FO Friday: Heartsick Redeux

January 4, 2013January 3, 2013remilyknits 3 Comments

This project is for my Secret Santee … so now that Christmas has come and gone, I can share it!

Available: on Ravelry: $6 as a single pattern / $10 as part of the Lovelorn Collection

Yarn: BMFA Socks That Rock Lightweight — Rare Gems (Water)

I feel like I just finished making the samples for the Lovelorn collection, but when I drew my friend K’s name in the Secret Santa swap … I knew exactly what I wanted to make for her. I made her some teal Butterfly Mittens two years ago — and this yarn was definitely in the same color family. On a second time around, Heartsick was just as fun to make.

New Pattern Release: Broken

December 19, 2012December 19, 2012remilyknits 1 Comment

Introducing my latest pattern: Broken!

Pattern: Broken

Designer: Rachel Henry (that’s me!)

Available: $6 as a single pattern/ $10 as part of the Lovelorn Collection

Yarn: Bohemia Fibers Barefoot Bohemian Sock or any fingering-weight yarn — uses about 450 yards

Design/Skills Needed:

This semi-circular shawlette is worked top-down. Four textured panels extend like spokes of a wheel, interrupted by broken-mesh wedges. The broad cast-on edge curves around your neck, and the full shape hugs shoulders like a shrug. The textured panels use a combination of slipped stitches, twisted stitches, and knit/purl patterns to create a faux cable. The lace panels use yarn-overs, ssk, and s2kp (a double decrease).

The pattern can be extended or shortened in 10-row increments, making it simple to customize the size and use more or less yarn.

The sample shows off the unusual “Walker” colorway by independent dyer Bohemia Fibers. Amy has a knack for creating beautiful and unusual colorways, and is especially well-known for her “inspiration” colorways.

Broken is part of the Lovelorn collection. Each of three shawlettes in the collection can be made with a single skein of fingering-weight yarn. Look for Heartsick (lace border worked sideways, crescent-shaped, short-row body) and Crushed (top-down, heart-shaped, lace and nupps).

New Pattern Release: Crushed

December 5, 2012December 5, 2012remilyknits 5 Comments

Introducing my latest pattern: Crushed!

Pattern: Crushed

Designer: Rachel Henry (that’s me!)

Available: $6 as a single pattern/ $10 as part of the Lovelorn Collection

Yarn: Mind’s Eye Yarns Merino/Tencel or any fingering-weight yarn — uses about 400 yards

Design/Skills Needed:

This heart-shaped shawlette is worked top-down. The graceful wings hug your shoulders – this is a shawl that doesn’t slip off easily. The lace pattern of the body evolves into a nupp-enhanced lower border.

The main body pattern repeats every 24 rows, making it simple to customize the size and use more or less yarn. The sample was made with about 390 yards, and was 16” deep and about 45” around the neck edge.

The sample drapes beautifully in a merino/tencel blend, hand-painted by Lucy at Mind’s Eye Yarns in Cambridge, MA. This pattern will work best with solid or tonal colorway; anything more than mild variegation will likely be at odds with the lace pattern.

Crushed is part of the Lovelorn collection. Each of three shawlettes in the collection can be made with a single skein of fingering-weight yarn. Look for Heartsick (lace border worked sideways, crescent-shaped, short-row body) and Broken (top-down, half-circle, texture and lace).

New Pattern Release: Heartsick

November 15, 2012November 15, 2012remilyknits 3 Comments

Introducing my latest pattern: Heartsick!

Pattern: Heartsick

Designer: Rachel Henry (that’s me!)

Available: $6 as a single pattern/ $10 as part of the Lovelorn Collection

Yarn: BMFA Socks That Rock Lightweight or any fingering-weight yarn — uses about 300 yards

Design/Skills Needed:

This crescent shawlette begins with a narrow lace border. The heart motif is set off by a looped edge and an open-work net pattern. Stitches picked up from the border form the body of the shawlette, which is worked with short rows and finished with a decorative row of eyelets. The pattern uses basic increases and decreases, plus a 3-in-1 increase, k3tog, and s2kp.

