Designs

My favourite shawl design

Being a designer, releasing patterns out into the world is a little bit like being a parent.

At some point, after a lot of time and effort you have to release your little darlings out into the world, ready to take on whatever life throws at them and knowing that to some extent, they’ll have to fend for themselves.

And, much like children I don’t think I’m supposed to have a favourite one.

With my kids, obviously I love them both equally and could never choose between them. But with my patterns, I think I’m probably allowed to have a favourite. And if I had to pick a favourite shawl of mine it would have to be this one.

The PPS (Pattern Please Shawl) ticks all my boxes for a fun, wearable design that’s fun to knit.

There’s the name to start with - born of facebook group frustrations when ‘pattern?’ or ‘pattern please?’ crops up with monotonous regularity.

But there’s also the sheer versatility of the kite-shaped design. It starts off with a small number of stitches and increases to give a dramatic chevron effect (if you use stripes). It allows you to play with colour, with mini skeins, with big skeins - really - the world is your knitting oyster.

This version uses two full skeins of sockweight yarn and it’s probably the one I wear most often. The smaller version uses 1 x 100g skein of sock yarn along with a set of mini skeins to give a smaller, slightly skinner shawl but the kite shape ensures that it still has good wrappability. An important characteristic in any shawl.

What makes a good shawl design for you? Is it size, shape, stash-using-ability?

Do let me know in the comments.

Not So Vanilla Socks

A pair of handknit socks on sock blockers on a white background, The yarn starts at he cuff with pale brown and goes through a gold gradient to the toes which are deep brown.

Not So Vanilla Socks: cuff down and knit in a gradient yarn from Gusto Wool (Urth Yarns)

Sometimes you need some plain vanilla socks, sometimes you just need something a little bit more. When I came across this lovely gradient yarn from Gusto Wool (kindly gifted to me by Urth Yarns) I knew that I wanted to knit something quite simple, that would let the lovely yarn take centre stage.

This yarn - Echoes by Gusto Wool comes in 2 x 50g matched gradient skeins - making it perfect for a project such as this. And the pattern is a simple, two-round repeat which is easy to memorise.

This is a cuff down sock, knit with a slightly longer leg than usual - all the better to show off that gradual colour change. Paired with a traditional heel flap and a rounded toe this is a perfect sock for either gifting or for yourself - ideal for travel projects.

Although I’ve used a gradient yarn here this would work equally well with mini skeins - try the clasped weft join to avoid dealing with ends. Or it would look fab with a self stripe yarn too. In fact my next pair might be just that.


A corner to corner blanket: Free pattern

I knit this simple garter stitch blanket last year sometime and published it as a free pattern on Instagram for those who follow me there, with the full and certain intention of adding it to my free patterns page here too.

I have no idea why it fell off my to-do list, I can only assume that life, combined with my butterfly brain conspired against me.

In any case, I wanted to add it here as it’s such a lovely, straightforward knit. Ideal for a beginner or for those times when you just want a bit of relaxing, stress-free knitting. I knit this small lap blanket with DK yarn on 4mm needles but you could easily adapt it to work with fingering weight yarn (suggested 3mm needles) or worsted/aran (on 4.5/5mm needles, respectively).

It produced a perfect little square blanket - ideal for baby knitting as well in an appropriate yarn.

You can find the blanket over on my free pattern page, or it’s written out here (below) as well if you wanted to bookmark it for later.



Cortado Socks - Cosy, quick and DK weight

If you are a fan of speckled yarn and cushy, cosy DK weight socks then look no further. The Cortado socks are knit cuff down with 1 skein of DK weight yarn and with a straightforward, 4 round repeat they knit up so much faster than you might expect.

If you are lucky enough to be at Unravel this weekend you'll be able to see these socks in person. Gem of The Little Grey Girl is launching her fabulous new DK yarn - Coveny - in some beautiful colourways and I was lucky enough to be able to get my hands on an advance skein.

Having knit fingering weight socks for so long, it's such a treat to whip up a satisfyingly quick pair of cosy DK-weight socks - so much so that I'm eagerly planning to cast on another pair as soon as possible.

My husband - who never normally notices my knitting much - was particularly taken with these and casually enquired whether a 'speckled sock' might be in the offing for him too. As he is a larger-footed chap I normally approach socks for him with a degree of trepidation but at the speed I managed to knock these out I think he might have a fighting chance of a new pair by Easter.

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Reading Corner Shawl

If you find yourself with some DK leftovers or small 10g mini-skeins this is the perfect shawl to use them up. The Reading Corner shawl combines 2 x 100g DK skeins and 5x10g minis in a simple stripe and eyelet design. Designed for minimal counting and maximum ease.

The Reading Corner shawl is an elongated triangle, knit mainly in garter stitch with contrast stripes, with an eyelet detail. As it’s knit in DK weight yarn it’s wonderfully warm and squishy, perfect for draping over your shoulders while you read, or the elongated ends mean that it also works well as a wearable, wrappable shawl on colder days.

Perfect for stashbusting and adapting to the yarn you have, each contrast stripe uses just under 10g yarn. You could use a single contrast colour for all the stripes, or mix and match with leftovers from your stash.

Disturbia Collaboration is Live

It’s a very exciting day today, with the official launch of a collaboration I have been involved with for some time. When a yarny project with fabulous, talented friends comes together it’s a thing of beauty and I’m honored to have been part of this project.

For a few months now I have been working on a yarny collaboration with Martyn of the Knit365 podcast and today is the official launch. 

Martyn had the idea to commission an exclusive hand dyed yarn colourway from the fabulous indie dyer Gem (The Little Grey Girl) and then to have a knitting designer and a crochet designer come up with two different-but-similar shawl designs.

My version - the Do Not Disturb shawl is shown above. It is a sideways knit, garter stitch shawl with a decorative ‘sharks tooth’ edging and an integral i-cord - both knitted as you go. I wanted something that would really showcase the beautiful speckles and semi-solid tones of Gem’s gorgeous colourway - Disturbia.

The crochet version has been designed by the very talented Hanna (Germander Cottage Crafts) and uses the same skein of yarn to create a beautiful crochet design. Hanna and I worked together to ensure that the finished pieces were similar in shape and style, whilst each putting our own unique stamp on it. Hanna had the greater challenge, given that one-skein shawls in crochet have a little more constraint but she has absolutely knocked it out of the park with this beautiful, very wearable design, that I can’t wait to try.

All the official details will be available at this link from 4pm (UK time) along with details on how to get your hands on a skein of this lovely sock yarn.

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