Papillon

Posted on May 31, 2021 by Deborah Cooke

Things have been quiet here on the blog for a bit, and I apologize for that. I was slammed at work in April and didn’t have much time for crafting, then had a few fails. 😦 That’s always disheartening. I may circle back to them and see what can be salvaged, then share the results with you. In the meantime, here’s one that is having a happier adventure the second time around.

Papillon is a beautiful and clever shawl pattern using short rows and designed by Marin Melchior. (That’s a Ravelry link.) It’s knit in fingering weight with two colours, one solid and one not.

Remember this Koigu KPPPM that I first used in the body of my teal Navelli?

Navelli by Caitlin Hunter knit in Koigu KPPPM and Shibui Knits Sock by Deborah Cooke

I frogged it back because of the pooling. This yarn has longer sections of each colour (at least for Koigu) so I thought it might work for Papillon.

Papillon shawl knit in Koigu KPPPM by Deborah Cooke

It didn’t really work in this pattern either.

I was determined to use my stash yarn, though, and dug in again. This time, I chose some Noro Silk Garden Sock, which has longer colour changes, and for contrast, a very black alpaca yarn from a local farm. There’s a tiny shimmer of blue spun in with the black alpaca yarn, too. Here’s the beginning:

Papillon shawl knit in Noro Silk Garden Sock by Deborah Cooke

I’m much happier with this version! This is knitting up much more thickly even on the same needles, but since I’m not sure how much black there is (that label’s long gone) I’m sticking to the 3.5mm needles and hoping I have enough black to finish.

Finally, a success!

I have some sweaters breaking free of Sleeve Island and will share one with you next time.

Nightshift Update

Posted on June 15, 2020 by Deborah Cooke

Nightshift is a gorgeous shawl pattern by Andrea Mowry (Drea Renee Knits). Hers is knit in a beautiful self-striping yarn called Spin Cycle Yarns Dreamscape. It’s an aran weight yarn, though, and I was worried about the shawl ending up like a blanket. I decided to use up some of my Koigu KPPPM, which is a fingering weight, for my Nightshift. Of course, using a thinner yarn means knitting twice as many stitches to make a shawl of decent size. I cast on last July with these skeins.

Nightshift shawl by Andrea Mowry knit in Koigu KPPPM by Deborah Cooke

I’ve blogged about this shawl a couple of times already: Nightshift in Koigu KPPPM and Navellia, Nightshift and Audrey.

I’ve been working on this while sheltering in place, and am making steady progress. It’s not done, but I thought I’d show you today how it’s coming out. Here it is on the needles – it’s big enough that I can’t stretch it out to its full width: Nightshift shawl knit in Koigu KPPPM by Deborah Cooke I’m on the 11th repeat and am hoping to do 15. I’ll see how the yarn lasts.

Here’s a detail shot: Nightshift shawl knit in Koigu KPPPM by Deborah Cooke I like how the colourways mix and mingle with each other, because several of the same reds appear in both my red main colour and several of the contrast ones.

How is your knitting during Covid-19?

Waiting for Rain Shawl

Posted on June 23, 2017 by Deborah Cooke

This week, I finished knitting a shawl. These are unusual colours for me, but I really like the result.

The pattern is called Waiting for Rain (that’s a Ravelry link) and it features lace inserts in a garter stitch crescent-shaped shawl. The construction is really interesting, plus it’s easy to play with the colours and the design.

I knit mine in Madeline Tosh Dandelion, which has 10% flax. It’s interesting because the different fibers take the color in different ways. I used two skeins of Chickory and one of Whiskey Barrel. I decided to do the lace inserts in Whiskey Barrel, as well as some extra stripes and the bind-off. This yarn is discontinued so it’s gone from the MadTosh website, but here’s a Ravelry link.

This meant that I had too much yarn – the pattern calls for 700 to 800 yds, and I had over 900 – but I wanted to use it up. The pattern has three lace inserts. Once I’d followed the directions, I continued in a similar way and added two more lace inserts, then knit in garter stitch until the Chickory was gone. I liked the yarn. It’s smooth and cool, and I like the colour gradations in each colourway. There were long fibres, presumably of flax, and it was tempting to tug them out but I knitted them in. The pattern was well-written and clear. I bought the collection and will knit another shawl from it.