Heartsick is designed with colorful yarn in mind. Variable stitch count in the border and the short rows in the body both help fight pooling. The strong pattern shines through tonal and moderately variegated colorways.

Heartsick is part of the Lovelorn collection. Each of three shawlettes in the collection can be made with a single skein of fingering-weight yarn. Look for “Crushed” (top-down, heart-shaped, lace and nupps) and “Broken” (top-down, half-circle, texture and lace).

FO Friday: Little Brown Aeolian Shawl

October 12, 2012October 12, 2012remilyknits 6 Comments

Way, way back in May 2010, I selected some soft brown Alpaca Cloud and some gorgeous bronze beads for a full-sized Aeolian shawl …. a mere 2.5 years later, I have finally got this ~~sucker~~ lovely creation off the needles!

Project: Little Brown Aeolian Shawl

Pattern: Aeolian Shawl

Designer: Elizabeth Freeman

Available: FREE! on knitty.com

Yarn: Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud in Carob Heather

Beads: #8 Miyuki seed beads in Dark Bronze Metallic

Now, here is a case where I had to be a process knitter. I absolutely love the finished shawl. Alpaca Cloud is light and soft, the beads are shiny and delightful, the edging and shape of the shawl are perfect. BUT — the knitting, oh the knitting! It was interminable. Beading and nupps? Seriously? I stopped counting stitches when I hit eleven repeats of at least 30 stitches each, per half. Ugh.

But look at this:

…. totally worth it.

I always like to block almost before the last stitch is off the needles. This project was no exception. For your edification, I give you the pre-blocked shawl…

… and the blocking shawl!

Cast-On Monday: Shawl Project (Prototype #1)

September 3, 2012September 2, 2012remilyknits Leave a comment

I’ve spent the last three-ish weeks knitting almost exclusively on a fingering weight sweater prototype for The Sock Report 2 (yay! still excited about this publication!). If you know me at all, you know I am the exact opposite of a monogamous knitter. In the last few weeks I know that I spent an hour working on my Catkin shawl (as a reward for finishing the back of the prototype sweater), and I made about one hexipuff a day. That’s it! Normally, I will bring 3-4 projects along to a given knitting session, switching every hour or so to keep it fresh. That’s just how I roll!

My work paid off: I finished the prototype with a few days to spare, and sent the pattern and sample off to the good people at The Sock Report for photography and tech editing. You can imagine how antsy I was to cast on something NEW and DIFFERENT! But of course I had all those neglected projects for me waiting in the wings too … so I compromised, and cast on for a new design project with this gorgeous BMFA Socks That Rock LW (Rare Gems):

I’m planning a three-design collection of one-skein fingering-weight small shawls. I want to feature small/indy dyers — the STR for the first shawl is the most “mainstream” skein I’ll be using. I’m also using a skein of “Cranberry” Merino/Tencel from Mind’s Eye (on the left) and a skein of “Walker” Barefoot Bohemian Sock from Bohemia Fibers. I had initially planned to use a fourth dyer as well … but the two skeins I picked from that dyer just didn’t “go” with the other three. I will still design a fourth shawl, but it won’t be part of the collection.

So here’s a question, dear reader … what shall I name these three shawls? I had some pretty horse-related names picked out, but between the “Walker” skein (legit zombie) and the red/purple/blue of the other two, I’m sort of thinking of a zombie/monster theme might be better. But, I don’t want to put off people who aren’t rabid zombie fans like me. Hmmmmmmm.

FO Friday: Wavelength

July 27, 2012February 5, 2013remilyknits 1 Comment

This year, I am 3/3 for finishing sock-club projects for the Blue Moon Fiber Arts Notorious Sock Knitters club! 🙂 This is the not-sock pattern from March:

Project: Wavelength

Pattern: Breaking Waves

Designer: Carson Demers

Available: sometime after March 2013

Yarn: Socks That Rock Lightweight in “Wavelength”

I am always interested to see how variegated yarn knits up. Check out this comparison of the skeined yarn …

…with the full shawlette:

This pattern used an interesting technique to warp and ruffle the top part of the shawl. The ripples are achieved by working stockinette stitch for a spell, then on a “pickup” row you knit the stitch on the needle together with a stitch from a previous row. Very cool textural and 3-D effect!

