Mystic Diamonds Lace Shawl

On March 20, 2010, in lace, Mystic Diamonds, pattern, shawl, stole, by Anna


They say “Diamonds are Forever” – so I chose diamonds as a theme for this stole to symbolize everlasting love. To me, the glistening diamonds also mean beauty in the way they reflect the light.

Mystic Diamonds is a rectangular lace stole. The pattern is adjustable for both width and length.

1,100 yds of laceweight yarn will give you a shawl approx. 75 cm x 204 cm (30” x 80”).
The pattern allows for both wider and narrower shawls. It is also possible to use fingering weight yarn and make a thinner scarf.

The pattern is available as a downloadable pdf for $8.00 CDN

 

StarLight KAL

On March 13, 2010, in double knitting, KAL, pattern, shawl, StarLight, by Anna


Star light, star bright,
First star I see tonight,
I wish I may, I wish I might,
Have the wish I wish tonight.


You are invited to join the StarLight KAL.

The StarLight shawl is a double-knit triangular shawl. The pattern allows you to adjust the size of the shawl.

2 x 135 g of fingering weight yarn in contrasting colours will give you a shawl which is 184 cm (72″) long and 33 cm (13″) wide at the midpoint.


For my StarLight shawl I used 2 skeins of Wollmeise 100% Sockenwolle, but there are several other yarns that would work well, including Eidos or Skinny Bugga from the Sanguine Gryphon, or Kauni, or Palette from KnitPicks, or just about any other fingering weight yarn.

The pattern will include detailed instructions on double-knitting. So it is an excellent way to learn a new technique. If you’re already a double-knitting expert, just enjoy the shawl


The pattern is available in English, German and French here.

 

Mystic Diamonds – Clue 3

On March 11, 2010, in lace, Mystic Diamonds, shawl, stole, by Anna

Today the third clue of the Mystic Diamonds pattern was published. So far, the stole looks like this. The two edges are symmetrical and the shawl will be grafted together in the middle once the knitting is completed.

The last and final piece of the pattern will be released next week.
The size of the shawl is adjustable, both the length and the width. Mine is about 75 cm wide and a little over 2 m long. But it can be made both wider and narrower.
If you’d like to join the knitting fun, the pattern is available here.

 

Double knitting

On March 5, 2010, in double knitting, scarf, shawl, by Anna

I’ve been fascinated by double knitting for a while, so I decided to try it out.
Double knitting is knitting with two colours in such a way that the knitted fabric is reversible, and the colours of the pattern are inverted.
The two sides look like stockinette knitting, and the fabric is double-thick for extra warmth.

There are two different ways of accomplishing this. Either you knit holding both strands at the same times, and then you knit the front and purl the back.
Alternatively, you can knit using only one colour at a time, and slip each stitch that is to be knit with the other colour. You will need to use circular needles, because at the end of the row, you slide the stitches into position and work the row again using the other colour. Whichever way you choose, the result is the same; a beautifully knit, reversible fabric.

For this project, I’m using contrasting colours of Wollmeise 100% sockenwolle (again!). The needles are size 2.75, and my colours are Granatapfel (pomegranate) and Maus Alt (old mouse – that would be a speckled gray). The pattern is my own.

 

Vancouver Sweater

On March 3, 2010, in pattern, sweater, Vancouver Sweater, by Anna

The Vancouver Sweater was designed and knit during the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. The sweater was inspired by the relaxed look of the crowds.

It’s a form-fitting, ribbed raglan knit in the round. The sweater is completely seamless, and is meant to be worn with some negative ease.

The pattern comes in several different sizes – 34″ – 36″ – 38″ – 40″ – 42″ bust.

The yarn pictured is Wollmeise 100% sockenwolle (525 m per 150g skein). But any fingering weight merino yarn of about 350 m per 100g would work.
It uses 2 skeins of the main colour and 1 skein of the contrast colour for sizes 34-38″. For the larger sizes you will need 3 skeins of the main colour and 2 skeins of the contrast colour.

The pattern is available in downloadable .pdf format for $5.00CDN.

 

Thraven

On March 2, 2010, in lace, shawl, by Anna

I’ve always been enamoured with the Raven Clan colours from Blue Moon Fiber Arts. It’s all black yarn with shades of colour.
Black is one of my absolute favourite colours, and for many years I wore nothing but. I’ve definitely branched out and as you can see from my knitting I like all sorts of other colours too. But black is special.

I had a chance to examine many of the Raven Clan colours at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival last year. Some of them had much more colour than I had imagined, and others were wonderfully black with just a hint of other colours. My favourite was Thraven, which is black/dark gray with hints of bluish greens.

I’ve been eying Laci in Thraven for a long time, and now that I finally have a skein, I’m ready to get going on another lace design. Casting on today for a top-down triangular lace shawl.

 

The sweater is finished!!!!!

I cast on during the opening ceremonies, and bound off as the Canadian Hockey team was receiving their gold medal – Canada’s 14th gold of the games.

It’s a ribbed raglan sweater, knit in fingering weight yarn on 2.25 mm needles. I’m amazed that I managed to knit the entire sweater in only 17 days.