Tag: shawl

Shawl Tier Two

My shawl using the 3 Tier Shawl Workshop pattern is coming along nicely.

I’ve started my Tier Two section using the Eyelet pattern in garter stitch: one eyelet row and 3 knit rows.

This is how the 3 Tier Shawl Workshop works. I started with the idea of making a shawl with a garter stitch base where the wrong side rows are knit. There are instructions for stockinette stitch base where the wrong side rows are purled. It’s entirely your choice and you can change it up at any time.

Here is Tier One in garter stitch. Increases at the centre marker are worked every Right Side Row (green marker in fabric to indicatine the right side). Increases at the edges are worked every row throughout the entire shawl.

OK, moving on to Tier Two.

This is where things get exciting. You add two more markers so that you now have 4 sections to your shawl. Because you have also added 2 more markers where you will be working increases, the increases at the two side markers and centre marker are worked every 4th row.

You get to choose which stitch patterns to work in each of the sections. I have chosen to work garter stitch in the first section, eyelet pattern in sections 2 & 3 and garter stitch in section 4.

Hold on a minute while I load half the shawl on a second needle so you can see it all. Almost there… It’s getting bigger quickly. Done.

More green markers in the fabric to remind me which is the right side. Here is a closer photo of section 1 & 2.

I am only increasing on one side of this side marker, every 4th row. Working garter stitch in sections 1 & 4 makes it easy to get this Tier started.

I’m going to do a podcast about this shawl and the other 4 I’ve knit which are all different. Does this sound interesting to do?

Cheers, Deb

Any Gauge and Gauge-Free patterns by Deb

Cabin Fever patterns

Debgemmell435 on youtube

deb.gemmell on instagram

Shawl Workshop

It’s shawl time around here. Who knew! Not me apparently. That’s all I want to cast on so I’m going with it because what the fingers want, the fingers want.

Impressive, right?! OK, the beginnings are often not too exciting but one must start somewhere.

This is the beginning of the 3 Tier Shawl Workshop which is free at my debgemmellmods store on ravelry. You can knit this in Any Yarn at Any Gauge. You are the boss of this shawl.

Why a workshop? Cabin Fever, a company I had with my sister Lyn (Shelridge yarns), ran a retreat at the Fern Resort for a long time. Maybe 14 years, I’m not sure. For every retreat I wrote a new class. Then we joined up to organize the Yarn Over Sleep Over retreat for another 7 years. I also ran a small retreat by myself in Northern Ontario for a couple years too. All with new workshops for every retreat. That’s a lot of workshops.

This workshop is a class for you to make your own shawl. I give you general instructions and a structure for you to follow. I tried to put in whatever I would have told you if I had been with you in person. So here goes, the first workshop: 3 Tier Shawl Workshop.

It starts with the standard garter stitch tab and then you can work in garter stitch or stockinette stitch.

That’s Tier 1.

Fancy schematics are included. More shawl goodness next week.

I am knitting this wrap as a blanket with my Lichen and Lace Rustic Heather Sports wool. It’s meant to be worked in fingering so I figured that using sports weight wool and a nice big needle would make a good sized blanket. This is the Polaris Wrap by Veera Valimaki. It’s modular which I love and garter stitch, wild, eh?

What else is on my needles? You know there’s more. I have socks on the go using Timberyarns and a mitten worked in Waxwing fingering.

Lots of colour around here. Hope it’s colourful where you are. Cheers, Deb

Cabin Fever patterns by Deb & Lyn and the Cabinfever crew.

Any Gauge and Gauge-Free patterns by Deb

Deb.gemmell on instagram

debgemmellmods 435 on youtube

A Couple of FO, Yay.

I’m sure the knitting rule is that if you finish 2 projects you are allowed to cast on 5 more. That’s right, isn’t it? I’m quite sure it is.

So here are my two finished objects. I’m feeling the joy of being at the finish line.

My tea cozy is done. I used an aran weight plus a sports weight held together for the top and 3 sports weight yarns held together for the straight body section. As I had mentioned, I am an incredibly tight crocheter so the funny horizontal lines are because I can’t get my crochet hook under the 2 legs of the stitches to make a single crochet, so I just go into the top leg. It works for me and I like how it looks. Have I inadvertently stumbled on a real crochet stitch?

