Shawl Season

 Ojos de Dios scarf.  This scarf was inspired by the Lubushka Cowl pattern to which I added a lot of red and lengthened into a long scarf.

 It has occured to me finally that here in Tennessee it never gets cold like it did in Illinois (really??) and that led me to switch to making lighter weight garments and accessories. So I am using more fingering weight yarns and finer sport and DK weights. These take a bit more time to knit, on much smaller needles, but are just wonderful to wear all year long. Our church has great AC and I would have been chilly all summer, but for the shawls I have worn. 

All merino in sport weights, size 3 needles. 

 My second shawl of this update is called Autumn Transitions. I have used mostly Merino Bliss 175 and some merino sock yarns. It consists of bands of garter ridges followed by five sets of slipped stitches on a stockinette base. I used a softer graduated palette in keeping with the season.

 Just for fun, here is the backside of the Ojos Scarf, lots of ends to weave in, which I finished!

Cherry Frappe Shawlette

 Cherry Frappe Shawlette

Silk and Merino. I am continuing to use my  stash yarns, ones I have been saving for something knit worthy.  $45 + shipping (US only). Email or text me.

 The pink and the multicolor are both 100% silk and the red is 75% Merino and 25% silk, so this is a pretty fancy and yummy combo to knit. 

 I tried something different today, taking pictures with my tablet instead of my phone, because I have an older phone with a very small amount of memory and I constantly have to delete pics in order to take new ones. The tablet also makes it very easy to post to Instagram which is where I hope I will find the audience who is interested in knits and who will purchase what I am making. 

 I keep working on this design, making tweeks,  changing sizes, needles, yarns and color to make the best possible design, before I write out the pattern. I am getting closer to that final version.

 While I have been focusing on fingering weight yarns, this one is DK and went a little faster and grew more than the fingering weight ones. I think the pattern will remain the same for each weight of yarn, but the needles and finished dimensions will change.  If I use worsted or chunky, it would grow accordingly.

 FYI, I knit the main body of the Shawlette and then go back and pick up stitches along the bottom edge to make the rows of eyelets and pico bind off.

Pointless Scarf

 I'm calling this scarf pointless because I curved the back which is usually a point of the long triangle. It's not that the scarf is not worthy. I used all leftovers like Chroma fingering and Stroll fingering. It is knit sideways, tip to tip, increasing or decreasing every fourth row. Garter, and size 2 needles.

 I love the color shifts, and such soft colors too. Delicate and feminine. $45 plus postage. Emailme.

Mitered Picolette Scarf

  

The Mitered Picolette Scarf may be my fave scarf to knit. It offers endless opportunities for variations, and works for lots of different weights of yarn. With this one I was commissioned to knit warm and pastel, think brown based colors, autumnal greens golds etc. 

Great! I'm in that mood these days anyway, so I was off to gather everything in my stash that matched the brief. 

My design begins with a mitered square/diamond:

 I used a crochet chain provisional cast-on so I could remove it later to knit the wings without picking up stitches. The turquoise yarn is undone to expose live stitches for each side. For this section I used slipped stitches for texture and color.

 What  I particularly like about this scarf is the way it lies on the back of the neck. No bunching. And it's not too big or bulky, because the yarn in this case is Malabrigo Rastita a DK and Merino Bliss 175 a Sport weight. After the body of the scarf is knit and blocked, I will pick up stitches along the bottom edge to make a border of eyelets and picot stitches. 

Ready to fly!

Fiordiloto Shawl

  

 I may have said this before, but steaming my finished knits is a miracle. The whole time I am knitting I am trying to see what the piece will look like when it relaxes and hoping it will be a good product. And then to pin it down and steam it and watch it actually relax and develop into the desired look is such a relief. It's glorious. I love knitting!

 I think the real name should be Church Lady Shawl #3. This was another commission and after a false start with a different yarn, I plowed through with this ancient-to-me silk and rayon yarn, Fiordiloto from Filatura di Crosa.

 

My own design, size 4 needles. 

Truffle Shawl Variation #6

This little shawl is the fingering version, which makes it more suitable for warmer weather wearing. It is knit from the center outward and then the neck stitches are picked up and knitted upward, and finally the bottom stitches are picked up from the middle section and knit downward. It is a very satisfying construction, if you ask me. I also added eyelets and my new fave picot bind off.  I am truly enjoying working with lighter weight yarns, as the finished products are so feather light to wear.  

And just yesterday I received another request from a different lady at church to knit a shawl for her niece, who keeps borrowing the one I knit for the church lady. So it seems that I am ready to open the blog to requests from you readers for your custom knit shawl, scarf or Shawlette from moi. They are $45 plus shipping. email me or text me. My email and number are in the side bar.

 

Chroma fingering and Stroll fingering , 100% merino, both from Knitpicks. Needles, 2 and 3. 

Bliss Shawlette

I call this Bliss because that is the name of the yarn. Altho it was also blissful to knit, the colors are so far from my usual choices that I doubted myself all the way. This was made as a 'second choice' for the lady at church who bought the Picolette Deux. She wanted another Shawlette and while I had one finished I thought I would make a second one to try out this new yarn. Yay!! She bought it!

 

100% Superwash merino from Denmark but made in Turkey. So many yarns come from Turkey!...or Peru. Size 4 needles.