Lace and Mo Shawl

I had in my stash a lovely ball of very fine hand dyed lace-weight, and a matching ball of chunky mohair. The lace-weight should be knit on 3mm needles and the chunky on 6mm.... how to combine for one article of fabulousness?

The result is a large needle knit, really lacey fabric with single rows of fuzzy chunky at regular intervals to stabalize the whole thing!

Yarn: 100 grams of lace weight yarn, and 50 grams of chunky mohair (any thin yarn and thick yarn from your stash should work for this. You could even use several smaller balls and stripe it as you go)

Needles: 6mm (US 10) *** you must use circular needles here to follow the one row stripe pattern.... you will see how you must slide the yarn over to start on the same side again****

Shawl: With lace weight yarn, cast on 60 stitches.

Lace pattern: With lace weight yarn: Row 1, 2, and 3, Knit every row.

Row 4: Knit one, [yarn over, knit one] repeat across the row to end.

Row 5: knit all the stitches and drop all the yarn overs.

Row 6, and 7, knit all stitches.

Row 8: change to chunky mohair, and knit across with this yarn (leave a 5 inch tail at the start and end - breaking yarn when done this row**** DO NOT break the lace weight yarn .

Next row: slide the shawl back to the other end of the circular needle, without turning the project, so that you are now knitting with the lace weight yarn on the side you left it. Knit the lace-weight across the mohair row! This is Row 1 again. Repeat the row 1 - 8 pattern until the shawl - wrap is as long as you like.

End with row 1 - 6 of the lace-weight yarn and cast off all stitches.

Sew in the 5 inch tails of all the mohair rows.

The mohair row keeps it lying flat and stops it from bunching and curling. The lace yarn shows the yarn over row as an even more open stitch, giving it a spun web image.

Light and lacey and just right.

Chris Knits in Muskoka

We had a lovely three day trip to Muskoka, where we stayed at a cottage near Honey Harbour. The cottage belongs to our nephew, and is a new purchase. It is lovely, on a small cove with just 5 other cottages, and we enjoyed the comfortable accomodations. We played golf at very exclusive private courses, Mad River and Lake Joseph. The opportunity to play was extended to our golf club members thanks to the Canadian Tour Championship occupying our golf course for a week!

Some views of the cottage.....

and the golf.....

lots of knitting done during the drive....

Annual Tent Sale - August Version!

My knitting posse and I spent a few glorious hours at the Tent Sale by the Needle Emporium. We arrived just before opening with a game plan... spread out and seek Noro! I had Susan yelling across the church hall ... "found some", and Brenda found some Chunky Silk Garden and I scooped up 10 balls of Matzuri (very rare!). I also had Ruth's yarn stash money in my wallet, and was determined to impress her with her amazing purchases in her absense.
All 50gram balls were $3! Imagine a Noro sweater for $30. It was all too intense.

Here is my haul...


3 Noro sweaters, one Furin, one Silk Garden and one Silk Garden Chunky (20 balls!). One Debbie Bliss Donegan Chunky - enough for a coat. and the bargain of the day... 20 balls of Elsebeth Lavold cable cotton... for (hold your breath) $10! (yes 50 cents a ball!!)

Julie and Beth - you are awesome!

I already have the Cable Cotton on my Addies...

Busy Summer Days

The days fly by and I have had no time to post. This is early Sunday morning, and I have a few minutes over coffee to peck away here, before we gear up for another busy day. Yesterday we had a huge housewarming party for our newlywed-newlygrad daughter and her husband, and let me tell you, no one marinates meat like my hubby! Steak, chicken and huge shrimp all cut into smaller portions, so everyone can sample everything. Mmmm.
Today I have an out of town guest who wants to do a little cross-border shopping as a treat, before she heads home to our capital city. Should be a fun day.
Tomorrow I have declined an offer to golf in favour of unwinding, regrouping and catching up on so sewing projects piling up in my head and on my cutting table!
Again there will be more to show on the sewing blog this week! I do, however have a rather bright sweater in the works, made from the Tagliatelli that came from UK a couple of weeks ago. I will unvail the whole thing shortly. It is a raglan sleeve design, so tentatively named Rag-Tag. I have been on the Colinette site, and it looks to me that Tagliatelli is no longer made :(
This is my favourite yarn from them and I hope they are just taking a break, and will bring it back for winter.
My guest is up so I must get ready to roll.
cheers

New Yarn in the Post (Mail)

I found a great deal on eBay... I won't tell you how great a deal it was, you will only hate me with intense yarn-envy and wish dropped stitches on me for a month!

It is from a lovely yarn internet site in UK, and I checked out her site. It is worth bookmarking and popping in to see what's new. Looks like the prices are quite good on a regular basis...

Coolwoolz is here.