My second FO is my Reversible Ribbon wrap/scarf. Yay. It is easy knitting but an 80″/203cm long wrap is still a large project. I’m all set for winter now. I’ll wrap this around my neck, outside my coat, to hold my hood in place and cover part of my face. I am already warm and toasty just thinking about it.

I added a second contrast colour and am really happy that I did. I’m sending an update for the Reversible Ribbon out with the finished photos in it.

Does a little sweater that still needs to be blocked and the buttons sewn on count as a FO? Sure it does.

This is going to be called the Build A Better V, a baby/child sized garter stitch cardigan. It is a redo of the Build a V without the pointy bit at the bottom. I used left-over DK weight yarn (from the rainbow sweater). The extra bonus is that the different colours show the different parts of the cardigan. Four buttons to sew on and I’m done.

Now I am in a dither. What to cast on?! Maybe that, wait this would be good, wow, look at that. You know how this goes.

I made one decision.

I cast on Winter’s Finery by Romni Hill. I wanted to try some rustic sport weight wool I have from Lichen and Lace. I want to see how it works for a shawl. The pattern is written for fingering weight yarn, so with the sports weight I’m using a 4.5mm needle. What a relief to be using a larger needle. Everything else I’ve been knitting lately has been with 3.25mm needles. I’m really happy to be zipping along with this one.

Now, back to ravelry to contemplate some new projects. See ya, Deb

Cabin Fever patterns by Deb & Lyn and the cabinfever crew

Any Gauge and Gauge-Free patterns by Deb

Deb.gemmell on instagram

Debgemmell 435 on youtube

On Vacation, Reversible Ribbon Wrap

This was a good take-along project. Not too much to keep track of and lots of garter stitch.

Reversible Ribbon Wrap/Scarf. Free pattern on ravelry.

Just finishing my third triangle and added another colour. You can use as many colours as you like, just work the Eyelet Row as the first row with the new colour. That maintains the reversibility.

I also got 1 1/2 little socks done.

But today seems like a good hat knitting day.

We are over the half way day of our bus tour of Newfoundland. There have been some long travel days, good for wrap knitting, but now we’re in St.John’s for little jaunts, so the hat it is.

A project for every circumstance, right?!

Cheers, Deb

Any Gauge and Gauge-free patterns by Deb.

Deb.Gemmell on instagram

Debgemmell 435 on YouTube

Who is the boss?

Who is in charge of your knitting? I hope you are.

Do you make changes to a pattern to make it easier for you to knit it?

I think you should. After all, a pattern is only a guide for a certain result.

I am knitting the Mossblossom wrap by wool.and.pine.designs with these changes so that it’s a more enjoyable knit for me. There is nothing wrong with the methods used in the pattern. I made these changes to make myself more comfortable. After all, I am the boss of my own knitting.

I find K3tog (right leaning double decrease) a struggle to knit so I changed it to: K2tog – slip stitch back to left needle – pass second stitch on left needle over the first stitch – slip stitch back to right needle and snug it up. – 2 sts decreased.

I know this seems like so many more steps, but they are steps that are easy to work, which is what I was looking for. It also matches the left leaning double decrease just before it: slip one stitch – K2tog – pass slip stitch over.

The other change I made was to the bobble. I find all that turning business a hassle. I made my bobbles as if they were I-cords. Check it out.

I-cord bobble

Two changes that made knitting this wrap a total pleasure.

Cheers,  Deb

Any Gauge and Gauge-free patterns by Deb

Deb.gemmell on instagram.

Stuck? Cast On to the rescue

Sometimes, when you’re stuck, the best thing to do is cast on something new.

The writing for my v-neck cardigan is not going well. There is nothing wrong with the sweater, it’s done, just the writing part is stuck, stuck, stuck. I am dithering about my next sweater project, and … just generally indecisive. What sweater should I wear? Is it still cool enough to wear wool socks? What’s the weather like today anyway? Should I go for a walk or a bike ride? Is it raining? Sigh, it’s been that sort of week.

