Happy Birthday to The Point (NYC)

Happy Birthday Martini Glass

To celebrate its 4th birthday, The Point NYC had a sale. In addition to baskets of specially marked yarns in wonderfully lush colors, everything else was 20% off. I used this sale to treat myself to some wonderful Malabrigo 100% Merino Sock Yarn which I had been craving since it first hit The Point’s shelves. At the time, I had just started knitting (and reknitting) my Swallowtail Shawl so that I couldn’t indulge myself in yet more shawl related stash. 

Unfortunately, the lush sock yarn has been flying out of the store so that there were only 7 skeins left by the time that I arrived at the sale. Despite the fact that I vowed to myself that I wouldn’t make another black shawl after finishing the Shetland Lace Scarf for my mom, I found myself magically drawn to the black Malabrigo Sock Yarn. The problem was that there were 3 skeins of black, 2 white and 1 brown skein. So black it was. 

It has 440 yards and Alyssa the manager commented that she was able to make the fountain pen shawl from the Spring 2009 Interweave with about 750 yards (and she used the Malabrigo!)  

Since I am in the midst of making the Estonian Lace Inspired shawl from Brooklyn Handspun and the Ribbon Lace Shawl in grey angora and silk lace weight, I will have to wait to start this project. Fortunately, a black shawl is useful 12 months of the year.

Malabrigo Superwash Merino Sock Yarn in Black

Swallowtail Shawl in Teal is Finished!

 

Lace Detail-Ella Rae Lace Merino

The Swallowtail Shawl in Teal is finished. I loved the Ella Rae Lace Merino. It was a very springy yarn which coordinated well with the time of year. 

After finishing 6 sets of repeats for the main part of the shawl, I decided that the 1 skein that I had wasn’t going to make as big a shawl as I had anticipated so I frogged it. 

In addition, I didn’t realized that the Ella Rae Lace Merino was really a fingering weight not a lace weight as a result, I had a few stressful periods near the end where I resorted to weighing my ball of unknit yarn to determine how to finished the shawl. 

Due to a limited amount of merino, I decided with the help of the team at The Point and fellow knitters not to make the nupps for the Lily of the Valley pattern and had to eliminate rows 13-22 of the pattern as well. That said, the shawl measured 30 inches by 60 inches and looks wonderful!

 

Swallowtail Shawl in Teal Ella Rae Lace Merino Blocked

 

Swallowtail Shawl in Ella Rae Lace Merino Border

 

Swallowtail Shawl in Teal Ella Rae at The Point

New Spring Sweater in the Works!

 

Bouton D'Or New Jeans in Gray, Beige & White

Spring brings with it a sense of renewal. From a knitting perspective, that means time to start a new sweater project. 

While I have been testing some of the new summery yarns that I got at a recent yarn swap to see what the fibers want to be, I am going to make a long sleeve spring sweater instead. I am using the New Jeans from Bouton D’Or in gray, beige and white that I bought at the Joan Vass Sale last summer. It’s made from a combination of fibers including linen and composed of 6 threads combined into a single strand. 

After swatching it several times, I decided to use a purl 3/knit 1 rib or what I call a reverse rib. It shows off the beauty of the yarn and has vertical lines to accent the length. 

I am using the general pattern for a set-in sleeve in  the Interweave Handy Books of Sweater Patterns by Ann Budd. As usual, I am adapting the pattern to meet my measurements.

At first, I didn’t think that I’d have enough yarn to make more than a tank top despite the 120 yards per ball (of which I have 10!). So far, I’m onto my second ball and believe that I will make at least 3/4 length sleeves.

 

Long Sleeve Reverse Rib Sweater

Lace Collar – Free One Ball Knitting Pattern

 

Two Row Lace Stitch Close Up

To coordinate with the grey mohair lace cuffs, I decided to make a lace collar. Using the cuffs as a measuring guide, I determined that the collar was just under three times the size of a cuff.   

 

I realized that this collar makes a great one skien wonder. It’s a quick knit (mine took me two days to knit plus finishing time so it’s good when you need that last minute gift.) 

