Mystic Star is turning 5 years old today! The pattern was originally published as a mystery KAL back on January 26, 2009. Amazing!
The original KAL had some 300+ members (326, but who’s counting?), and the pattern came in two versions – you could knit Mystic Star as a circular shawl, or as a semicircular shawl. But since the KAL has ended, this pattern has continued to do really well, and by now there are lots and lots of Mystic Stars out in the wild. As a laugh, and a blast from the past, here is the original banner for the Mystic Star KAL:
The shawl was designed using a tencel laceweight yarn from Yarntopia Treasures. This was the first time I ever worked with tencel. Tencel has the feel and sheen of silk, but is a lot less expensive (one skein, enough for this entire project comes in at about $12, as compared to silk lace which can easily run $70 for a skein). While it is a natural fibre, made from wood pulp, it’s also been fairly heavily processed. It is often used in jeans/denim, and is very sturdy. But a shawl knit in a laceweight tencel has an amazing lightweight feel to it.
I’m still really amazed at how the Mystic Star shawl turned out. It was my first circular shawl (the first of many), and I just love the star shape in the center.
I just published my 100th pattern!
It’s been an amazing 7 years – I’ve had lots of fun. Made lots of new friends. And knit up a storm.
This 100th pattern is actually something a little different from what I usually publish – it’s a fair isle hat – the Maple Leaf Touque.
Funny enough – when I started knitting, way back when, I loved stranded knitting. In fact, most of my favourite knits as a teenager were stranded knits. I love the change of colour, and to watch the patterns grow from the needles.
My very first published pattern was the Burridge Lake Aran Afghan, which of course featured lots of cables. And the second one was Mystic Waters, which was a lace shawl. The lace designs have almost taken on a life of their own, and I certainly do enjoy my lace. As you know. But fair isle was my first love, and I celebrate that with my 100th pattern.
Thank you all for a wonderful time these past 7 years. Without all of you, these past years would have been very different. I started publishing patterns on a whim, and then with your encouragement it’s grown into a whole career for me. I have published 2 books, a couple of e-books, and a third book is in progress. I’m ever so grateful for the opportunity to combine my artistic drive with my mathematical side. Thanks for all the encouragement!
Happy knitting!
/Anna
PS. In case you’re wondering, the Maple Leaf Touque pattern is available here.
One of the things I really crave in my knitting is variety. I know I knit a lot of lace – and there is truly an endless variety of stitch-combinations to be found in lace – but there are a lot of other styles that I really like as well. My very first published pattern was the Burridge Aran Afghan, with lots of cables.
I just released a new cabled pattern – the Charles River Scarf – which uses reversible cables. The cables form a wave pattern reminiscent of the flowing water in the river that separates Boston from Cambridge. I made up a new way of creating reversible cables (at least it was new to me, but I guess nothing is truly new under the sun), and I was rather pleased with how it worked out.
The design goal was a unisex scarf with lots of texture. The contrast between the ribbing and the garter stitch on the edging makes it look squishy soft. And the reversible cables look the same on both sides of the scarf.
Width: 10 in/25 cm
Length: adjustable. As shown: 75 in/200 cm, using 600 yds/300 g of worsted weight yarn
The pattern is available in PDF format for CDN $4.00
The Little Match Girl is a story by Hans Christian Andersen from 1845. On a cold New Years Eve a poor girl goes out barefoot in the snow to sell matches. She is freezing, but is afraid to go home because her stepfather will beat her for not selling any matches.
To warm up she lit matches and saw beautiful sights in the lights – food, warmth, family and her dead grandmother. They disappeared as soon as the match burned out. She lit all the matches so her grandmother would not disappear, and the grandmother took her hand and they flew off to heaven. In the morning the girl was found dead, having frozen to death with a smile on her face. No one understood the joy she felt before dying.
The border of the shawl shows the matchsticks and angels welcoming her to heaven, and the body has little flames for the lit matches.
The shawl comes in two different sizes. It’s knit with 1 skein of Anzula cloud, which is a light fingering weight yarn. The small size uses 450 yds, and the large size 500 yds. (Shown in size large) I used the colour periwinkle, which is an icy blue that I thought was perfect for the theme.
The Little Match Girl was the fourth shawl in the Fairy Tale Lace e-book.
The e-book is available for CDN $20
And if you’d just like a copy of The Little Match Girl, it’s available in PDF format for CDN $7.00
I thought the fairy tale was beautiful, and as I was designing I was going for sort of hybrid between a water lily and a star. My shawl is in the colour Sterling (silver gray), but I could imagine this in a number of different colours. I used Luna laceweight yarn from Raventwist – and it’s a very generous skein of close to 1,400 yds of lace yarn. It knits up beautifully, and due to the silk content (80/20 merino/silk blend) it has a really nice lustre.
It’s a part of the Fairy Tale Lace e-book, and as I write that, it occurs to me that I haven’t really been blogging about all the patterns in that collection. So I guess you can expect to see a few more blog-posts about that in the near future.
In the meantime, here is a quick picture of the five patterns in the book so far. By the time the e-book is complete, there will be seven patterns.
The e-book is available for CDN $20
And if you’d just like a copy of the Star of Earth, it’s available in PDF format for CDN $8.00
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