Have you ever found yourself staring into a deep ocean pondering the mysteries beneath the surface?
Or swam in a dark lake at sunset?
Do you feel the lightness of the summer rain?
Water has many forms and faces, and yet they are all the same – simple H2O.
The Mystic Waters Shawl is inspired by water in its many forms. The main motif suggests a waterfall and the frothy bubbles where the waterfall hits the lake. Above the waterfall we have a few rows of snowflakes – the unique winter form of water.
Surrounding the waterfall are patterns of pouring rain, and the edging is reminiscent of frost flowers on the windows at wintertime.
The Sumac Leaf Shawl is a warm winter shawl. It’s knit using 250 g (375 m) Kid Aran yarn from Fleece Artist. It takes its name from the deep red leaves of the sumac trees in the late fall.
You can buy a .pdf version of this pattern (chart and written instructions) using PayPal for $8.00CDN.
You will receive a download link and can download the pattern upon completed purchase.
Yesterday I received a most wonderful piece of mail from my no-longer-secret pal. Let me introduce Emily.
She composed a rather special package for me. I can have a Violet Bath to enhance Beauty, Creativity and Inspiration while drinking some lovely tea (intaba Rooibos or Double Spice Chai from Stash) and munching some licorice.
On the yarn-front I must say that she has found the softest angora yarn that has ever entered my home. It’s 300 yards of 2-ply angora from Cottage Craft Angora. The colour is a two-tone raspberry – the photo doesn’t make it justice at all – just imagine a very rich, incredibly soft raspberry. Mmmm. Once I’ve turned it into some lace (I must find a very special pattern for it though….) I can give it a bath too in some Soak Wash – special wash for fine fibers. I receved three lovely packages of soak, in citrus, flora and “celebration” scent.
To help me keep track of my lace patterns, she also sent me a set of stitch markers (Learn, Enjoy, Together, Discover, Love). I’ve heard they’re most useful. Actually, while I was knitting the Faux Russian Stole last summer, I really wished I had a few. I was using my ubiquitous scrap yarn, but sometimes it fell out, and sometimes I knit past it for a few rows, and had to move it up to the current row (counting all the while so it didn’t move to the wrong place). These will keep me more organized, I’m sure.
Last, but not least, I received my very own copy of “At Knit’s End” by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, aka the Yarn Harlot. I’m learning all sorts of things already. Apparently husbands do not enjoy being woken up in the middle of the night to share in knitting triumphs.
Actually, I saved the very best for last…. Last night, while settling in to see what purls of wisdom my new book might contain I discovered:
I’m normal!
Thank you!
I am in the process of blocking a warm winter shawl that I just finished yesterday. Pictures to follow. It turned out nicely, and looks very warm and cozy in its various shades of red using a wonderful yarn from Fleece Artist. I’ve named it the Sumac Leaf Shawl, as the leaf pattern and colours remind me of sumac trees in the late fall.
My next project will be Starsky. I have ordered yarn from KnitPicks, and am impatiently awaiting its arrival so that I can start on my new cardigan. Actually, I made a trip to the LYS to see if I could find a good substitute yarn. The only one they could suggest was $17 per skein (I need 11…..), so I thought it was probably wise to order it online instead. Certainly more economical.
While I’m waiting for the yarn to arrive, I’ve been working on the Lizard Ridge Afghan again. It’s been on the backburner for a while. Firstly because it was very hot during the summer (too hot to be knitting wool blankets outside), and secondly because the pattern is so monotonous. Don’t get me wrong – I love the way it looks, and the yarn knits up beautifully. But I crave variation in my knitting, and there’s very little variation in this pattern. It is beautiful though.
Finally, my downstream SP11 pal Jinxsa at Knit n That deserves a mention on my blog. It is, in fact, thanks to her that I first found Starsky. Thanks! It’s been fun!
Introducing a warm winter touque (that’s Canadian for hat). It’s one size fits all, ranging from my 4 year old to adult.
It is knit using 2 skeins of Scheepjes Alpine yarn (75 m per 50 g) or similar yarn on 5.5 mm needles.
You can buy a .pdf version of this pattern using Paypal for $5.00CDN.
The second Möbius scarf is complete.
This one is a little shorter than the first one (80 + 80 sts) and a tad wider. I used a single cast-on with a backwards loop, as suggested by Liisa at Stick å brinn, and it worked beautifully. Thanks for the tip!
I used the same yarn as last time – Lang Pearl, and with the new cast-on I didn’t have any of the same issues as last time. Also, it’s really nice and soft, and makes a warm scarf. Just what we need in time for winter.
This is the result of my shawl ponderings….. The Lightning Shawl. It used 3 skeins of 100 % baby alpaca from Manu.
It is 95 cm (35″) in height and 190 cm (70″) wide. It’s a winter shawl that will keep you warm during the chillier parts of the year.
You can buy a .pdf version of this pattern (chart and written instructions) using Paypal for $8.00CDN.
I have 300 g of lovely, soft, brown Alpaca which I bought in Gothenburg last summer. My plan was to make a warm winter shawl out of it. It’s quite a thick yarn – 100 m per 100 g – so the size of the needles will be somewhere between 7-10 mm. Quite the change from the thin lace-yarn I’ve been working with for the past few months.
Now to the problem…. what exactly am I going to knit? I had originally planned a nice, cabled shawl. I even had a design in mind, with a cabled edge and a wide cable running up the center. But I did some swatching, and it just didn’t turn out the way I had planned. Also, it became rather thick and unwieldy.
So now I’m thinking about something lacy, yet heavy. But I’m not really sure what. Must get some more ideas before I start. On the other hand, it’s getting chillier every day, and I could sure use a warm shawl as I go to the bus stop 3 times a day. Or even just to curl up in the sofa. The saving grace here is that since the yarn is so thick, I imagine it will be a quick knit once I actually start.
I finished my Moebius scarf. It’s 120 sts + another 120 sts picked up. It’s basically all in moss-stitch, with one row of double-height stitches.
I like it, and I have already started a second one. This time I’m using Liisa’s suggestion to cast-on with a backwards loop, and that looks a lot nicer. The second one will be a little smaller (100 + 100 sts) and a bit wider, I think.
While he’s not the intended recipient, my youngest kindly agreed to model the scarf for me……
There’s a Möbius strip on my needles. I don’t know about the rest of you, but this is a must-knit for me. It’s my engineering background coming through, I know… I just think it’s really cool.
Now, if you don’t know what a Möbius strip is, think of it as a twisted loop. The neat thing though is that it only has one outside edge. So it’s very well suited for knitting. You start in the center and build out.
The yarn that I chose for this is less than stellar, actually. I used Pearl from LANG (42% kid mohair, 54% acrylic and 4% polyester, 105 m per 50g and 6.5 mm circular needles). It’s really nice and soft, and I like the colour very much, but it disintegrated (twice!) as I tried to cast on. It appears that it doesn’t hold up for longtail cast on of more than 5 sts. Since I needed to cast on 120, you can see why this is a problem. So I changed cast on methods to knitting on the stitches. It’s a lot slower (for me) but at least the yarn didn’t break.
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