DESDEMONA Beaded Lace Shawl

[update 14 Mar. 10]



Desdemona Beaded Lace Shawl available for $6.




The story of Othello and Desdemona may be familiar, but did you know that the tragedy turned upon a lace scarf?

Early in their relationship, Othello gave Desdemona a gift: a lace scarf. Evil Iago stole Desdemona’s scarf then told Othello that Desdemona was having an affair. To support his lie, Iago told Othello that Desdemona gave the scarf to her lover.

Othello confronted Desdemona. Othello demanded that Desdemona show him the scarf, but she (obviously) couldn’t find it. This was the proof he needed of her infidelity, and he killed her.



Here she is, portrayed by Frederic Leighton (1888).


Tragic, yes. Also, great knitting inspiration. This scarf must be soft enough, delicate enough, and beautiful enough to honor Mrs. Desdemona.

Teardrop Lace: A simple eyelet lace pattern, easy to memorize, great for a beginning lace knitter. Pattern .pdf includes chart and line-by-line lace pattern instructions.


Includes instructions for optional bead detailing to signify sparkling teardrops on the scarf.


The Lana Grossa Babykid is the softest mohair yarn I've ever touched. And I've touched a lot of mohair.

Just $6.00 for a PDF download.

BRYHER Cable Scarf - Updated Version

Katie Rose here:

[updated January 2015]



Updated pattern PDF available as a $1 download from Ravelry, here.


Bryher is one of the first patterns I ever wrote. The first one I knitted (viewable here) was stolen from a restaurant—I left it on my seat, returned 15 minutes later to pick it up, and it was gone, gone from the restaurant completely. Here's a picture of the original:


Who would want to steal a handmade scarf? Until it disappeared, I wore the scarf every day. I made Madame Luscious to take its place, but the hole in my heart remained.

Enter Bryher 2.0. This time around, I've written a more complete pattern. I even made a PDF and put it on Ravelry as a free. The most recent update of the PDF includes a photo-tutorial on knitting cables without a cable needle, too.

Notes on the Pattern

Bryher 2.0 was knit with Idena "Mohair Lux" in colorway #4118, a green-purple variegation. (This replaced the Artful Yarns "Portrait" in the Madame X colorway from Bryher 1.0.)



This mohair is held with a Paton's Classic Wool Merino worsted-weight yarn in colorway Deep Olive, just like Bryher 1.0.

Needles are size 10 circulars. Scarf is worked in k1, p1 rib with a braided cable off-center. The first stitch of each row is slipped to create a selvedge.

Who is Bryher?

This scarf is named for the novelist Bryher.

Bryher was the pen name for Annie Winifred Ellerman, British novelist born in 1894. She was the life-long companion of the poet H.D. She was also very rich, and used her wealth to help Jews escape Germany in the 1930s.

A tough world traveler, she would have needed a compact, warm, yet stylish scarf like this one.


Check out other knitters' great projects on Ravelry using the link below.

Nella FOs!

Check out this Nella FO from Dawn over at Knitting Nonstop. Doesn't it look amazing?



I also reknit it, to check the pattern, using a different yarn: Plymouth Yarn's Boku. I don't adore it as much as the Noro, for various reasons, but it is a good, lower-priced alternative for this project.

Have you knit a project from Fiber Smarts? Send us your FOs--we'd love to see them and share them with everyone.

Bordello Scarf FO: On Knitting with Homemade Yarn

Here's a recent FO, a scarf made with yarn I plied and dyed after reclaiming it from two thrift store sweaters. The pattern is "Noro Silk Garden Scarf" by Karen Baumer at Angel Yarns. It's a short-row multi-directional scarf that shows off the Noro striping. Since the "Bordello" yarn that I made is striped, I decided to try it out with this pattern. Here's the yarn:


And here's how the scarf turned out:


I think it looks great. But more importantly, there was a strangely powerful satisfaction that came from knitting with yarn I'd made. When I worked on this one in public, and someone inquired about it (because hey, knitting just screams, "Come talk to me, strangers." Why? Why is this?), it felt great to say that I made the yarn.

Plus, the scarf is actually butch enough for my husband to wear.

NELLA Cropped Cardigan

[update 13 Mar. 10]



Nella is available in many sizes, from XS through 2XL, for $6.

 

Nella was inspired by dresses of the 1930s, with their swooping necklines, wide sleeves, and front ties. The Noro Kureyon accentuates the lines of the piece.


I've named it after Nella Larsen, a fabulous author of the Harlen Renaissance. Check out the style of these ladies:

Nella knit in one pieces from the top-down, then the sleeves are picked up and added, again from the top down, on two circulars.

Next, the entire edge of the piece is picked up and a garter-stitch trim applied.


At the neckline, the garter-stitch trim is applied from the top edge, working up, decreasing and shaping. Lastly, the i-cord and applied i-cord are applied, creating the tie and the neckline edging.

Interested in making Nella?

Buy the pattern for $6.00, sizes XS through 2XL.

Quant FO and New Yarns

I plied and dyed a bunch of wool and alpaca--the yarn I started spinning in an earlier post. Mostly I'm experimenting with color--Kool-Aid and food coloring. I'm scared of non-edible dyes. And I'm having the most fun making up names.

Here's PryalSpun 50-50, color "Bordello." I'm thinking sexy armwarmers for this:


Color "Fireworks":


Color "Easter Egg" that has now been made into Quant:


Another view, on my head:

Free Pattern: Madame Luscious Noro Mobius

[Updated 14 Mar. 2010]



This pattern is available as a free PDF Ravelry download.

