Tuesday, June 23, 2026

Free Shawl Pattern (Beginner Frieindly): Vuelo

 Here is a pattern for a three sided shawl using a "top down" approach.  This means that you can knit a triangle as small or as large as you like, stopping when you are "done." The shawl uses two different yarns.  This is kind of a sister to my Flyde shawl which is a crescent, but uses the same row sequence.  As in  Flyde, the rows are either knit or purl, in a sequence as described below.









Gauge is not very important but you should like the "fabric" that you are knitting, so doing a swatch is helpful. You could even use just one yarn. My gauge was 4.5 stitches per inch. 

As with Flyde,  I used two laceweight yarns: a mohair and silk yarn, together with a soft merino single. For this version pictured here I used : 

Yarn A: Stitch Together Stitch Skinny in "Rusty Nail." 

Yarn B:  Hedgehog Fibres Kidsilk Lace in "Guppy" 

Yarn A creates a garter ridge, Yarn B creates a recessed stockinette row.

I'm a tight knitter and I used a size 3 US circular needle

The knitting is knit  in the classic top down triangle shawl manner: 


Cast on 7 stitches in yarn A.  Mark center stitch "spine stitch"

Row 1: k2, yo, k1. yo, k1  (spine stitch) , yo, k1, yo, k2
Row 2 knit all

Change to yarn B
Row 3; k2, yo, k3, yo, k1, yo, k3, yo, k2
Row 4:  k2, purl until final 2 sts, k2

Change to yarn A
Row 5: k2, yo, k up to spine stitch, yo, k spine stitch, yo, knit to last 2 sts, yo, k2.
Row 6: knit all

Change to yarn B
Row 7; k2, yo, k up to spine stitch, yo, k spine stitch, yo, knit to last 2 stitches, yo, k2
Row 8:  k2, purl until final 2 sts, k2


Continue with rows  5 through 8.

When the triangle is as large as you would like or you have ALMOST run out of yarn, you can just bind off. OR if you would like a pointed lacey kind of border (see photo above) you can do this, you will want to count your stitches to be sure that you have a multiple of 10 plus 4 . I often misjudge and need to add or subtract some stitches!

Row 1: k2 tog, *k3, yo, k1, yo, k3, slip1 knit 2 tog, psso*. Continue until the last 9 sts,   k3, yo, k1, yo, k3 k2 tog.

Row 2: k2, purl to last 2 sts, k2.

Repeat these for  two or. four  times. 

You can place beads where ever you like in the border, I put them in the stitch between the two yarn overs and on the sl 1 of the  "slip1 knit 2 tog, psso" (see photo above) . 

Bind of loosely! I like this method:

K 2, pass 1st stitch over 2nd and move remaining stitch to left needle. Repeat.

Have fun with this! It's a bit more like a recipe than a pattern. 



Use this pattern as you wish, but please credit me and don't claim it as your design, thank you.



Wednesday, June 3, 2026

A Small Goddess from Making Zen

 I signed up for Making  Zen  in May. It was mostly hand stitching, it was great! Here is a small handstitched goddess that I fiinished using some of my ecoprinted fabric stash. I have a needlepoint shop near me with wonderful DMC flosses, so I have a great stash of colors. So much fun!



Another Making Zen is coming in September!
 

Thursday, April 9, 2026

A Small Tapestry

 I started this small tapestry as a "study" of techniques. I actually used "real" tapestry wool for this, rather than knitting yarn or my handspun.  The yarn was free and the colors not those that I might pick, but that made it interesting to chose as I wove...

Circles are not my forté and they may never be, but it was fun to try. 


This was done on a Hokett Loom, it's 7 x 8 inches, a nice scale. It's hanging over my bathroom cabinet, in temporary residence...





Monday, February 16, 2026

Handmade Valentines and a Red Hat

 Naturally, this was supposed to be posted before Valentine's Day...

I scanned youtube for a fresh handmade Valentine idea and cam up with this, involving lots of paper and cutting but came up with this fun 3D thing



Perhaps Grandsons will enjoy ruuffling through the hearts and naming colors...



Card fronts were covered with more hearts. I had to buy a  new gluestick!

And then there was this red hat, 'tis the season...

I looked up the Original Norwegian resistance hat in "Nordic Knitting", Susanne Pagoldh's wonderful book from 1987, now out of print.   (How did I find these books before the internet??  Going to a real yarn store bookshelf, I suppose...) The contemporary hat designer must have had some idea because construction is very similar...




I looked up the Original Norwegian resistance hat in "Nordic Knitting", Susanne Pagoldh's wonderful book now out of print.   The contemporary designer must have had some idea because construction is very similar...





Hardcover! $250 used on Amazon!









Sunday, December 14, 2025

Navaho Spinning

 Following my trip to weave with Navaho teachers in Canyon de Chelly,  I decided that a good followup might be a class at John  C. Campbell Folkschool to  try my hand at Navaho style spinning. I am not great with a drop spindle although I have enjoyed using a floor supported spindle. Our teacher was TahNibaa Naataanii, assisted by her Mother, who I recognized from a favorite movie,  "Frybread Face and Me."

Tahnii had brought washed Navaho churro sheep fleece for us to use in 5 different colors!




We first took a good couple of ounces /handful of the fleece and opened it up so it looked liike a veil, then the cardiing started. We were encouraged to respect our materials and keep them neat. Then the carding started; my carding improved immensely! 


The spindles are long and rest on the ground in supported spindle fashion.

Here are our results!












Here is a video of TahNi from youtube





Saturday, November 22, 2025

Dyeing with Japanese indigo

 This time, belatedly,  yes, another natural dye post.

I had in my possession some Japanese indigo seeds, persicaria tinctoria.  They look like another persicaria that I have met on my travels looking at plants. These made pretty little plants.  I grew them in pots.   I used them for dye before flowering (not recommended) because leaves were going brown here in the Georgia heat. The leaves had blue bruises so I thought it was time. I collected just leaves.



I used an internet recipe which I can't locate but there are a number out there...I chopped it up in the blender and added ice in a bucket. Salt was involved. I had my usual several small skeins of handspun wool and handspun mohair. It was a cold business...




There was a lot of rinsing to do with the little plant bits...



I'm sure that there are people who can replicate colors from photos online,  Pas moi. However these are lovely celadony blue-greens. 

I moved the plants to the ground afterwards. Word to the wise: the deer really like them.



Sunday, August 24, 2025

Dyeing with Black Knight Scabiosa

 When I was in Gallup briefly this year,  some friends and I wandered iinto a yarn store that I spied around the corner from Perry Null Trading Post, where we were SUPPOSED to be. (Don't worry, we got there...) I wish I could find the name of the store. The owner had small bags of dyeing materials including black knight scabiosa, from Bluebirddyegardens.com.  (Check out the website... Blue Bird is in Southwest Colorado and grows, dries, and markets dyestuff as well as having workshops. I haven't been there...yet).

Back at home, I tried out the Black Knight Scabiosa, such cute little dried flowers...I'll try growing them next year.  It is an annual.

I mordanted some handspun wool and angora mohair with an alum bath.  I guess I was expecting a purple but no...here we go with a lovely mossy green!  I didn't know of any natural dyes that of themselves go green.  It's so hard to get accurate color, I had to play around with the tint on my phone. Samples are mossier and warmer than seen here, but it's not too far off. the wool (on the left) is a deeper and mossier a color than the mohair. (It's also better spun!)



I like doing small batch dyeing, and apparently spinning. I don't have the patience to spin for a large project but I do love spinning for small batches for baby knitting or tapestry weaving.  I wind up with lots of colors that I can use together.