For my collar, I used a grey mohair with silver twisted in it that I bought at Silk City Fibers. Rowan’s Kid Silk Haze is a good substitute and may yield enough for you to make the matching cuffs (although be warned that I didn’t measure.)

I used a size 5 needle and didn’t check my gauge. 

Lace Stitch Pattern from The Point About Cuffs by Vicki Square in Interweave’s Lace Style:

Multiple of 6 stitches + 1 Stitch

Row 1: *K1, yo, K1, sl1 K2tog, PSSO, K1, yo* to last stitch K1

Row 2: Purl

Lace Collar Pattern
CO 163 stitches. (Note: You can use a multiple of 6 and add 3 stitches (2 are the selvage stitches and one is the last pattern stitch which is a knit).

Knit 4 rows.

Follow rows a & b for the next 16 rows.

Row a: *K1, yo, K1, sl1 K2tog, PSSO, K1, yo* to last stitch K1

Row b: Purl

Row 21: K1, K2tog for the rest of the row. 

Row 22: K1, Purl until last stitch, K1.

Follow rows c & d for the next 18 rows. Until row 40.

Row c: K1 *K1P1* until last stitch. K1.

Row d: K1 *P1K1* until last stitch. K1.

Bind off loosely.

Block by pulling out the points of the lace. 

Sew on three small buttons (more like tiny).  Opposite each button make a loop for buttoning. Using a crochet hook, make a 4 stitch chain loop and use single crochets to enhance the loops.

 

Pull out points on Lace Collar

 

 

Lace collar closed at the side

 

Lace collar buttoned in the front

 

Lace collar closed in the back

Unfortunately, I had already given my mother the sweater and cuffs for her birthday. This piece was just a bit delayed. As a result, I don’t have a picture of the ensemble.

For those of you who are adventurous, this pattern would probably look good in cotton as well. 

Please let me know what you think! 

Submitted by Knitted Yarns Editor-in-Chief

The Point About Cuffs-Lace edging modified

 

Lace cuff pinned out

To sex up the Thermal Scoop Neck Pullover, I decided to add removable lace cuffs. I took my inspiration from Vicki Square’s The Point About Cuffs in Lace Style. Vicki Square’s pattern is meant to be worn under a blazer. When I checked on Ravelry, there were a mere 13 photos and most knitters weren’t happy with the result.

 

Therefore, I decided to change the pattern (nothing unusual here). I made it narrower and shorter. Vicki Square’s pattern calls for 5.5 inches of lace and 2.5 inches of ribbing. 

For my grey glittery mohair from Silk City Fibers, my modifications were:

• Knit lace flat and then seam. Therefore, I added 3 stitches, one selvedge stitch at each end and one to end the pattern on the last pattern repeat. I think that knitting flat helped me to speed up the project since the thread thin lace weight is difficult to manage flat.
• Reduced the number of stitches to 63 (10 repeats of 6 stitches). This narrowed the cuff.
• Shortened the cuff. I reduced the lace to 3 inches before blocking.
• Used 2 rounds of stitch reduction. At row 21, I decreased every other stitch and then repeated the decreases again on row 23. As a result, I had 17 stitches remaining which will make a tighter fit on the ribbing.
• Changed K2P2 rib to a K1P1 rib to make the cuffs tighter although they will probably need elastic to keep them in place.

While I don’t know how much yarn was used, I used a size 5 needle. Further, I zipped through the project unlike those on Ravelry.

 

Thermal Scoop Neck Pullover with Lace Cuffs

P.S. I think that the cuffs will need elastic to stay in place.

 

Submitted by Knitted Yarns Editor

Thermal Scoop Neck Pullover DONE!

Knitty- Inspired Thermal Scoop Neck Sweater in Alpaca

My Knitty-inspired Thermal Scoop Neck Pullover is finally finished! It came out wonderfully. The knitted pattern gives the sweater the sense of soft alpaca long underwear albeit sexier with it’s side shaping.

The biggest hurdle with this sweater was the thin alpaca yarn that I used. I had bought it at Silk City Fibers where it was a special sample Unfortunately it required a small size 2 needle. (UGH!) As a result, this pullover took about 7 weeks to complete despite almost single minded knitting focus. Since I use a row counter to ensure that the front and back of the sweater match, this sweater had more rows than any other including the sweaters for my husband and dad.