The yarn I scored is Tagliatelli, one of my favourite Colinette yarns. The colour is a bit bright, maybe discontinued, I don't know, but it makes me very happy to look at it and to touch the merino-yumminess, so I am sure whatever I knit with this will be equally neat and cool!

There are five 100 gram skeins here in a fushia pink mix. Stay tuned to see what they become...

Children's Hospital Knitting

Every once in a while I take a few days and knit like crazy lots of these.....

These are finger puppets featured HERE, and I make them for a friend who takes them to the local Children's Hospital. They are quick and fun and a great way to use scraps. I was in a very Puppy mood this week and mostly made those.

Please find time to do the same for your Children's Ward, and bring a smile to their faces (look at those puppies... it will bring a smile to yours too!)

Alpaca Silk Easy Cardi'

Now with Multi-sizing!  I decided this would be the first of the updated patterns, since this one was the most requested.  It is truly easy... to knit and to wear.  Enjoy!

I have been looking at a bag full of Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk DK for over a year, and could not decide whether it wanted to be scarves and hats or a garment! Finally I pictured it as a soft fitting cardigan, more drape than shape. This leads to an easy knit, and I did it on a bit bigger needle to emphasize the soft drape. The easy design includes self-finished edges (no ribbing to pick up and finish) and picked up sleeves (no shoulder seams to sew later!)

Sizes:  Small (fits bust 32 – 34 “), Medium (fits 36 – 38 “), Large (fits 40 – 42), Xlarge (fits 44 – 46)

Yarn: 9, [10, 12, 14] balls of Debbie Bliss alpaca silk dk, colour 26009 (teal) ( 50gms, 114 yards) or any DK weight that knits to GAUGE, you may need more balls if longer sleeves are the choice.

Needles: 4.5 mm (US 7)  (adjust to get GAUGE if necessary)

Stitch marker.

Gauge: 14 sts = 4 inches, and 19 rows = 4 inches.  *** please check your gauge and change the needles or the yarn choice to match the gauge.  This will insure the size you want!!

Stitch patterns: Seed stitch: Row 1: [knit1, purl 1] repeat across.  Row 2: knit the purls, purl the knits!  Repeat these two rows.

Stocking Stitch: Row 1: knit across all stitches. Row 2 purl across all stitches.

For multi sizing, the first number will be small the rest in the [brackets] like this:  small[medium,large,xlarge]

Back: Cast on 56[63,70,77] stitches, Work in seed stitch for 12[12,14,14] rows. Change to stocking stitch. Work in stocking stitch for 11[12,13,14] inches (above seed band). Cast off 4 stitches at start of next two rows (armhole placement). Continue in stocking stitch until 10[10,10.5,11] inches above armhole decrease.

Cast off 12[14,16,18] stitches at start of next 2 rows. (24[27,30,33] stitches left). Work 6 rows of seed stitch on these remaining stitches for back of neck. Cast off all remaining stitches.

Front Right: Cast on 46[50,54,58] stitches. Work seed stitch for 12[12,14,14] rows. Next row: work seed stitch for 10[10,12,12] stitches, place marker, work stocking stitch for the rest of the row. Continue to work a seed stitch band on the right edge (inside marker) and stocking stitch on the rest for 11[12,13,14] inches above the lower seed stitch band. Cast off 4 stitches from the LEFT side of the piece (at the start of the wrong side of knitting).  Work until the piece is length to the shoulder of the back piece. Next row (right side facing you):  Work in seed stitch across to the last 12[14, 16, 18] shoulder stitches. Cast off these 12[14,16,18] sts (shoulder). With wrong side facing (next row) join yarn again and work the last 6 rows in seed stitch for all remaining stitches. Cast off all stitches.

Left Front; Cast on 46[50,54,58] stitches. Work seed stitch for 12[12,14,14] rows. Next row: work stocking stitch until last 10[10,12,12] stitches, place marker, work seed stitch for the rest of the row. Continue to work a seed stitch band on the left edge (inside marker) and stocking stitch on the rest for 11[12,13,14] inches above the lower seed stitch band. Cast off 4 stitches from the RIGHT side of the piece (at the start of the right side of knitting). Work until the piece is length to the shoulder of the back piece.
Cast off first 12[14,16,18] sts (shoulder) then work the last 6 rows in seed stitch for all remaining stitches. Cast off all stitches.

Shoulder: Stitch the shoulder stitches together on the fronts to the back, and stitch the short seed stitch back piece to the short seed edge on the front piece (bit of a collar - only an inch seam).

Sleeves:

With right side facing you pick up 68[68, 70, 72] stitches along the armhole.  Knitting down the sleeve, use stocking stitch and off you go. Decrease one each side of the sleeve, every 6 rows until the length you want - mine is 14 inches for a 3/4 length sleeve. Finish with 6 rows of seed stitch, and cast off. Repeat for the other sleeve.

Sew side and sleeve seams.

*****update January 2015****** Michelle sent me her photo of the finished Cardigan!  Lovely