Category: knitting

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6th Annual Be A Helper Craftalong

Welcome to our 6th annual craftalong! Inspired by the famous Mr. Rogers quote that in times of trouble you should look for the helpers, I’m encouraging folks to BE the helpers.

The 6th Be A Helper Craft-a-long has begun! We keep the rules simple.
• Anything you make for any charity counts, doesn’t have to be knit/crochet/woven or spun. ANYthing you make for ANY charity.
• One FO per Google Form submission: https://forms.gle/QdJuQUSr8uM7GoiF6
• Donating blood counts too!
• Google Form closes when I wake up March 15th.
• Wips are always welcome
• Partial FOs count, for example if you make a blanket strip and your local yarn shop sews them together to make full blankets, count your blanket strip.

One change this year – due to the ongoing accessibility issues at Ravelry, finished objects can be submitted here in the FO Thread (link goes to Ravelry) or via a Google Form.

Link to Google Form to submit your Finished Object/blood donation:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf08z2uqelVGeUBkm0fofQGveThChBBZzaMvNsRdlPlMzhbgA/viewform?usp=sf_link

And one last minute addition – due to the recent KY tornado crisis, I’ve adjusted the rules so that anyone who donated blood anywhere in the world on or after December 10 will earn an entry. Please post in the FO thread or the google form, and thank you for helping your fellow citizens!

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Line Where The Sky Meets the Sea

Now available on LoveCrafts, Ravelry and PayHip.  Use code OCEAN to get 20% off on Ravelry and Payhip through Oct. 3rd, 2021.

Some people feel the call of the Sea. Open water, no land in sight, that is where your heart lies. I know this feeling well. I grew up near the North Atlantic and I love being on a boat offshore, wondering what lies just over the horizon. When I first watched the film “Moana” and I heard her sing “There’s a line where the sky meets the sea and it calls me” I knew exactly what she meant. To my fellow knitters who also hear the sea’s siren call, I present this shawl.

 

This shawl is worked in three sections. First you work the bottom stockinette section.  Then you work the cable band like an applied edge. Lastly, you pick up stitches on the cable band and work the top stockinette section. The pattern contains directions on exactly how/where to pick up stitches and a link to a video tutorial about picking up stitches.

Materials

•1000 yards [914.5 m] of Main Color fingering-weight yarn, sample knit in Blue Heron Cotton Rayon Twist Lace Yarn, fingering weight yarn.
• 40 yards [36.5 m] of Contrast Color fingering weight yarn, sample uses silk/linen laceweight from Buchanen Fibers in Iris colorway.
• US 4 [3.5mm] circular needle, or size needed to obtain
gauge, 40 inch [100 cm] length

Gauge
26 sts and 30 rows per 4 inches [10 cm]
Size
5 feet [1.5 m] wide by 15 inches [38 cm] deep

Pattern Difficulty Level: Advanced

This pattern has been tech edited and test knit and works in both plant and animal fibers – a great big thank you to my test knitters!

Available on LoveCrafts, Ravelry and PayHip. 

 

 

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For Spacious Skies

Now available in the July 2020 edition of Knotions Magazine!

I found this yarn and this indie dyer, Birdie’s Knits at the very first Stitches United in Hartford, CT several years ago. I was so excited – I’d never met a hand-dyer who worked in anything other than wool. Being highly allergic to sheep, wool is not an option for me. This colorway reminded me of 4th of July parades with my grandparents and great-grandmother, of summer beach days and Friday night band concerts at the local park all summer with my family.

The star is worked first, from the center out, then short rows make the circle into a square. The remainder of the top is worked top-down – the bust area is worked back-and forth to the underarm, then the whole piece is joined in the round. This pattern will work in both plant and animal fibers.

Sizing
We recommend -1 to -3 inches of ease (negative ease). This means if you’re targeting a 38 bust, that you should choose a 36 (38-2).
(A) Bust: 32 (36, 40, 44, 48, 52, 56, 60)” 81.5 (91.5, 101.5, 112, 122, 132, 142, 152.5) cm circumference.
(B) Waist: 28 (32, 36, 40, 44, 48, 52, 56)” 71 (81.5, 91.5, 101.5, 112, 122, 132, 142) cm circumference.
(C) Hips: 38 (40, 44, 48, 52, 57, 59, 61)” 96.5 (101.5, 112, 122, 132, 145, 150, 155) cm circumference.
(D) Length from shoulder to bottom edge: 23.75 (24.25, 24.5, 25, 25.5, 25.5, 25.75, 26)” 61 (61.5, 62.5, 63.5, 64.5, 64.5, 65.5, 66) cm.
(E) Armhole: 20.25 (20.5, 20.75, 20.5, 21.75, 21.75, 22.25, 23.25)” 51.5 (52, 53, 52.5, 55, 55, 56.5, 59) cm circumference.