I guess you could say that it contained a lot of love in terms of the hours of knitting.

Knitting Helps Prevent Memory Loss

Get out your knitting needles and start knitting if you want to hold on to your marbles. According to recent research, knitting helps reduce the risks of mental impairment by as much as 30-50%. Knitting helps the cognitive processes and challenges the knitting to be mentally involved. Thanks to The Point’s newletter for forwarding this link regarding the positive effects of knitting.

Recession Buster Knitting- Free Shetland Scarf Pattern

 

Shetland Scarf Detail - Razor Stitch

As I was knitting my mother’s black Shetland Lace Scarf, I realized that this pattern makes a great recession buster project since it can be made with only one ball of lace weight yarn. Lace weight yarn for those of you who have used it has great yardage per skien and it’s usually reasonably priced. 

 

While lace weight yarn is thin, you can use larger needles than you might think to enhance the lacey quality of your finished project.  Since I knit loosely (I usually go down 2 needles sizes), I go up 2 needles sizes from the package for lace. Although I strongly recommend that you not use black since it’s tough on your eyes.

I am making slow progress on Mom’s Shetland Lace Scarf. To ensure that I finish it in the near future, I added a few rows each knitting session since I needed a well lit place to knit.

FREE SHETLAND SCARF PATTERN
Here are the instructions:

1 ball of Silky Alpaca Lace Weight – About 460 yards. (Any type of yarn will work. Just change your needles and consider how wide you would like the scarf to be. Also, more yard may be needed for thicker yarns.)

Size 5 needles.

Cast on 69 stitches.

Knit 8 rows.

Row 1: Knit 4 stitches, K1 YO, k4 Slip 1, K2Tog, PSSO, K4 YO K1, Repeat 4 times [ YO, k4 Slip 1, K2Tog, PSSO, K4 YO K1] Knit 4 stitches.

Row 2: Knit 4 stitches, Purl 61 stitches, Knit 4 stitches

Repeat rows 1 and 2 until desired length about 56 inches. 

Knit 8 rows

Bind off. 

Note: Post blocked length is about 20-25% longer. To determine the finished length use the following formula:

Blocked length = Pre-blocked length divided by 0.75

 

Shetland Scarf for Mom-Free Knitting Pattern

Finished and blocked Shetland Scarf for Mom. It’s 76 inches by 11.5 inches. More than the 6 feet she requested. I soaked the finished scarf in hair conditioner for over 20 minutes and it’s really soft!

 

I am excited that I finally finished this project since the black is a killer on my eyes! I hope that my mom likes it.

Spring 2009 Knitty

The Spring Issue of Knitty is available. This issue has two patterns that I’m looking forward to trying (although it may take me a bit until I’m willing to add them to my growing queue and WIPs).

They are the Aeolian Shawl which looks amazing and Decimal which is a sweater that combines two different lace stitches. The sweater has 3/4 length bell sleeves that I would lengthen to my wrists. I will probably wait until some folks try them on Ravelry to get some feedback.

Submitted by Knitted Yarns Editor

Gliterati-Thermal Scoop Neck Pullover Acutriments

 

Grey Lace Weight Mohair With Silver Thread Shawl

To accompany the Thermal Scoop Neck Pullover, I am using some fine mohair (think: Rown Kid Silk) with a twist of silver throughout to make a lacy scarf/foulard and coordinated lace cuffs. I bought this special yarn on sale at Silk City Fibers (where I always find something wonderful!)

The goal is to dress up the sweater for evening wear. The benefit of knitting these contrasting pieces separately is that they can be worn with other garments. 

As a start, I’m knitting a 2 by 2 rib. I  left the cast on stitches live so that I can add a lace finishing to match the cuffs. The lace will be knit down so that there’s no grafting needed (Yeah!) 

I’m considering narrowing the scarf by knitting each of the ribs together to get a 1 by 1 rib. This would enhance the fanned look of the scarf. I would love to hear your recommendations.

Submitted by Knitted Yarns Editor-in-Chief