Monthly Archives: July 2016

My contribution to the Knit Picks Creative Color 2016: Fair Isle Collection, the Deco Hat, is now available!

It really takes advantage of all the shades of color that you can choose in Palette.

When I was designing it I played with several different colorways, but ended up working my sample in nearly the same colors Knit Picks chose.

Here’s all the details:

Finished Measurements
22” circumference x 8.75” high

Yarn
Knit Picks Palette (100% Peruvian Highland Wool; 231 yards/50g): Bare, Bittersweet Heather, Lingonberry Heather, Raspberry Heather, and Conch.

Needles
US2 /3mm DPNs or two 24” circular needles for two circulars technique, or one 32” or longer circular needle for Magic Loop technique, or size to obtain gauge

US1 / 2.5mm DPNs or two 24” circular needles for two circulars technique, or one 32” or longer circular needle for Magic Loop technique, or two sizes smaller than size to obtain gauge

Gauge
35.5 sts and 39 rows = 4” in stranded St st in the round on larger needles, blocked.

Notions
Yarn Needle
Stitch Markers (minimum 1 for beginning of round)

Skills Required

Knitting in the round, stranded knitting

Morro Shawl

Love the Estuarine Shawl, but either want more, or maybe something a little simpler? This sideways knit shawlette features the dot knit stitch in a textured side panel, and a sumptuous lace and cabled side edging that’s knit at the same time. It’s easily sized to your yarn quantity; work the repeats according to the recommended percentages of your yarn weight.

Morro is shown in two different yarn weights: laceweight Meadow and worsted weight Knightsbridge. You can work it in any weight following the guidelines in the pattern.

My grandparents took me and my younger brother Paul to Morro Bay so many times when we were growing up. Grandpa would go deep sea fishing, and the rest of us would go beachcombing and exploring. The Morro Bay Estuary is a vibrant, thriving estuary on the Central California coast.

Sizes
Laceweight (Worsted)

Finished Measurements as shown
Length: 70 (89¾) in / 178 (228) cm
Width: 10 (15¼) in / 25.5 (38.5) cm

Yarn
Laceweight: The Fibre Company Meadow, 40% Merino wool, 25% Baby llama, 20% Silk, 15% Linen (545 yds / 498 m per 3.53 oz / 100g), 1 skein. Shown in Hydrangea. As shown, shawl weighed 94g.

Worsted: The Fibre Company Knightsbridge, 65% baby llama, 25% merino, 10% silk (120 yds / 110 m per 1.76oz / 50g), 7 skeins. Shown in Skyworth. As shown, sample weighed 300g.

Needles
US3 / 3.25 mm (US7 / 4 mm) or size to obtain gauge

Gauge
Laceweight: 29 sts and 29 rows = 4 in / 10 cm in dot knit stitch pattern (blocked)

Worsted: 24 sts and 20.5 rows = 4 in / 10 cm in dot knit stitch pattern (blocked)

Notions
yarn needle, cable needle

Skills
simple cabling; simple lace

Both charts and line by line instructions provided.

Estuarine Shawl

This top-down shawl, with a two-colored cable center section, just begs to be wrapped around you!

The dot-knit stitch is a fun and simple way to give texture to the side panels. A sumptuous lace and cabled edging is knit on at the end.
Play with this pattern: you can even work it in a single color, or with a contrasting edging, in case you don’t want to tackle the stranding and intarsia!

Estuaries are a place of transition: rivulets of fresh water mix with the ocean’s salt water. They are a rich and diverse part of the ocean and coastline ecology.