Notions
Tapestry needle, 2 stitch markers, stitch holders or scrap yarn.

Yarn
MC: Birdies Knits Sport Weight (100% cotton; 164 yds 150 m/50g): Old Glory, 4 (5, 5, 6, 6, 7, 7, 8) skeins.
CC: Schachenmayr Catania (100% cotton; 137 yds 125 m/50g): Natur, 1 ball.

Needle
Size US 4 (3.5mm): 24” (60cm) or 30” (75cm) circulars, dpns and 16” (60cm) circulars
Size US 5 (3.75mm) any length, or one size larger than that used to obtain gauge.
Or sizes needed to obtain gauge

Gauge
24 sts and 28 rows = 4” 10cm in St st.
Star Chart is 8” 20.5cm in diameter after blocking

Tutorials
Links are provided in the pattern to:
Short Rows
I-cord Bind-off

Lace star has both charted and written instructions.

This pattern has been tech edited and test knit. I’d like to thank my amazing test knitters who provided wonderful feedback!

For more information, see: https://knotions.com/category/issues/july-2020/
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Send Me That Horizon

I’ve always loved the sea. I grew up near the ocean, with both sets of grandparents living a few dozen feet from the water. Playing on the beach, listening to the waves, sailing on a boat, hiking along ocean-side cliffs – I love anything involving the sea. But nothing is the same as being far from shore with no land in sight. I love seeing the horizon taper off to meet the ocean waves; so when I first watched the original Pirates of the Caribbean movie and Captain Jack Sparrow looked into the distance and murmured “Send me that horizon” under his breath my heart sang. I know that feeling, I love that feeling, and with this shawl I want you to experience it too.

This is an easy pattern (most of it is stockinette) and also easy to adjust the length – providing you have enough yarn, you can make this shawl as deep as you want. Incorporating a variation of the feather and fan/old shale, if you can k2tog, ssk and kfb you can make this shawl.

This pattern has been tech edited and test knit.

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Materials
• 1000 yards of Blue Heron Cotton Rayon Twist
• US 4 [3.5mm] circular needle, or size needed to obtain gauge, 40 inch [100 cm] length
• Tapestry needle

Gauge
26 sts and 30 rows per 4 inches [10 cm]

Size
5 feet [1.5 m] wide by 15 inches [38 cm] deep.

Skills Needed
• k2tog
• kfb
• ssk
• yo

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Pont du Marais

Have you ever been in a fog so thick you can’t see beyond your hand? My grandparent’s village is a 6-mile peninsula sticking into the North Atlantic and the fog there is epic. Rolling in off the cold waters that surround the village, the fog encircles you in a gray mist while the waves crash on the shore, out of sight but never out of hearing. When I first saw this yarn gradient I knew exactly what this shawl would become, showcasing the swirling fog and waves.

This shawl is knit top-down, back-and-forth and the result is an almost-circular shawl with a cutout that allows it to be worn easily. (see last image).

This pattern has been tech edited and test knit. Thank you to test knitters Kali, Audrey, Sheila, and Jyoti!

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Materials

720 yards fingering weight, gradient recommended
Stitch markers
Tapestry needle

US 4 3.5 mm circular needles, or size needed to obtain gauge, 40 inches 100 cm or longer
Gauge
24 sts and 32 rows over 4 inches 10 cm after washing
and blocking.

 

Size

15 inches 38 cm deep from cast on edge to bottom of the wave pattern, roughly 36 in 91.5 cm diameter.

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Out Tonight

Inspired by the women of the musical Rent, this day-to-night top looks like a plain shell under your blazer at the office. Joanne had to dress for the office as a lawyer, but she certainly knew how to have fun with Maureen after work. Come closing time, toss that blazer aside and show your true colors – whatever color that may be is up to you. Rent came out when I was in high school and had a huge affect on young, theater-geek me. My sweet 16 gift was tickets to go see the first US tour in Boston; I’ve seen it at least 10 times since then. The music still provides me with hope and inspiration – including this pattern, the first in a collection.