Download now.



I love luscious scarves, and I love Noro. I traveled to Japan in order to shop for Noro. That is obsessive, but I refuse to seek help.



I started this scarf in Tokyo, with some help from fellow knitting fiend C. over at Rapt With Fiber, using a scrap-yarn mobius cast-on, but the cast-on method doesn't really matter. What matters is that you select some seriously cool Noro yarn and show off the colorways.

PATTERN

Yarn
3 Skeins Noro Kureyon (Silk Garden will work too, you spoiled brats). That's 300 meters of some lickable variegated, worsted-to-aran weight yarn.

Needle
54 inch (from tip-to-tip) circular needle in size 10.5 (I made mine with my Denise Interchangeables).
One spare needle for scrap-yarn cast-on in a smaller size.

Supplies
Tapestry needle to weave in ends.
Large Cross-Stitch or Embroidery Needle for Russian joining. Looks like a tapestry needle but it has a sharp point.

Cast On Method: Any mobius cast-on method will do. I used the scrap yarn method described at girlfromauntie.com here. Cat Bordhi's method works fine too.

CO 175 stitches onto circular needle if you are using the scrap yarn method, because then you will pick up and double that number of stitches, giving you 350 sts. If you are casting on more conventionally, CO 350 sts.

Place marker to indicate the beginning of round.

Proceed to knit and purl in groups of 1, 2, or 3, giving you variegated ridges along your scarf. (see photo below)



Use Russian Join method to join second skein to first. This is not a good project for weaving in ends, being double-sided and loosely worked. Noro is an excellent yarn for Russian Joining esp. if you add a little felting for good measure. Great instructions for this technique are here (pictures) and here (video - knittinghelp.com).

When you join the last ball of Noro, work one round as above, then work remaining rounds in k2, p2 rib. (see photo below)



The ribbing ensures that the very long edges of the scarf do not roll upon themselves.

Bind Off: Two points about binding off. First, be sure to leave yourself enough yarn to bind off all 350 stitches. That's a lot. Second, bind of LOOSELY. Very loosely. If you bind off with tension, the edges will pull and the scarf will look less luscious.

Note: This scarf lengthens as you wear it. It will gain inches and inches, maybe even a foot, in length, between the time it comes off the needles to the fifth or sixth wear. That's okay, though--just wrap it around your neck again.

Luscious Shawl FO

I mentioned this project in an earlier post, that it was inspired by John Brinegar at Yarn Ball Boogie.

This post is also notable in that my face will be revealed, for better or worse, in blogland for the first time. I'm slightly uncomfortable about this, but oh well.


Look at that selvedge. I want to lick it.


The thing measures 42" long and 13" wide. I think I'll secure it in the front with a dpn or something.

Who Looks Good In This Sh*t?

Here's the Twinkle Evening Shell I knitted on New Year's eve and wore that night:

I worked hard to make the thing fit right, and followed the pattern exactly (something I never do). I used this scrumptious yarn (Cascade Magnum).

And yet I look like Barney.

I don't think it's possible to look good in Twinkle's designs unless you're built like a stick insect. I love the book, I love the pictures. It'll look nice on the coffee table, but I sure as hell won't be knitting out of it again. (Except maybe that deconstructed mohair shrug. That's sexy.)

So now I'm stuck with three huge skeins of Cascade Magnum in this great orangey-brown color that I will not be using to make the Twinkle Hoodie. What's a girl to do?

Serendipity strikes. I stumble upon my new fav knitting blog, and another soul mate who doesn't know it yet, John Brinegar at Yarn Ball Boogie. He knitted a simple, oversized, scrumptious seed-stitch scarf with bulky yarn. [Here.] I'm making one too:


Perhaps you'll think it's a waste of this fancy yarn. But I don't. I can't wait to wrap myself in a blanket disguised as a scarf.

BUFFY TRICOLOR EYELET SCARF

[Updated 1-2-2008]

Soft yarn and eyelets. Yummy. Or should I say, Buffy.


Yarn selection, including color, is the most important element of the Buffy scarf.


The yarn-over eyelet pattern is simple. The thick yarn and large needles means it goes really fast. But you really need to think about your yarn and colors.

There are two color theories that I subscribe to: the bright-neutral theory, and the pretty-ugly theory. Miss Buffy employs both.

The bright-neutral theory holds that a bright yarn must be mixed with a neutral yarn for balance. The pretty-ugly theory holds a similarly. Although, with this particular yarn selection, it's arguable which yarn--the drab green or hot pink--is the "ugly."

The Yarn:
1. Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Worsted in lilac pink, 1 skein.
2. Paton's Classic Wool Merino in dark green, 1 skein.
3. Cascade Bollice Etoile mohair blend in hot pink, 1 skein. (I've been adding mohair to everything, lately.)

Needle:
US size 11, 8.0mm

Pattern:

Work holding all three skeins together. c/o 17 stitches. Work first 3 rows in seed stitch. Begin eyelet pattern as follows:

R1: k1, p1, Knit to 2 sts from end, p1, k1.

R2 and all WS rows: Purl.

R3: k1, p1, [k2tog, yo, k2], rep (but last rep will have only 1 k st), p1, k1.

R5: k1, p1, Knit to 2 sts from end, p1, k1.

R7: k1, p1, [k2, ssk, yo], rep, k3, p1, k1.

A Close-up image of the eyelet pattern:


Buffy can be super-warm:

And sooo pretty-ugly!