One Size

Finished Measurements
Height: Height: 33½ in / 85 cm
Top Edge: 85¼ in / 216.5 cm

Yarn
The Fibre Company Cumbria Fingering, 60% Merino Wool, 30% Masham/MassamWool, 10% Mohair (328 yds / 300 m per 3.53 oz / 100 g).
4 skeins (1173 yds / 1073 m) MC (shown in Helvellyn)
2 skeins (624 yds / 571 m) CC (shown in Scafell Pike)
Sample used 1066 yds / 975 m MC and 567 yds / 518 m CC

Needles
US3 / 3.25 mm, or size to obtain gauge

Gauge
20 sts and 31 rounds = 4 in / 10 cm in side panel stitch pattern (blocked)
Note that this shawl is blocked quite vigorously. See notes on blocking.

Notions
(4) stitch markers, yarn needle

Skills
simple intarsia; stranding; cabling; reading charts; knitted on edging; garter stitch tab; provisional cast on if desired; knitted cast on

The Estuarine Shawl, shown below, is now available!

It’s worked in Fibre Co Cumbria Fingering, a yarn I fell in love with while working on this shawl.

Although the pattern is written for using multiple colors, you can knit it in one color, or knit the main body in one color, and the knit-on edging in a second contrasting color.

Check out the gorgeous projects from the test knitters here and in the thread here.

Morro Shawl
The Morro Shawl is the little sister to the Estuarine Shawl. It features some of the same nifty details of the Estuarine Shawl: the dot knit stitch, and the lovely edging. If you’re a little nervous about tackling Estuarine, give Morro try!

Morro is shown in two different yarn weights: laceweight Meadow and worsted weightKnightsbridge, both from Kelbourne Woolens.  You can work Morro in any weight and any (reasonable, lol) yardage, following the guidelines in the pattern, making it a great choice for stash busting.

I’ll do a post about each pattern including all the details (you can find the same info on their Ravelry pages, though, the in the meantime!  Estuarine Shawl and Morro Shawl).

Exakta Hat, Stolen Jewels Mitts, and Thornhill Cowl, from Hitch: Patterns Inspired by the Films of Alfred Hitchcock, are now available as single patterns!

From now through midnight July 28, 2016 PST, purchase any or all and automatically get 1/3 off, no coupon code needed!

These patterns are some of my favorite patterns I’ve designed. I love the graphic punch of Thornhill, the cable play in Exakta, and the simplicity of Stolen Jewels.

Of course, the PDF to Hitch is still available — do check it out, it’s chock full of gorgeous patterns from amazing designers — as are a few hard copies I have remaining that I’ve listed on Amazon (mine’s the new for $19.99; I’m happy to sign it for you!).

Here’s Part 2, including stranded stitch dictionaries.

These are all useful, and it’s hard to recommend just one or two. They’re not listed in any particular order.

I tend to like creating pictorial motifs, so often I’ll use something I find in one of these to use for an accent motif, and tweak it til I get what I want so that it fits with my main motif. (I talk about modifying motifs in my Craftsy class, Custom Colorwork Techniques: Mitts.)

Stranded Stitch Dictionaries
Scandinavian Knitting Designs (Pauline Chatterton)
Alice Starmore’s Charts for Color Knitting. Awesome, very thorough resource.
200 Fair Isle Motifs (Mary Jane Mucklestone). Both this and 150 Scandinavian Motifs are fun because the swatches (yes, there are swatches!) are often shown in different colorways.
150 Scandinavian Motifs (Mary Jane Mucklestone)

Mittens Books (that you can use like a stitch dictionary)
Latvian Mittens (Lizbeth Upitis)
Latviesa Cimdi (Maruta Grasmane). Huge gorgeous book. Link goes to an English edition.
The Mitten Book (Inger and Ingrid Gottfridsson)
Mostly Mittens (Charlene Schurch)
Selbuvotter (Terri Shea)

Stranded Knitting Books (that include stitch patterns)
Bohus Stickning på nytt The Revival (Viveka Overland). Lovely to look at even if you don’t want purls in your colorwork.
Traditional Fair Isle Knitting (Sheila McGregor)
The Art of Fair Isle Knitting (Ann Feitelson)
Alice Starmore’s Book of Fair Isle Knitting