Making: Simple, Lovely Shawls

Making; Easy, quick knitting project for hand-spun wool

I’m very, very lucky to be friends with a super talented hand-spinner and I’m very lucky she likes me enough to give me some of her wool. My immediate reaction (and I’m sure most knitters would agree) is that I want to make something akin to a bean-bag chair of all the skeins and just collapse into its softness. I want to make some kind of shrine to admire (and squeeze) the skeins forever. Unfortunately, this isn’t practical. The other option is being too afraid to do anything with the wool and this seems like a massive shame to the beautiful yarn and hard work that was put into making it.

With the first skein she gave me, I agonised (agonised!) over what to do with it. Until the day I came across a simple pattern for a triangular shawl to show off the texture of wool rather than to show off the knitted pattern. I think I originally saw this on Brooklyn Tweed (who is probably one of the most talented knitters and designers out there.)

The first shawl turned out more of a neckerchief than a shawl, but is so soft and so warm. I think it’s camel wool and seriously, it’s incredibly soft

The second shawl is almost shawl-size and is also super cozy and warm. I used two colours of hand-spun wool (not sure what kind) and since the wool was two different thicknesses it made the stripes into two slightly different textures, which I quite like the imperfection of.

The whole idea behind using this simple pattern is to let the natural shape and size of the wool shine through so it can be used for lengths that are of varying widths or of variegated colours.

In case you’re curious, the pattern is very simple. Cast on 5 or 7 stitches in any way you like, marking the middle stitch with stitch markers. So cast on 2 (or 3) stitches, put a marker, cast on a stitch, and put a marker then cast on 2 (or 3) more stitches. For every row, knit up to the marker, yarn over, slip marker, knit the middle stitch, slip marker, yarn over and knit to end. Continue this pattern until you either run out of wool or reach your desired length.

You can play around with the garter stich pattern by knitting one row and then purling a row then knitting a bunch of rows. You could also knit a row, purl a row, then knit 4 rows and repeat to make another pattern. This will had some more texture. Or instead of having the yarn overs in the middle, you can also put them at the sides of the shawl. Although, I really like how they’re in the middle in my shawls. It looks a bit like a back bone.

Knitted Hot Air Balloon

This is what nerves from a visa application created.

Pattern!!!

1 CO 16 stitches
2-5 Work in stockinette 4 rows.
6 working in stockinette decrease 4 stitches
7 purl (12 stiches)
8 same as (6)
9 purl (8 stitches)
10 working in stockinette increase 4 stiches
11-13 work in stockinette (12 stiches)
14 same as (10)
15-17 work in stockinette(16)
18 same as (10)
19- 20 work in stockinette (20 stiches)
21 same as (10)
22- 27 work in stockinette (24 stiches)
28 same as 6
29 purl (20 stitches)
30 working in stockinette decrease 2 stitches
31 purl (18)
32 same as 30
33 purl (16)
34 same as 30
35 same as 30 (12)
36 same as 30
37 same as 30 (8)
38 working in stockinette increase 2 stitches
39 same as 38 (12)
40 same as 38
41 purl (14)
42 same as 38
43 purl (16)
44 same as 38
45 purl (18)
46 same as 38
47 purl (20)
48 working in stockinette increase 4 stiches
49- 53 work in stockinette (24)
54 working in stockinette decrease 4 stitches
55- 57 work in stockinette (20)
58 same as 54
59- 61 work in stockinette (16)
62 same as 54
63-65 work in stockinette (12)
66 same as 54
67 purl (8 stitches)
68 same as 48
69 purl (10)
70 same as 48
71 purl (12)
72 same as 48
73-77 work in stockinette (16)
cast off

with wrong side facing fold in half and sew edges making sure to tuck in the “corners” at the top (middle of entire piece)

you can fix the shape if necessary when you sew it up.

To finish: Take a piece of scrap yarn and tie it on the balloon as it if were string on a real balloon.

If there are any problems with this pattern feel free to contact me.