A few days ago I realized I’d never taken formal shots of the Leila shawl I knit in Laceweight Malabrigo so I took advantage of the gorgeous sunlight to get some good photos. The funniest thing happens to me with projects sometimes: by the time I get done knitting I’ve moved on emotionally from the design and I barely enjoy the finished item because I’m focused on the pattern-writing and photography stage of designing. Looking at this shawl a year later I can now appreciate just how nice it is! I can’t wait for the weather to cool off so that I can wear this again . . .
Knitting the full-size shawl in laceweight results in a small shoulder-warmer shawl that’s larger than a scarf. The great thing about laceweight is just how LIGHT the whole piece is — wearing it feels like you’re barely wearing anything but you still get the warmth of wool. And the Malabrigo lace has such a lovely hand that it feels like a luxury to get to wear it around your neck (well, not in 90+ degree heat of course).
I knit this particular design so many times that I feel like I could knit it again just from memory, and I actually have an urge to do just that! There is something about diagonals that really speaks to me design-wise, which I guess is no surprise given how often I use them in my designs. Looking at the border detail now reminds me how much fun it was to come up with it originally . . . and I’m currently working on two new designs that use diagonals, too.
Speaking of which: yes, my knitting ADD is just as bad as always . . . I am trying to focus though . . .
Project specs:
Pattern: Leila Shawl
Yarn: 2 skeins Malabrigo Laceweight in color 92, Little Lovely
Needles: Size US 3
Started: May 25, 2009
Finished: June 13, 2009
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I actually finished these weeks ago but only gave them to the new mom on Monday so I didn’t want to post them just in case. She loved them and I think was truly touched that I made them, which is exactly the reaction we’re all hoping for when we give something handknit! Her baby is so adorable, hopefully he won’t grow so fast that he’s not able to wear these before the summer heat breaks . . .
I was actually able to make two sets of booties out of one skein of Koigu, so that’s a very very affordable baby gift, note to self! I knit the second pair to keep just in case someone else announces they’re expecting a boy.The pattern is the old-fashioned type that’s wordy and doesn’t have many “next row” type instructions, but it’s easy to follow and I didn’t find any mistakes. If I were to change one thing it would be to shape the soles into a bit of an oval shape, these are squares and the corners are a bit too square for my taste. It’s a minor thing though and I didn’t think of it until after I’d picked up stitches for the second one, so I wasn’t about to rip it all out to fix a small detail no one else would notice!
Baby knits are SO cute and quick to knit, it makes me want to make a whole closet full of gifts to hand out in the future! But the thought of having a closet full of baby knits is also sort of creepy . . . I wonder if Arnold would be up for wearing booties . . .
Project specs:
Pattern: Christina’s Baby Booties, no modifications (shock!)
Yarn: 1 skein Koigu KPPPM in color P415
Needles: Size US 1 dpn’s
Started: July 3, 2010
Finished: July 17, 2010
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I finished the last few details of the pattern and it’s now available, finally! Sorry it took so long, many of you have been hounding me (nicely!) for this one for a few months now . . . well the wait is over! Get it from my shopping cart or Ravelry’s, whichever you prefer.
Covered with interesting cables, this oversized cowl is fun to knit and easy to wear. Knit it in a semi-solid handpainted yarn or a solid neutral to coordinate with your favorite winter coat!
Complete written and charted instructions included.
Looking for help on the wrapped cable? Check out my step-by-step video, How to Knit a Wrapped Cable!
Price: $4.00
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When my best friend Anne announced her engagement almost 2 years ago, I immediately started planning what to knit as their wedding present. I knew it had to be something really special, something I couldn’t knit in just a weekend. I wanted the item to be something they could both use, and hopefully pass down to future generations. A blanket came immediately to mind of course!
This pattern is from an older Interweave Knits, from the Fall 2006 issue, and I’d had it bookmarked since the first time I saw it. In the magazine it’s shown in a gorgeous spice orange and just looks so cozy and timeless, I knew I was going to knit it eventually. When I started looking around for inspiration for what to make for Anne, I checked out the Ravelry page for this pattern (link) and fell back in love with the design as I browsed through the 70 other blankets knitters have posted on Ravelry. I momentarily considered designing my own cabled blanket to make the present even more personal, but then I remembered that I was getting married only 2 months before Anne and had to knock some sense into myself! I knew that I had enough on my plate just knitting a big blanket, let alone designing it first . . . and when I realized how perfectly the design goes with Anne’s preppy style (hello, nautical cabled blanket goes perfectly with Nantucket style, doesn’t it??), I knew I’d found a winner.
