The Orchid View shawl pattern I designed during the fall is now available for purchase. This quickly became one of my favourite shawls, and I think it’s been the one I’ve worn the most in the past several months. It’s knit using one or two skeins of Tush from Saffron Dyeworks, which is a really fabulous yarn. The colours are truly amazing. My shawl was knit with one skein of Tush in the colour Red Sumac, which is a really nice deep wine red. The colour has a lot of depth to it, and I’ve always been fond of deep reds. Dee at Saffron Dyeworks actually picked the colour for me, and I was amazed at how she managed to pick one of my favourites. Although, so far, I haven’t seen a colourway of hers that I didn’t like….. The shawl has already been knit up in several different colours, and if you’re on Ravelry you can see some pictures here.
The pattern comes in two different sizes – one for 1 skein of Tush and one for 2 skeins. The shawl has a number of Orchid flowers and buds spreading out over the back. I particularly like the Orchid flowers, and am very pleased with how they resemble the actual flower.
The pattern also comes with both charted and written instructions.
In the Swedish medieval ballad Havsfrun, Herr Olof rides to the realm of the Sea Witch. She welcomes him and says she’s been waiting for him for 15 years. She asks where he is from and where his fields are, and his parents and his beloved. He answers they are all in the king’s realm. The Sea Witch then offers him the clearest wine from her jug and then asks all the same questions again. Herr Olof now answers that his fields and his home are here in the realm of the Sea Witch. She is his beloved and he would like to live and die with her.
The stole shows the flowing, swirling waters of the Sea Witch’s realm, and in the centre the waters separate to make way for her lands and fields. When I was designing it, I really wanted the flowing waters to be a central feature of the stole, so the waves continue from end to end. When the water separates to show the fields, the waves still undulate in a sine-wave on each side of the fields.
The yarn I used was a decadent 100% cashmere lace from Hedgehog Fibres in a colourway called Ink. Ink is a dark blue/black colour that I thought captured the dark alluring waters in the realm of the Sea Witch.
Blocking the Havsfrun stole was a little bit more time-consuming than many of my other designs, because the long edges had to be pinned out in curves. But I think the result was totally worth it. The waves look so alluring.
Havsfrun is the first shawl in the Folk Song KAL that is just starting up this week. There will be two more patterns – one in April and one in May – based on different folk songs. Next we are headed to the Maritimes with a Canadian Folk Song. But more on that a different day.
I do take my obsessions seriously. Especially when it comes to knitting. Yesterday was actually a build-up to the big announcement today.
I’ve decided to take my fingerless mitten patterns and publish them as a collection. Seven Fingerless Mittens, all released during 2011.
The first two patterns in the series were previewed yesterday – Stalactite and Ice Dancing. As we progress throughout the year, there will be a variety of designs and techniques explored in this fabulous format called fingerless mittens / fingerless gloves.
Each pattern will be available for purchase separately, or as a part of the ebook. The ebook is priced at only $20 CDN, so it’s a substantial saving over purchasing the patterns individually.
I hope you’ll enjoy the patterns as much as I do. Happy knitting!
I have recently become addicted to knitting fingerless mittens, because they are such a wonderful garment for exploring textures and colours – small enough to take anywhere, and the finished object can be worn and admired easily (unlike socks, which tend to hide in shoes).
The most recent to come off my needles are the Stalactite gloves to the left. I was playing around with Bavarian twisted cables, and came up with this pattern resembling stalactite formations in caves, ending with a drop (dripping down towards the cave floor). These gloves have a fitted thumb gusset, and are designed to have a small amount of negative ease, and fit snugly. The cuff is patterned all around, but the palm of the hand is all stockinette (as are the fingers).
Before that I was working on a pair of plain fingerless mitts, which were made more interesting by using a yarn with long colour-runs. These ones have already been claimed by my daughter, and I think she may have worn them close to 24 hours a day since she got them. Well, except for our vacation to Jamaica – swimming in fingerless gloves was too uncool even for her. But now that we’re back home, the mitts are back on her hands.
The gloves have a plain ribbed cuff and then continue in stockinette. There is a fitted thumb gusset and half-length fingers.