So I cast on a shawl. This shawl: The Rain Outside by Sylvia McFadden of softsweaterknits

I know it will keep me busy and calm my brain down so I can get back to work.

It’s a terrific mix of garter stitch stripes and lace windows. I’ve finished my first window.

Looking forward to the next one. Isn’t it great when the knitting pulls you forward?

I hope your knitting is going great. Deb

Any Gauge and Gauge-Free patterns by Deb

Deb.gemmell on instagram

Photographing Yikes

I have to be quick here because I spent all morning trying to photograph a couple of shawls. OMG they are hard to do. After taking 34 pics I am settling for what I got.

That was after I spent way too much time deciding I needed a haircut first, then I should cut my nails, make some bread and clean my apartment. OK, none of that got done. I did get some photos.

This is a shawl I knit for Shelridge Yarns in Lyn’s new Silk/Linen (pink) and again in her Touch Fine lace weight wool (purple).

I do need a hair cut!

This shawl is built in 3-Tiers. With lots of different stitch patterns done in recipe style with schematics for which stitch patterns I used where.

How goofy is that!

Anyway the pattern is finished and I’m sending it to Lyn for a final OK and then I’ll publish it. I hope the photos are OK because it was painful to do these.

Cheers, Deb

Any Gauge and Gauge-Free patterns by Deb

Deb on instagram

The In-between

After finishing a large project, what do you do?

Walk away from knitting for a bit? No, no, no, of course not. You cast on something else.

I was thinking about a small project, but what jumped onto my needle was a shawl. Not a small project, sigh.

It wasn’t actually as straightforward as that. I had some navy, hand-dyed sock wool and cast on for socks. A small project, at least small in size, to carry around.

The yarn had cashmere in it, and after I knit the cuff, I thought maybe cashmere is sort of wasted on socks, so I ripped it out and here I am.

This is the Magic Symmetry Shawl, knit starting at the side with 3 stitches with increases worked on the leading edge.

This usually makes an asymmetric shape, but this is going to be symmetrical when it’s done, wider than it is tall. To my mind this makes it so much easier to wear.

I figured out a new stitch to add to the pattern. Doesn’t this show off the contrast colour?

I thought I would knit eyelets in the contrast colour rows. I  worked [Yo, K2tog] and found I liked the wrong side better. So now I knit the right side row and on the wrong side row work [Yo, P2tog]. So happy with how this looks.

It’s not such a large project after all.

Cheers Deb

Gauge-free and Any Gauge patterns by Deb

Deb on instagram

Crescent FAN Shawl update

Designs sometimes have a forward/backward two-step dance to them. First step forward was knitting the blue and then gold bands for the shawl. When I realized that this crescent shawl shape was too curly, I ripped back. Yes, a large step backwards. Moving forward, I fixed it and I really like the overall shape.

Once I had it this far along, I decided that the V shapes where too small. I wanted to knit more texture stitches across the rows.

So I ripped the gold out one more time. Yes, one more time stepping back. I made the texture stitch shapes larger at the base. Now, after knitting this section again, I finally have it just like I want it. The shapes are like FANs so I changed the name of the pattern. Why not? Nothing is written in stone yet.

The gold yarn is 80/20 fingering by Shelridge.com and stood up really well to three knits. Yay.

I’m knitting the last band of colour as you read this. There is no stopping me now!

The pattern is off to the testknitters and I’m contemplating knitting another one. Hmm, what to choose this time? DK weight? Yeah, that would work.

Cheers, Deb

Gauge-Free and Any Gauge patterns by Deb

Sometimes frogging has to be done

I didn’t block my shawl, I just put it on a really long cable and … it’s definitely too curvy.

So here we go. Rip, rip, rip. Turn away if this is too painful!

While I was merrily ripping away, I decided to take the stripes out too. More ripping but now it’s done.

I thought about the adjustment and here we go again. It’s so difficult to knit with your fingers crossed!

I’m liking the sharp colour change and I’m happy with the curve now. Totally worth the frogging. But … I would like wider wedges. I’d like more texture knitting and a little less garter stitch. So back to ripping again. Let’s see if this yarn can take it. Onward.

Cheers, Deb

Any Gauge and Gauge-Free patterns by Deb