Although many club members chose to knit an additional repeat of the feather-and-fan bottom edging, I decided to knit the pattern as written — I like this compact scarf/shawlette size.

FO Friday: My Blithe Heaven

July 13, 2012July 9, 2012remilyknits 2 Comments

Presenting … 100% camel in a gorgeous lace pattern!

Project: My Blithe Heaven

Pattern: My Heaven

Designer: Patusha

Available: FREE! on Ravelry

Yarn: 100% baby camel — off label fingering-weight yarn from the back wall at Hub Mills Store

This is a free pattern, designed for lace-weight yarn. The edging is knit sideways, then the body is worked bottom-up from picked-up stitches. The lace edging and main body pattern are both worked with lace every row, in garter stitch — no resting purl-back rows. I love how “every row” holes alternate with “every other row” holes in the edging, and I also love the undulating circles/waves in the main body pattern.

Modifications:

Because I was working with fingering-weight yarn, and I wanted to replicate the VERY open lace of the sample photos, I used #7 needles — in other words, big! With such large needles, I worked only 11 edging repeats per side, and picked up a mere 149 stitches. Since this was a perfect number for starting the main body pattern, I worked one wrong-side row and dove into the lace. I did two full repeats plus two extra rows, and then finished up with garter stitch as the pattern describes.

I will say, the charts for this pattern are provided in “as knit” form — meaning that the chart does NOT show the “right side” appearance. This is, shall we say, my less-preferred mode of charting. I knit a few repeats of the edging on size #6 needles, decided to move up a size, and ripped out. As long as I was starting over, I decided to re-write the edging chart in my preferred mode — as viewed from the RS. In the process, I discovered a few irregularities that I hadn’t noticed before. I decided to change them in my version of the charts, because I obsessively want things symmetrical and consistent. I’m still not 100% sure which way the designer wanted things to be, so I’m not ready to call them “mistakes” per se — but here are my changes to the edging (affects both A and B chart):

Row 1: yo, k2tog, k2, k2tog, yo, (then the rest of the row)

Row 3: yo, k2tog twice, yo, k3, yo, ssk, k3, yo, ssk, k2tog, yo, ssk, (then the rest of the row)

Future knitters of My Heaven can decide for themselves which way they prefer these two rows to be worked.

FO Friday: Deep Water Echo

June 1, 2012May 6, 2012remilyknits 5 Comments

I made a pretty pretty shawl! I think I’m in love with Estonian-style lace patterns.

Project: Deep Water Echo

Pattern: Echo Flower Shawl

Designer: Jenny Johnson Johnen

Available: FREE! on Ravelry

Yarn: Knit Picks Shadow Tonal in Deep Waters

I made the larger version of this pattern, which I only regretted when doing the umpteenth repeat of the 3-into-9 body pattern. I love the nupps, the stars, everything! High marks to this first-time designer for a beautiful and well-written pattern!

Knit Picks Shadow Tonal is a joy to work with — springy and just enough color variation for beauty, without distracting from the lace. I did find Deep Waters a bit dark for night-time knitting: I had to wait for good light.

FO Friday: Alizarin Damask

May 4, 2012April 22, 2012remilyknits 1 Comment

Project: Alizarin Damask

Pattern: Damask

Designer: Kitman Figueroa

Available: $5 on Ravelry

Yarn: Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light in Alizarin

This is my second try on this particular pattern, and I’m glad I stuck it out! I love the undulating waves, punctuated by nupps and wrapped stitches. There’s a lot going on with this pattern, and in retrospect I wish I’d chosen a lighter-colored yarn … but I loved working with the Tosh Light, and I love wearing the finished shawlette. I made the small size, and it’s really more kerchief than shawl.