Tuesday, June 23, 2026

Free Shawl Pattern (Beginner Friendly): 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! I like a "point of the lace to  be centered over the spine stitch so I will count stitches from either side of the point and adjust as needed so as to have a k2 tog as the last stitches on either side of the hypotenuse.

Row 1: k2 tog, *k3, yo, k1, yo, k3, slip1 knit 2 tog, psso*. Center the yo k1 yo over the spine stiitch. 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!