 

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Fitted across the bust and flowy over the waist and hips, this day-to-night shell is ready to go wherever you are. As Mimi says, “Take me out tonight.”

Bust sizes 34 (37, 40, 43, 46, 49, 52) inches [86.5 (94, 101.5, 109, 117, 125, 132) cm]

Recommended Ease: 1 to 3 inches [2.5 to 7.5 cm] at bust. Model has a 39” bust and is wearing a size 40”.

Materials:
600 (680, 730, 800, 880, 955, 1045) yards [549, 622, 668, 732, 805, 873, 956) meters] of Elspeth Lavold Hempathy, 40% Hemp/40% Cotton/20% Modal, DK weight yarn that gets softer the more you wash it – Main Color
35 yards of Birdies Knits sport weight 100% cotton in the Emmelyne colorway – Contrast Color

Pattern Notes:

This pattern is very flexible and can be made in almost any yarn that fits the gauge. The Contrasting Color yarn does not have to be the same yarn or same gauge as the Main Color yarn. It doesn’t even have to be the same fiber! As long as the row gauges are similar and the fibers can be washed in the same manner, you’ll be fine. The samples are knit in two machine washable fibers with very different contents. I knit them separately, machine washed and dried each of them, then seamed them together.

Please wash and block ALL the pieces before you start seaming!

For the shoulder pieces, all increases are worked towards the neck.

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A Note On Color:
Enjoy the color. Make it as quiet or as loud as you want. Have fun! Just remember that if you use two very different colors, please wash them separately before you seam them. Reds and blues especially tend to bleed – wash them at least once (I would wash 2 or 3 times) before pairing with a light color like the one pictured in the sample.

This pattern has been tech edited and test knit.

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Strawberry Blossoms

I am so excited to be releasing a new pattern after taking more than a year off.

Inspired by the little yellow flowers of the wild strawberry plants that grow in my backyard, this top is flutters in the breeze and reminds me of the little yellow flowers blooming on warm, sunny days. These delicate little flowers don’t bear fruit, but they thrive even in horrible conditions, like the shady, acidic clay soil in my backyard. This really hit home with me as I injured my hand last year and was unable to design for most of 2018. Strawberry Blossoms is the first pattern I worked after my injury and the tenacity of those little flowers really resonated with me.

Available for purchase on Ravelry, PayHip and LoveCrafts.

Fit
Bust sizes 32 (35, 38, 41, 44) inches 82 (89, 97, 104, 112)
cm finished size. See schematic in photos for more measurements.  Larger sizes are currently in development (as of 9/29/21).

Recommended Ease: -3 to -1 inches -7.5 to -2.5cm at the bust. CoBaSi gives a VERY stretchy fabric at this gauge and I highly recommend negative ease across the bust. If you use a different yarn that gives you less-stretchy fabric you may want 0-2 inches 0-5cm of positive ease.

Sample: Model has a 39” bust and is wearing size 38”.

Suggested Yarn
Sample uses 680 (745, 810, 875, 940) yards 621 (681, 740, 800, 859) meters of CoBaSi yarn from Hikoo by Skacel, 55% Cotton, 21% Nylon, 16% Bamboo, 8% Silk, fingering weight yarn
Any fingering weight yarn will work, thought the fabric may be less stretchy.

Suggested Needles
US 3 3.25mm circular needle, or size needed to obtain gauge, 24 inch 60cm length
US 1 2.25mm circular needle, same length as larger needle
Notions
Cable needle, tapestry needle, stitch markers, scrap yarn

This pattern has been tech edited and test knit. A great bit THANK YOU to my test knitters KnitsyBitsyKayla, mrldz and Stephanie.

 

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Star Wars Sweater

My eldest son asked me to knit him a Star Wars sweater so I started with the idea of using R2-D2 and this sweater was born.  Many of you on Instagram have asked me to write up this pattern but since Star Wars is someone else’s intellectual property I’m going to show you what I did and make the charts I used freely available to anyone.

I started with the free pattern, Nordic Yoke Set Pullover from Patons, and changed the charts for the yoke and bottom of the body.  I also decided to skip the colored ribbing on the cuffs and body for the purely selfish reason of saving the gray to knit another sweater for my younger son next fall (he wants a BB8 sweater!).

