Treat yourself to your very own knitting advent KALendar fun!
The Advent KALendar is a shawl knitalong that is published in 24 daily clues, from Dec 1-24, 2015. Each day you will get a piece of the pattern to enjoy, and by Christmas you will have a completed shawl.
The cost of the KAL is $5.00, and pattern instalments will be emailed to you daily.
The shawl design is inspired by the Zorya.
The Zorya are ancient Slavic sky and light goddesses. They are sisters; Utrennyaya, the morning star, and Vechernyaya, the evening star. Their purpose is to guard the doomsday hound Simargl who tries to eat Ursa Minor, the little bear. If the chain should ever break and the dog should ever get loose, the universe will end. The Zorya serve the sun god Dažbog. Zorya Utrennyaya opens the gates to his palace every morning for the sun-chariot’s departure. At dusk, Zorya Vechernyaya closes the palace gates once more after his return.
Yarn requirements:
Two contrasting colours of fingering weight yarn.
Colour 1: 382 yds/350 m, 100 g
Colour 2: 325 yds/298 m, 85 g
The Salacia Shawl is a tribute to the goddess of the sea and springs in Roman mythology. Salacia was the queen of the oceans and the wife of Neptune.
?Salacia is a beautiful nymph, The shawl is knit from the neck to edge with the sand coloured sections filled of tiny bubbles made by the waves lapping the shore. The edging has large, dark pearls – jewels of the sea for the sea goddess – and ends in waves.
This pattern is available exclusively as a kit from Craftsy until March 2016. If you would like to enter a giveaway to win a kit, click here. The winner will be announced on the Knit & Knag Facebook Page on Dec 1, 2015.
Trefoliage is a homage to the beautiful Ontario fall colours in all its red, green, yellow, and orange glory. The Trefoliage Shawl is a delicate lace shawl, knit from the neck to edge. It starts out with a relatively simple lace pattern in dark greens, which then turns into colourful trefoils, a nod to the official symbol of Ontario (the trillium).
The pattern is charted, and is available as a PDF download for $7.00.
As an introductory offer, the pattern is $5.00 until midnight, Oct 15, 2015.
As Mystic Junction draws to a close, it’s time to look ahead towards the next Mystic KAL. Next up, we’ll be getting back to my favourite topic – folklore and fairytales.
Sea Witches are witches who can help or hinder sailors out on the stormy sea. They draw power from the moon, tides, and the weather, and were believed to have complete control over the seas. They even have the power to control the fates of ships and seamen.
They can control the wind by using a rope tied into three knots. When the three knots are tied in the proper magical way, the wind is bound up in them. Witches gave, or sometimes sold, these magic knots to sailors to help them experience safe voyages. The release of one knot brought a gentle, southwesterly wind; two knots, a strong north wind; and three knots, a tempest.
The Mystic Sea Witch shawl can be knit as a circular or semi-circular shawl. And this time, I have teamed up with the Yarn Fairy to bring you an absolutely fabulous kit to go with the KAL.
She’s offering 5 different gorgeous gradient kits, along with some remarkable swag. My shawl is knit in the Stormy colour way, but really I think it will be beautiful in any of the other ones as well. I’m particularly drawn to Calypso.
To join the KAL, you can purchase the Mystic Sea Witch pattern here ($6.00 until the release of the first clue)
In the Nordic Sagas, Kraka was a woman who was tasked to solve an impossible riddle – she was summoned to the Viking king Ragnar, and was asked to appear neither dressed nor undressed, neither hungry nor full and neither alone nor in company. Kraka solved the riddle by covering herself in her long hair and a fishing net. She bit into an onion, not considered to be food, to show she was not fasting. Then she made a dog accompany her.
Kraka’s Shawl is a Moebius Shawl, which is an impossible shape with only one side and one edge. The shawl shows the fishnet and Kraka’s hair. It is fully reversible. It’s knit with a reversible cable in the center, which is then joined together with Kitchener stitch. The stitches for the lace pattern is then picked up around the outside edge, and is finished off with a contrasting border in moss stitch.
The pattern is available exclusively as a kit from Craftsy.
FINISHED (BLOCKED) SIZE
Width: 8 in [21 cm] (adjustable)
Circumference: 64 (73, 81) in [163 (183, 203) cm]
As summer draws to a close and fall starts up with all its new activities, schedules and general craziness, I thought it would be nice to have a new and relaxing knitting project to fall into.
