Cable Knitting Resources

This is an ongoing project….collecting all of  my Cable knitting resources in one spot; I’ve made a start and you can find the beginnings on our new Impeccable Knits site. The current info includes:

- cable naming conventions and

- four (4) Free Cable Stitch patterns (2 ropes, a braid or plait and ‘the snake’).

The free Cable stitch patterns include a picture (like the one at the left), a chart and written directions.

Enjoy!

Lady of the Canyon Shawl joins Knit Picks IDP program

The Lady of the Canyon Shawl pattern has been accepted into the Knit Picks IDP program and is new on the Knit Picks website today — if you love to do your pattern and yarn shopping all in one place.

This shawl uses 6 skeins of Knit Picks Gloss Fingering – a merino / silk blend – very nice to knit. The sample is knit in ‘Robot’ but now that I see the Cranberry and Bordeaux colourways, hmmmmmm

Celtic Shaw Series #3: On the Moor Shawl

sketches for On the Moor Shawl

Just thought I’d share a little of the design process for my next shawl — this the 3rd in a series of Celtic Shawls (the first is Margaree Harbour and the second Lady of the Canyon).

This new one, On the Moor, is a Faroese-style shawl. Faroese-style shawls include a unique shoulder shaping that stops the shawl from slipping.

Here are a couple of sketches that started the process. The dark lines going out from the neck (bottom drawing) are the lines for the shoulder shaping.

I tried a number of different cable patterns for the wings of the shawl but finally decided on the lattice pattern (derived from one of the pattern stitches in Annie Maloney’s The Cable Knitting Handbook), since I didn’t want the side patterns to take away from that centre-back cable panel — it’s really the star here.  The centre-back cable is an original.

You can see some of the ‘in-progress’ project pics on my Ravelry project page.

The pattern is due out around the first of June 2011.

Lady of the Canyon Shawl has arrived!

“Trina takes her paints and threads and weaves a pattern all her own,” Joni Mitchell sings in her ‘Ladies of the Canyon’

Another example of music influencing design….it’s the inspiration for this shawl…  the combination of the very unique Aran Lace stitch patterns¹ and wonderful merino / silk blend  yarn².

This is the second pattern in the Celtic Shawl Series – Lady of the Canyon. The link leads to the Ravelry pattern page.

(The first pattern in the Series is my Margaree Harbour Shawl)

::wink:: little plug here for our new software program: the written directions for this shawl were generated using knitXpress  - 132 lines of written directions took less than 10 seconds to be formatted to all caps at the beginning, periods at the end of each line, identifying all of the repeats within each line and all of the row repeats, etc.; needless to say I love it!  

¹ from talented stitch designer Annie Maloney’s book Aran Lace

² Knit Picks Gloss Fingering yarn

Margaree Harbour Shawl now has written directions!

Margaree Harbour Shawl

Thanks to a brand new nifty little program that I’ve been Beta testing (soooo much more about this in a little while!!), my Margaree Harbour Shawl now has a set of written directions accompanying the charts.

It’s offered as a separate download when you buy the pattern on Ravelry so that if you just want to work from the charts you don’t have to download the extra 13-page doc containing the written directions.

However, you’ll need the original pattern in order to work from the written directions, so be sure to download both if you like the words!

Hopefully this will make the pattern accessible to so many more of you

 

New Cable Knitting Resources

You know I love cables     So now there are some new cable knitting resources on the South Mountain ~Naturally website here.

There are a few free cable patterns shown with picture, chart and written directions so you can see how the whole thing fits together.

A discussion on cable nomenclature e.g. how does C4F compare to  2/2LC ? I think I will add to this at some point because the two methods I discuss don’t include the one the Barbara Walker books do.

Chart Elements

The one I’m hoping will be really helpful is the “How to read charts“.

It’s a work in progress:

Feb 22: I’ve added an example of lace charts that omit the WS rows and one on how to chart stitch combinations like “k2tog”.  Hope it’s helpful

Stitch Pattern Manipulation – Garter and Cable

Just thought I’d share what part of my snowy day was spent on today.   I saw a picture of this stitch pattern in a stitch dictionary and it so wanted to play! So, as I created some variations I captured the chart images to share.

As you can see, even a fairly simple stitch combination can be manipulated in so many ways…these are just a few.

Hope it sparks your imagination!

Ravelry Promotional Sale

Double Lyre Moebius

Ravelry now allows promotions

and I thought the publishing of the Double

Double Lyre Hat

Lyre Hat (which matches the Double Lyre Moebius) would be the perfect chance to try this out.

That cute little hat is reversible, btw!

So, until the end of Dec. 2010, you can purchase both patterns for only $7.50USD — that’s only $3.75 each! Past purchases are eligible for this promotion, so if you’ve purchased the  Moebius already, you’ll still get the discount when you purchase the hat now.

For more information (or to buy),  just click on either picture — they’ll take you to the Ravelry.com pattern page which tells all

Enjoy!

Exciting News!

One of my designs has been accepted for publication in Twist Collective for their Fall 2010 issue! I’m very excited. Everyone’s been sooooo nice!!!

So, I’ve been re-writing the pattern draft (the chosen yarn was just a weeeee bit heavier that my original swatches) and have almost finished knitting the sample. I love the chosen Canadian yarn for this project – both the colour and texture are a perfect match to the spirit of the design!

This was my inspiration. Isn’t that a totally awe inspiring? I’ve been working on the design, off and on, for about a year and a half. From Wikipedia: “The Kinsol Trestle … is a wooden railway trestle located on Vancouver Island … Completed in 1920, its dimensions measure 44m (145 ft) high and 188m (614 ft) long, making it the largest wooden trestle in the Commonwealth and one of the highest railway trestles in the world.”

Tropical Trapezoid Scarf pattern released

Something to brighten these dreary winter days!

A rope cable runs down the center of the scarf and is flanked by Hurdle stitch trapezoids.

Directions are both written and charted — best of both worlds!

Here’s the pattern page if you’d like to check it out