Here’s a detail shot, showing off the yarn:

Waiting for Rain shawl knit in MadTosh Dandelion by Deborah Cooke

There are stripes in the Whiskey Barrel, but the Chickory has some of the same greyed brown tone in it so it’s hard to tell which yarn is where. I like that! If you’re curious though, all the garter stitch below the lowest lace insert is in Chickory, then the bind-off is in Whiskey Barrel. You can just barely see it. Also, the garter stitch is all Chicory down to the first lace insert. (The shawl is knit from the top of the picture.)

My only disappointment is that I wasn’t sure how much Whiskey Barrel to leave for the cast-off, and I left too much. 😦 That means leftovers for the stash, about 8g. It turns out that I could have knit a couple of rows of garter stitch in the contrasting colour before casting off, but that’s how it is and that’s how it will stay. There’s no need to frog back a 500 stitch cast-off!

Here’s the complete shawl:

Waiting for Rain shawl knit in MadTosh Dandelion by Deborah Cooke

I was debating whether to block this shawl. I don’t usually block garter stitch shawls because I like the squishy texture they have right off the needles. It’ll get bigger if it’s blocked, though, and I was thinking it’s just a nice size. While taking the pictures, though, I can see that the ripple on the increasing edge is too much. I’ll give it a good block it this weekend.

What do you think?

Finished Snow Angel Shawl

Posted on January 28, 2016 by Deborah Cooke

You might remember that I was knitting a lace shawl. The pattern is called Snow Angel and it’s by BooKnits – here’s the Ravelry link for the pattern. I knit it in a gradient dyed yarn called Freia Ombré Lace in the colourway Autumn Rose. I actually ran out of yarn, so used some Elann Silken Kydd from my stash. I think the colourway is Baked Apple, and I worried it might be a bit dark, but I like it. I also used green glass beads with copper linings, in the positions specified in the pattern.

Here’s the finished and blocked shawl on the back of the couch. I’m not sure why I’m so surprised by the size of it but I am. I had in mind that it was going to be a scarfy little thing, but it’s a shawl. The colour is the most true to life in this first picture. Snow Angel by Boo Knits knit by Deborah Cooke in Freia Ombre Wool/Nylon Lace

Here’s the whole thing spread on a rug so you can see the crescent shape of it, and the gradation in the colour. And yes, it’s too big for this rug! Snow Angel by Boo Knits knit by Deborah Cooke in Freia Ombre Wool/Nylon Lace And here’s a detail of the middle of the shawl, though it’s a bit blurry. It’s always amazing to see how the lace opens up when it’s blocked. It was hard to discern the pattern in those photographs taken while the shawl was on the needles, but not it’s obvious. Snow Angel by Boo Knits knit by Deborah Cooke in Freia Ombre Wool/Nylon Lace I’m very happy with this one. What do you think?

Snow Angel Shawl

Posted on December 30, 2015 by Deborah Cooke

I started to work on a lace shawl in a yarn that’s gradation-dyed to change from one colour to another over its length. I bought this yarn originally to make a cowl, but didn’t like the lace stitch so switched out for this pattern. It’s called Snow Angel by BooKnits, a new designer for me, but I’ve admired her designs for a while. The shawl blocks out to a crescent with lace dripping from the outside edge. This pattern is very well-written, both written out and charted so there’s a choice of which kind of directions to follow.

Here’s a peek at the lace so far. It looks like a lump because it isn’t blocked yet, but I think it will be very pretty. It starts with the green and will end with pink. Of course, it has beads.

Cameo

Posted on March 22, 2013 by Deborah Cooke

I’ve just finished another shawl – this one is a wonderful pattern. I love garter stitch and alternating stripes. This one also has a bit of an unusual construction. It was an easy knit.

As usual, the flash has blasted out the colour – this is Madeline Tosh Merino Light and the colours are incredible, both richer and deeper than shows in this image. The colours I used were Firewood and Wicked. The pattern is called Cameo – this is the Ravelry link as the designer doesn’t seem to have a website of her own.