Me, I have 3 kids, each of which comes with a busy, busy schedule. There’s school, hockey, piano, jiujitsu, friends, birthday parties, school sports, etc, etc. So September is the time to hit the ground running, so to speak. And see how we can puzzle all the schedules together into something that works for the entire family. And an important aspect for me is to have a good knitting project to amuse me and ground me.
Mystic Junction came about because Kim of indigodragonfly picked out two gorgeous skeins of Chameleon Sock for me. The colours are called Sargasm and Sage Fright. And I started mulling over the whole idea of s(t)agefright. The feeling of stepping straight out in front of people but really just wanting to veer off to the side. And I thought that at that time you’re really at a junction, or a turning point. What will you do? And how can you make things work?
That was the start of this design. It’s a rectangular stole with an unusual construction. And there’s a small nod to the idea that if you only have limited amount of time, do the important things first, then the less important things, in order of priority. Like the story with the man filling his jar first with goofballs, then pebbles, then sand, and then water.
Mystic Junction starts on Aug 28, 2015 and consists of 3 consecutive clues.
The pattern is available for $6 until the release of the first clue.
I’m super excited to bring you not one, but TWO new Mystic KALs.
The first one is Mystic Junction which is a rectangular stole knit in two contrasting colours of Chameleon Sock from indigodragonfly
Mystic Junction starts on Aug 27, 2015 and consists of 3 consecutive clues.
And then on October 27, 2015, the first clue of Mystic Sea Witch will be released. Mystic Sea Witch is a circular shawl (which can also be knit as a semi-circular shawl). And the exciting thing with this one is that I have teamed up with Yarn Fairy to bring you a fabulous kit with yarn and other goodies. That’s why the lead-time is a bit longer than usual.
The patterns are available individually for $6 until the release of the first clue. But if you purchase them together, they are further discounted to $10 for both (no coupon code required).
Mystic Junction ($6.00)
Mystic Sea Witch ($6.00)
To purchase both together for $10, follow this link to Ravelry and please put both of them in your cart and check out.
We’re all drawn to the amazing multi-coloured skeins of yarn when we shop, but nobody really knows what to do with them when it comes to knitting lace. ?In Nobody Nose, a colourful skein of crazy coloured “Party Girl” is tempered with a skein of “Frosted Teal” and combined into an asymmetrical lace shawl with garter stripes and delicate lace.
The shawl uses approx 90 g (450 yds) of the solid colour and 25 g (125 yds) of the multicoloured yarn.
The pattern includes both charted and written instructions. It’s available as a PDF download for $7.00 USD.
Today marks 5 years since I released the Eyjafjallajökull Shawl. After all the amazing images of the erupting volcano in Iceland, I just kept thinking about it, and next thing you know, it became this.
The pattern was inspired by some of the amazing pictures of the erupting volcano, with lava streaming down the sides of the mountain. Here, the lava streams starts at the centre of the shawl and streams outwards towards the edges and pool there.
The shawl is about 160 cm (63?) in diameter and is knit with fingering weight yarn. Because of the (relatively) thick yarn, it actually knits up fairly quickly. For me, this was one of those rare designs that just flew off the needles. Once I started, there was no stopping it. Come to think of it, I guess that’s rather appropriate for a volcano.
The Eyjafjallajökull Shawl is one of my favourites, and I often wear it at shows and events.
The pattern is available as a PDF download here:
I just designed and knit a felted project bag that is just the right size for a smallish project like a shawl, or mittens, or socks. I made two versions – the blue-and-yellow (can we call it Swedish?) version seen above was knit in worsted weight yarn (Manos del Uruguay maxima), and the natural coloured version below was in Aran weight yarn (Manos del Uruguay Wool Clasica). The bottom of the bag is flat and square so it can stand up nicely while you knit
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The base of the bag is worked first. Stitches are then picked up around the bottom, and the sides of the bag are worked in the round. Since the project bag is felted, it is important that the yarn used is NOT superwash, but 100% merino.
The drawstrings are i-cords, knit with leftover fingering weight yarn. In the blue-and-yellow bag, I used some Rock Paper Lizard Scissors Sock from indigodragonfly, and in the natural coloured bag I used Tyr from Raventwist.
The pattern is available in PDF format for $3.00
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