priory, and the Saltire all meet in this sweater, brought to life in two distinct Norwegian wools. Corinne has carried Beauly with her for years, and now you can bring a little of the Highlands home too.

Shop Beauly in Strikkegarn (opens in new tab)

Purchase Beauly in Peer Gynt (opens in new tab)