What do you think? I’m quite happy with this one!

Wingspan 2

Posted on February 1, 2013 by Deborah Cooke

I just finished another version of that Wingspan shawl. This one is in Noro Silk Garden Sock and used two balls:I had enough yarn to do ten triangles this time. And I figured out what I’d done wrong the last time – the pattern says to Slip 1, Knit 2 before placing the traveling marker after each work and turn. I only saw the K2, so my W&T’s on the first shawl are two stitches apart. They should be three stitches apart, as they are here. Doing it the other way made each triangle wider, but also made the shawl wider. This version is more like a scarf.

It does have beads at the base of each triangle, one on every fourth row on the second stitch in from the edge.

I like it a lot. What do you think?

Annis Shawl

Posted on July 8, 2011 by Deborah Cooke

A while ago, I was seduced by some Madeline Tosh Merino Fingering yarn, in the Vanilla Bean colourway. I hunted through my queue of patterns and cast on Annis, which is a free pattern from Knitty.

Here’s the result:Annis is a curved shawlette, and the shape is intended to keep it on your shoulders.

Here’s a detail of the border – of course, I added some gold matte beads:I like this piece. It was a pretty quick knit, although it came out a bit smaller than expected. I must have 100m of the ball of yarn left over – if I made one of these again, I think I’d knit some more rows after the lace border and before the shaping. I did add six rows of garter stitch before casting off.

So – shawl or scarf? What do you think?

Undine Shawl

Posted on March 8, 2011 by Deborah Cooke

Here’s another of my knitting patterns, now available for free download.It’s a triangular shawl, knit in garter stitch, with a ruffled edge. That edge has a picot border. it’s also knitted sideways, which makes for fun stripes in self-striping yarn. You can make this shawl in any size – basically, you follow the directions to increase the width of the shawl until half your yarn is gone. Then you use the directions to decrease down to the other point.

I used Noro Kureyon Sock for mine. This is two balls-worth and it’s a pretty good sized shawl. Something about the colours and that ruffley picot edge made me think of mermaids and seaweed, thus the name.

The pattern is on Ravelry right HERE.

Another Citron

Posted on January 10, 2011 by Deborah Cooke

Here’s a shawl I just finished last week. There was an idea that it might be a Christmas gift, but it was running so late that the planned recipient got something else. Now, I guess it’s mine!

It’s a free pattern from Knitty, called Citron.

I made a Citron last year in Noro Kureyon Sock yarn, but it came out much smaller than this one. There’s a post about it, back here. Here’s the new one:The yarn is a handpaint that I bought at the Kitchener Knitters’ Fair last fall, and (incredibly) it didn’t need to age in the stash before I cast on. It’s from Waterloo Wools and is called Kirkland. The colour is a bit more burgundy than it appears in the pictures – the flash seems to have made it look pinker. The base yarn is very similar to Malabrigo Lace. I used smaller needles than the pattern says, because I like the look of Malabrigo Lace on 3.5mm needles.

This time, I wanted the shawl to be bigger, so I did seven rounds of the pattern before the ruffle. (Yup, I had to figure out the increases myself, but it wasn’t that hard.) The skein had 840 yards and I used most of it – if the hem had been in the same red, I would have used it all up. It’s a good size, though – it comes down to my elbows.

I also added beads to the last four repeats, putting them in the flat part with greater density each round. I wanted them to get more dense toward the hem.

Since the beads were dark (black with red linings) and the yarn is very much like Malabrigo Lace, I dug into the stash of leftover bits and pulled out some Malabrigo Lace in black. I worked two rows of stockinette in black at the hem of the ruffle, but then it curled when casting off – so I added a row of purl on the RS, then cast off on the WS. There are some beads in the black as well. It still curls a bit, but I have mixed feelings about blocking it – the ruffles flattened out when I blocked that last Citron and didn’t really ever come back. Maybe I’ll live with the curl.

It makes me think of flamenco dancers. Fortunately, I don’t have any castenettes!

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