Even though I’d found the perfect pattern, I had NO IDEA what to knit it out of. Initially I wanted to find the kiwi green that she was featuring in her wedding colors, but that search proved completely fruitless after scouring webstores, Ravelry, and two LYS’s. I knew that if I was going to go with green, it had to be THE green she used, not just something kind of similar . . .
In the end I decided to go with white for two reasons: 1, they didn’t own a couch yet so I had no idea whether kiwi green would go with it, and 2, if I chose the wrong green it really wouldn’t have any meaning at all, it’d just be some weird green blanket. I figured white went nicely with the whole “wedding” thing and that it would go with any decor they might end up with in the future. Plus, I know Anne’s a real clean freak (don’t hate me for saying it Anne!) so I knew she wouldn’t have the usual objections to a not-very-practical white blanket!
Once I settled on white I had to find THE yarn. If I were still working at String and still had access to my employee discount, I probably would have made it in cashmere. But without that discount, I knew that I was going to be looking at cashmere blends, not 100% cashmere! I ended up choosing Classic Elite Princess, a yarn I’d worked with before and really loved. I like how soft the yarn is and how good the yardage is per ball — it meant I could knit a huge blanket that didn’t weigh very much at all! The yarn also washes beautifully so I’m comfortable giving something knit out of it as a gift (I think shrinking a gift has to be the biggest downside to giving handknits!).
As I read through the pattern I realized that for some reason, Kathy Zimmerman didn’t include increases after the beginning seed stitch border. If you look through the Ravelry projects, you can see that some of the borders came out VERY ruffled, and that makes perfect sense when you compare the stitch gauge of seed stitch with that of cables. Considering how prolific a cable designer Kathy Zimmerman is, I can’t explain why increases weren’t used, it’s such an established technique! I decided to add them myself but should have added even more, as it turns out my blanket still had a wavy border (but not as much as some of the others on Ravelry). The other design change I made was to increase the side borders to make them wider, so that the whole blanket would be wider. Princess is a bit thinner than the yarn called for in the pattern, so I added to the border to make a wider blanket.
Knitting the blanket was a LOT of fun and I really loved watching those cables weave into and out of each other. It did get a bit boring after the second repeat, and I did make a few mistakes along the way, but all in all I enjoyed this project. Unfortunately I blew the deadline of gifting it to her at the wedding, and then multiple other things go in the way of finally finishing it off . . . so they didn’t get it until their 1 year anniversary earlier this month.
Better late than never though, right?
Congratulations Anne and Eric, hope you get many years of cuddling out of this blanket!
Project specs:
Pattern: Saffron Cables by Kathy Zimmerman, Interweave Knits Fall 2006
Yarn: 20 skeins Classic Elite Princess in white (#3416)
Needles: US size 7
Started: August 16, 2008
Finished: March 22, 2009 (knitting), September 12, 2009 (finishing)
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Thanks for your patience folks! I came home after a long day at work yesterday, mostly filled with editing a huge Word file, and sat down to edit my own (not that huge) file! There were some final corrections that needed to be made but now the pattern is finished and ready for you!
Introducing Leila!
The pattern includes instructions for both the full size shawl and the shawlette size. All instructions are written out (yes, every single line!) and charted. The large shawl is knit in light fingering weight yarn, I used 2 skeins of Cashlana (sadly discontinued) for the sample you see above.
For the shawlette size, my aim was to write a pattern that could use sock yarn and required no more than the amount of yarn needed for a pair of socks. We all have way more sock yarn stashed than we’d like to admit, right? This shawlette took less than one skein of Socks that Rock Lightweight, and would work equally well with other sock yarns you may already own. At least for me, knitting this shawlette took much less time than knitting a pair of socks does! It’s a great way to knit down your stash (if you’re into that sort of thing that is).
Both sizes are included in one pattern for $5.00. Purchase from my e-junkie shopping cart or from Ravelry.
Here’s a link to the official Leila Pattern Page with all the yardage and size measurements.
Or if you’re ready to buy now, here are the purchase buttons!
As always, please do not hesitate to contact me (click “Contact” above and fill out the form) with any questions!
Enjoy!
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