And the pair that started it all are my Ice Dancing mitts. These were designed so that I wouldn’t have to freeze my hands off while knitting during my kids’ hockey practices. All three children play hockey, so there is a lot of time spent at the arenas for us parents every week. It’s really a perfect opportunity to knit, except it’s tends to get rather cold.
These mitts have no fingers at all to allow me to snake the yarn between my fingers to keep the tension while knitting. They work wonders and I’ve been using them a lot since I finished them.
Hrungnir was one of the giants from Jotunheim. On one visit to Aasgard, Hrungnir drank all the ale from Thor’s cups. While he was drunk he boasted that he was going to drink all the ale from the Aasas. Thor took insult and slayed him in a duel. Hrungnir had a heart of stone, sharp and three-sided, and even his head was of stone. But Thor defeated him with his hammer.
The special shape of Hrungnir’s heart is also known as a Valknut – a knot of three interlocking triangles. In Skáldamál (part of the Prose Edda from the 13th century) it says “Hrungnir had a heart that was famous. It was made of hard stone with three sharp-pointed corners just like the carved symbol hrungnishjarta [Hrungnir’s heart]”, and the symbol can be found in a number of different stone carvings, including one at Stora Hammars on Gotland, Sweden.
Double-knitting is a form of two colour knitting that produces a completely reversible fabric. Each side looks like stockinette knitting – but the colours are reversed between the two sides. There are no visible floats, and thus no “wrong side” of the scarf.
The pattern is available as a PDF download, and includes detailed instructions on two different methods of double-knitting.
For my scarf, I used Arial from Twisted Fiber Art. One skein is in the colourway shadow (blue), and the other is a Twisted Evolution in Firefly – long colour-runs going from bright yellow to gray.
Here are all the finished shawls for my upcoming book with Cooperative Press.
This picture makes me so happy. It represents months of hard work, and it’s very colourful – just what I need to brighten an otherwise gray and dreary winter day.
A day at a hockey tournament turned out to be just what was needed to finish Vampire Mitchell’s Mitts.
They were actually “almost done” for a while, but I had procrastinated sewing in all the ends. All twenty of them.
It’s still too cold outside to actually wear them (-20C), but I’m hoping warmer weather is around the corner. Somewhere.
In the meantime, I’ll wear warm, wooly sweaters, and drink copious amounts of hot tea.
The third and final pattern in the Fairy Tale KAL is Ali Baba – based on Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves from Arabian Nights. The complete story can be read in an earlier post, and I really had a good time converting this story to a shawl. The reason I chose this ruby port colour and a silk lace yarn was that it made me think of Persian carpets.
The gold coins Ali Baba found in the thieves’ cave are depicted on the shawl. There are also forty of them – for the forty thieves. Underneath is a set of gates, all with an extra yarn-over. This represents the first time the thieves tried to find Ali Baba’s house and marked his gate with chalk. His trusted servant then marked all the surrounding gates with the same chalk mark, so the thieves could not find him.
The second set of gates all have a missing yarn over, representing the chunk that the thieves cut out of Ali Baba’s gate the second time they tried to find his house. Again, the servant marked all the surrounding gates by chipping them as well.
And then along the bottom edge are the flames from the burning oil that the servant used to smother the thieves hiding in the barrel.
Finally, the shape, four equal quarters (which makes the shawl half an octagon) was chosen because Ali Baba’s brother was quartered. This may just be a little too much information if you ever want to show off your fancy silk lace shawl, so feel free to leave that out if you’re talking about your shawl. 
It’s time to start getting ready for the Folk Song KAL – the spring version of the Seasons of Lace hosted by yours truly. This season we will be knitting three lace shawls that are inspired by three different folk songs.
The other day I went on a ski-trip with my children’s school. It was a lovely day, but it involved spending 1.5 hrs each way on a bus full of grade 5 – 8 students. And while they were very well behaved, that just didn’t seem like the place to be knitting intricate lace designs. So I cast on for a much simpler project. A pair of fingerless mitts, designed to look like the ones Vampire Mitchell wears in the British version of Being Human. Except…. his are green, and sometimes green with white stripes. And I like blue. So I used a blue yarn from Marks & Kattens with long colour runs. I really like the way it’s knitting up.
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