Lotus Pond

Meet my latest design: Lotus Pond

My fascination with knitted lace and depicting flora and fauna continues in this top down shawl. Motifs include moths (or are they flies!) pansies, lotus flowers and a decorative edging depicting a trefoil. Yes, there are a nupps - but just a few, and to be honest, if you're not inclined nupp-wise, they can easily be swapped out with beads. I think beads would be quite fitting - like water droplets on a lotus flower.
In this pattern I use a Japanese stitch pattern called the Three Stitch Lift, which I have modified to suit my purposes. While the pattern notes describe how this stitch works I thought it might help to talk about it and show you what's going on. So here goes ...

I originally found this stitch in the book, "Knitted Socks East and West", Basically what you do when you work this stitch is work some loops through the middle of your knitting by knitting through the centre of the stitch 3 rows down from the next stitch on you LH needle. I think it takes a little bit of mind bending for some people to get this idea - you actually poke your RH needle right through the knitted fabric - through the centre of the stitch 3 rows down from the next st on the LH needle. You then draw through a loop of working yarn, work a yarn over, and draw another loop through the same place in the knitting once more. You have effectively made 3 new stitches. You then drop the very next stitch on the LH needle. (the one in the column directly above where you have knitted through the fabric. It will only ladder down to the anchor point you have just made with your 3 new stitches. These laddered stitches form pleasing horizontal lines. Try not to make the 3 loops too tight, or the loops they make will not be elongated. In the book I found, these extra stitches (actually only 2 in total, because you drop a stitch) are removed by a centered double decrease on the next RS row, but because I wanted to use this stitch as a way of making increases most of the time, I only included the decreasing row of the stitch pattern in Chart A.

This is what it looks like when you are working the stitch. (note: I have not included the yarn overs and decreases as they appear in the first chart)
(click on the photos if you wish to make them larger)

Through the centre of the stitch - draw through a loop. 1 stitch made

view from above

Below: One loop pulled through

Below: Having already made one loop, work a yarn over, and work step one again. Three loops made. Then drop the next stitch on the needle (already dropped in the photo). You now have only two extra loops/stitches.

Row finished. You will see those three laddered horizontal loops are captured by the stitches you have just made.

 I purled back so you an see what it looks like

If you make a mistake and need to undo a row just leave those three loops on your left needle as you tink, and then make the 3 loops as described when you get to them. (see last photo)

In the pattern I include a variation of this stitch called the 5 Stitch Lift, which results in 5 loops (but 4 extra increases when completed). This is achieved simply by working an additional yarn over and pulling a third loop through the knitting (so 2 yarn overs and 3 loops pulled through the knitting) before letting the next stitch on the LH needle ladder down.

Please note that The 3 and 5 Stitch Lift, are not in any way related to the Lifted Increase used in the stocking stitch section of the shawl even though they share the word "lift". When working a lifted increase you simply lift the right leg of the next stitch onto the needle and knit it (to make a stitch). With the 3 and 5 Stitch Lift you actually knit through the fabric of your knitting.

If you'd like to watch a video of someone working this stitch, click on this link.
It's not in English, but it doesn't matter in the slightest - it demonstrates very well what is going on when working this stitch, and is especially clear on the garter stitch background. Note, she finishes the stitch pattern off with the centred double decrease on a following row.

Try it - it's fun!

High Country Crescent

One of my favourite places is the High Country of the South Island (of NZ), and I've always wanted to design a shawl that reflects its stark beauty. High Country Crescent is my first attempt to do that (as I rather think there are many more knitting motifs to be found in that stunning landscape).

Parched, stony, vast and rugged, this harsh land is connected from the mountains to the sea by a network of sprawling braided rivers, and unassuming plants. This shawl, High Country Crescent, is my homage to that harsh, desolate and beautiful landscape – a landscape that inspires and yet dwarfs the human spirit. Lace and cable stitches create knitted motifs representing braided rivers and tussock flowing to the estuary where High Country river meets the Pacific Ocean

I designed this shawl some time ago, but I really wanted to get photos of it in the actual High Country before I released it on Ravelry. Our summer holidays were the perfect time, and on New Years day we made our way to the headwaters of Lake Tekapo. I know there's snow in the background, but it was hot! (click on the photos to enlarge them, so you can see the detail).

This one was taken at Otira gorge - more Alpine than High Country, but stunning nonetheless and another glorious warm day.

and finally a close up.

I knit mine in Zealana Kiwi Laceweight (colour; Sunset), but any laceweight will do so long as it's not superfine. A 3 ply or light fingering would substitute well too, as Zealana Kiwi is quite a chubby yarn.
It's available in two sizes and requires 600 - 686 metres of yarn. For more information and other examples check out my Ravelry store.

Biophilia

If you follow me on Ravelry  or Instagram you might know that Biophilia has been in the pipeline for a while.

