FO: Alva

I just released a new free shawl pattern on Ravelry: Alva. Alva takes one ball of Rowan Kidsilk Haze Stripe (or two balls of regular Kidsilk Haze) and is knitted on 5mm needles. My sample is knitted using sh. 200 ("Twillight").

I designed Alva because while I love the new KSH yarn, there was a real dearth of patterns available for it. I wanted a simple, straightforward knit which would showcase the colours. Alva is designed for beginning knitters which is why the lace edging is optional (and written out rather than charted). .

I find it is very different to design for yarn support (which I guess Alva is) rather than design for myself. With yarn support, I keep the end user in mind: who would be knitting this pattern? What skill level am I aiming for? How can I make this even easier to knit? I want my design to be accessible to as many people as possible. This is a fun challenge - and actually more than a challenge than it is to design for myself.

My Karise shawl is currently being knitted in a KAL on Ravelry. It was also designed for yarn support, but I took advantage of being able to play around with charts. S. of MooncalfMakes described Karise as having "..a kind of architectural quality to it, like wrought iron-work or granite carvings." I consider this a huge compliment: I find architecture incredibly inspiring and I hope Karise would have a certain sense of stillness to its lace. It is possibly the closest I have come to designing anything for myself.

I look around Ravelry and I see increasingly complicated lace shawls being showcased. In my own quiet way I guess I'm reacting against that trend. I just don't get it. I do not want to wear things that have 1001 details. I would feel overwhelmed, drowning in frills and bobbles and twisted stitches. I would much rather wear a carefully edited shawl, something understated, something knowing. Maybe it is the Scandinavian in me, maybe it is because I like sparseness in most things.

And William Carlos Williams and his This Is Just To Say was just as difficult to write as, say, Ezra Pound's Cantos (if not more), this liberal arts grad girl would like to point out.

On a whole other note, Fourth Edition is being moved about in the next few weeks. Stay tuned for disruption (unless I manage to work things out quickly).

PS. 'Tis now the season for CRAP light so until April, expect bad photos.

FO & Pattern: Karise

Yesterday I cast-off the laceweight version of my Karise shawl. Today I tweaked the charts one last time, had a final proof-read and, with a deep breath, uploaded the pattern to Ravelry. Karise is now available to purchase, in other words.

A few words on the pattern.

Karise is designed to be modular. That means that it is entirely up to the knitter how many times the various charts are repeated. I have given my own suggestions, of course, but because the charts flow organically into each other you can do exactly what you like.  You want to knit Chart A once but Chart B thirteen times? Or maybe Chart A 5 times and Chart B two times? Go for it.

Secondly, I have given a suggested yardage of 370-420 yards, but my shawl (pictured above) took less than 300 yards as did my laceweight shawl. I suspect I may just be  a freak, so I upped the yardage just to be on the safe side.

And the name? Karise is named after a small town in Denmark. These days Karise is mostly famous for being mentioned in a terrible, terrible song, but the Danish 19th romantic play Elven Hill takes place just outside Karise. Seeing as the original sample uses the colourway Ghillie Dhu - which means 'guardian tree faerie' - I could not resist.

Karise is pronounced Ka-REE-Seh, incidentally.

I have a few more design commissions, so watch this space. I also have the best idea for a shawl/scarf thingy but I'll need to play around a lot more as this idea is slightly outside my usual comfort zone..

Larisa & the Halfway Point

How can this be July already? To celebrate, my Larisa scarf is now available to download for free from Ravelry. Recent events in Casa Bookish:

• We went to see the new Riverside Transport Museum here in Glasgow. It is smaller than you think and the interior is painted a strange lime-green hue which makes everybody look jaundiced - but it is an interesting space. It'll be good to see more imaginative projects shoot up alongside the Clyde river.
• When Jonathan Stroud's Bartimaeus: The Ring of Solomon is the third-most intellectually challenging book I have read this year, you know I'm in trouble. It was hugely enjoyable, actually, but I feel guilty for not reading Clever Stuff. Maybe I should consult this.
• Don't knit lace when you are tired and stressed. Trust me on this one.
• As a household of news junkies, D and I have been glued to BBC News 24 and The Guardian's coverage of the UK phone-hacking scandal. MetaFilter has a great primer if you are unaware of the scandal (and stay for the comments).
• I had a stressful day trying to upgrade my blog software which turned out to be incompatible with my host company's servers. As you can tell, I managed to work things out, but I'm always thankful for UK hosting suggestions.

Glasgow had her annual Two Days of Summer but we are back to heavy rain, grey skies, and woolly-wear appropriate temperatures, huzzah! I am tempted to re-start Fenris which I had to rip out as I had grossly mis-calculated my measurements vs sweater measurements. Are you still working on your summer knitting?

Pattern: Kaldred

Here is a quick and easy pattern for Kaldred, a crocheted bracelet/bangle.

As the UK & US have different crochet terminology, I have included both. For the Danes among you, Kaldred also comes in Danish.

Tip: try embellishing Kaldred with beads, buttons, sequins or ribbons.

Materials: + Crochet hook size 4mm (US size 6 or G if you cannot find a 6) + Approx 20 yards of Double-knitting or light worsted yarn. I used Rowan Denim. + Knitter's needle for weaving in ends.

UK terminology: Row 1: Ch 8, sl st to form circle. Ch 2, turn. Row 2: 5 tr into circle, ch 4, 1 dc into circle, ch 2, turn. Row 3: 5tr into the circle you formed in previous row, ch 4, 1 dc in circle, ch 2, turn.

Repeat Row 3 until one repeat short of desired length.

Then ch 5 tr into the circle you formed in previous row. Make sure that this row “leans” the opposite way of your starting point so that when you hold the end and the beginning together they form a continuous circle. Join the two ends together by slip stitching along the side of the chained circle.

Weave in ends.

US terminology: Row 1: Ch 8, slip stitch to form circle, ch 2, turn. Row 2: 5 dc into circle, ch 4, 1 sc into circle, ch 2, turn. Row 3: 5 dc into the circle you formed in previous row, ch 4, 1 sc into circle, ch 2, turn.

Repeat Row 3 until one repeat short of desired length.

Then ch 5 dc into the circle you formed in previous row. Make sure that this row “leans” the opposite way of your starting point so that when you hold the end and the beginning together they form a continuous circle. Join the two ends together by slip stitching along the side of the chained circle.

Weave in ends.

Dansk opskrift: 1. omg: Hækl 8 lm, saml dem til en ring m 1 km i første lm. 2 lm, vend. 2. omg.: 5 stm i ringen, 4 lm, 1 fm i ringen, 2 lm, vend. 3. omg.: 5 stm i ringen du dannede i forg. omg., 4 lm, 1 fm i ringen, 2 lm, vend.

Gentag 3. omg. indtil ønskede længde.

Dernæst hækl 5 stm i ringen du dannede i forg. omg. Sørg for, at denne gentagelse af viften hælder den anden vej end den allerførste vifte. Hækl de to ender sammen med km langs den første luftmaskering.

Hæft ender.

Enjoy! God fornøjelse!