YOKE

The yoke has an X-wing (as viewed from above), R2-D2 and a light saber.

I used the exact dimensions of the Nordic Yoke Pullover Sweater chart, so you can simply use this chart in it’s place and it will work just fine.  Some lines have more than 2 colors – in many cases I chose to come back later and use duplicate stitch so as to avoid carrying 3 or 4 colors in one row of stranded colorwork.  If you’re adept at carrying 3 or 4 colors in 1 row of colorwork, good for you!  I also used a backstitch-like technique from my cross stitching days called straight stitch to delineate R2D2’s legs.  This is represented by an orange line in the colorwork chart.  you can ignore this if you wish.  I did the outlining in the same tan color I used for the yoke background.

Click the small picture of the chart above to see the full size chart.

BOTTOM OF SWEATER

I did have to change this chart.  The sweater uses an 8-st repeat but I just couldn’t get a tie-fighter to look good in 8 sts.  I used 9.  If you use this bottom chart, YOU MAY HAVE TO ADJUST the number of body stitches before starting the colorwork as follows:

  • Sizes 4 and 10 – no changes needed
  • Sizes 6 and 12 – decrease 3 sts the row BEFORE you start the colorwork
  • Size 8 – increase 3 sts the row BEFORE you start the colorwork

Click on the small picture of the chartbelow to see the full size chart.

 

The only changes I made to the pattern itself were to make the arms and torso longer than called for so that it will still fit my son in the fall (I hope!)

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Use Your Stash Shawl

Use Your Stash Shawl

Wow, I can’t believe the response to this pattern!  You all are amazing, thank you so much for your support in pushing this pattern to the top of the Hot Right Now on Ravelry!

I designed this shawl for one very specific reason: sometimes you want to knit those last bits of leftover yarn but you have no way to determine if you have enough to complete a pattern. Thanks to the genius of Lee Meredith (Leethal Knits) you can, and you never need to pick up stitches. This pattern incorporates the Sideways Edge Cast On that she created, with her permission. For more information on this cast on, please visit Lee’s blog at: https://www.leethal.net/zine/sideways-edge-cast-on-a-knit…

Shawls can be knit in either garter stitch (see red & white sample) or stockinette (see purple sample). Can be knit as a rectangular shawl, or use the optional short rows for a slight crescent shape.

Tech Editor: Dana Gervais

Gauge: Any! This shawl works with any yarn weight or fiber content.

Materials
• Circular needle 40 inches (101.5 cm) or longer, in size needed for preferred gauge
• Stitch marker
• Tapestry Needle
• Yarn – any amount, one color or more.

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Red and White sample is 5 feet (1.5m) long and uses 127(116m) yards of white and 226 yards (206.5 m)of red, both in worsted weight on a US size 8 (5 mm) needle. Knit in garter stitch without short rows.

Purple sample is 6 feet (1.8m) long and knit in sport weight using 545 yards (489 m) on US size 3 (3.25mm) needle. Knit in stockinette with short rows to make a slight crescent.

Pattern includes a worksheet you can use to calculate how long and how deep your shawl will be given how much yarn you have.

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Linen Butterflies

I designed this sweater especially for my mom. She wanted a lightweight sweater to wear in the evening down in Florida after the sun went down, and after pouring over dozens of lace patterns together, this sweater was born.

This sweater is knit bottom-up to the armholes, then separates for front and back. The set-in-sleeves are picked up and knit from the arm holes and short rows are used to make a sleeve cap. Lace pattern is BOTH charted and written out.

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Sizes 32.75(35, 37.25, 39.5, 41.75)(44, 46.25, 48.5, 51) inches 83(89, 94.5, 100.5, 106)(112, 117.5, 123, 129.5) cm
Tech Editor: Dana Gervais

Designed to be worn with 1-3 inches 2.5 -7.5 cm of positive ease (purple sweater has 3 inches positive ease, gold sweater has -1 inch ease on model).

CHECK YOUR GAUGE! Linen behaves very differently than other fibers. Put your 100% linen swatch in the washing machine and dryer before measuring. For other fibers, wash and dry your gauge swatch as you intend to care for your garment.
2.25” wide x 1.75” high per repeat; 14 sts x 16 rows per lace repeat after machine washing and machine drying.

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