 

 I started off wanting to work with an adapted 'pod' pattern someone in my spinning guild had found and used spectacularly in a baby blanket. Alas, the pods didn't really work in with anything else, and I had to omit them. For such a simple looking pattern, this is probably the one I have toiled on the most. But it's a sweetie - I love how the seaweed like pattern fans out at the edge, and ends with a few beads at the edge, and dripping off the picot points, as if it were recently plucked from the ocean depths.

The yarn is Vintage Purls sock - in the colour Songs of the Sea. Isn't it gorgeous!
You will need approx 495 metres of yarn and 245 size 6 seed beads.

I must backtrack a little. Biophilia is a free pattern available on Ravelry, and part of KiwiYarns Sustain the Sea collection. Biophilia is a term used to describe a hypothetically innate human tendency to feel an emotional attachment to the natural world. The idea that human wellbeing is utterly dependent upon our positive interactions with the natural world and its biological diversity makes conservation of the planet’s ecological systems imperative. This decades old theory is even more relevant today as we continue to transform the planet in our quest for perpetual economic growth. Regardless of whether the tendency for biophilia exists or not, human dependence upon the natural world and its complex ecosystems is a fundamental truth, and yet we continue to plunder the Earth’s resources, and foul the waterways and seas.

But it's a free pattern with a twist, and I have a lot more to say about it - go have a look on Ravelry!

The Lace Eater Shawl

The Lace Eater Shawl KAL starts on September the 1st!

Have you got your yarn ready?

The Lace Eater came from a desire to depict the all-consuming passion that lace knitting inspires in those of us addicted to lace knitting. 

Cables twist and turn as they move across the surface of the knitted fabric - undulating - consuming the lace … like an infection.

The Lace Eater, an elongated triangular crescent shawl, will challenge lace lovers. You will be required to work from multiple charts, to work increases and decreases on RS and WS rows. Nupps and gathered stitches give texture to the fabric, while cables consume lace motifs as they advance across the fabric.
Rippling with cables and lace, wrap the The Lace Eater shawl about your shoulders and celebrate your lace addiction!

Succumb to your lace addiction - join us for the Lace Eater KAL(when the pattern becomes available for download September 1st), in my Ravelry Group: Lace Eater Designs, and knit this fascinating shawl with others celebrating their lace addiction.
The pattern will be available for purchase on September the 1st

Yarn Substitution:
Choose a solid or only slightly variegated fingering weight (NZ 4 ply) yarn for this shawl in order to highlight the textural nature of the fabric produced.

Dandelion Stitch Sampler Shawl

I kinda forgot about this .... but it is so much fun to knit, that it's worth remembering!

Dandelion is a crescent shaped shawl made up of ten different stitch patterns embedded in a background of soothing stocking stitch, worked from the top down. You may not have encountered all these stitch patterns before, but they ARE fun to knit. I get bored easily, so I really enjoyed working each of the stitch patterns once only, and then moving on to the next one. Each stitch pattern is fully explained and the directions are completely written. There are some charts where they are useful, but you don't need to read a chart to complete this shawl.

I love the yarn - Madelinetosh Dandelion in Lepiodoptra and Forestry. The jewel like colours positively glow and complement each other well. Any solid, or semi-solid 4 ply / fingering weight yarn will work, and you will need about 210 and 230 metres (230 and 252 yards) of each colour.
It's available in my Ravelry store .... here.
Enjoy!

The Lace Eater

I've been working on a new shawl.
I call it Frankenshawl ...

I don't really, but laying out all my little swatches helped me to figure out size, and the rate of increases I needed along the neck edge, and generally whether it was worth continuing.

I had a few mishaps....

But I'm glad I stuck with it ...

Mad Blood

Mad Blood is finally available on Ravelry

I haven't blogged about it while I was working on it, because ... well, I totally forgot!

Mad Blood was inspired by the dramatic beauty of a local yarn: The Mad Blood Stirreth, dyed by Tash of Knitsch Sock fame. It's a gorgeous blue based ruby red with just a hint of pink. When I saw it I knew I had to do something dramatic with it - so I did. The shawl Mad Blood positively drips with lace, cables, beads (optional of course), and nupps. If you like your lace challenging, then this shawl will keep your attention as the lace motifs are worked on both right and wrong side rows.
If you're like me and you get bored easily, fear not - the lace and cable motifs are constantly changing - you are never asked to repeat a series of rows.

The development of this shawl took a while - I have many swatches as I worked out the pattern motifs. In a future post I will show you my rather frumpy looking knitted doodle swatches so you can see how I get from A to B.

This pink-red colour seems to be a challenging colour for digital cameras. We had an extremely difficult time trying to capture both the colour AND the pattern, and in the end the photos are a compromise between trying to achieve the illustration of both.

Ironically, my favourite photo is taken in a grubby mirror in a gloomy room with the shawl pinned to my leg. If you click on the photo you will be able to see the pin!