We’ve added Pooling is a Cinch to the Starfall KAL, so now it’s a PDXKnitterati Assigned Pooling KAL!
Starfall cowl
We’re kicking off the knitalong on January 9 via Zoom. I’ll be there to demonstrate some techniques and give you pointers on how much more you can do with Starfall and this fabulous yarn!
The Starfall pattern is available through Ravelry, link here. It is also available through Payhip, link here.
Check out Keith’s colors here; choose a color that works for assigned pooling in 100g fingering weight for Starfall. There are a lot of pooling colors to choose from. Your yarn purchase will get you on the Zoom invite list. Order your yarn by December 27 so you can knit with us in January!
Pooling is a Cinch in Times Square colorway
UPDATE: We’re adding Pooling is a Cinch to our KAL; if you order this yarn (it’s worsted weight, so an even quicker knit) from Keith, you’ll get the Zoom invite, too. Wednesday Dec. 27 is the last day to order to get your yarn on time for the January 9 Zoom. Jump into the pool with us!
AND! I’ve opened a thread in my Ravelry group so we can discuss both of these projects and the KAL. Here’s the link. Hope to knit with you in January!
Those two Starfall cowl samples that I knit recently? I’m having a knitalong with Keith Leonard’s beautiful Yarn Snob yarns!
Starfall in Wine Mom colorwayStarfall in Keith’s Irresistible Iris colorwayNew colors, and the colors I used
We’re kicking off the knitalong on January 9 via Zoom. I’ll be there to demonstrate some techniques and give you pointers on how much more you can do with Starfall and this fabulous yarn!
The Starfall pattern is available through Ravelry, link here. It is also available through Payhip, link here.
Check out Keith’s colors here; choose a color that works for assigned pooling in 100g fingering weight. There are a lot of pooling colors to choose from. Your yarn purchase will get you on the Zoom invite list. Order your yarn now so you can knit with us in January!
Pooling is a Cinch in Times Square colorway
Keith’s colors are amazing. He also dyed the yarn for my first pooling pattern, Pooling is a Cinch. I love this colorway; I used it again for my Firefly Trails cowl. It would make a great Starfall, too. Tempting? Of course! Come knit with us!
UPDATE: We’re adding Pooling is a Cinch to our KAL; if you order this yarn (it’s worsted weight, so an even quicker knit) from Keith, you’ll get the Zoom invite, too. Wednesday Dec. 27 is the last day to order to get your yarn on time for the January 9 Zoom. Jump into the pool with us!
AND! I’ve opened a thread in my Ravelry group so we can discuss both of these projects and the KAL. Here’s the link. Hope to knit with you in January!
Well, I didn’t get my swatching done for the When Harry Met Lucy KAL, but I have a good excuse. I went on vacation and couldn’t fit bulky yarn into my luggage!
Knitting on the go with qiviut and POG mimosa
But one ounce of laceweight qiviut, 200 yards, doesn’t take up much space at all. And yes, that’s a tiny yarn scale because I didn’t want to have a yarn chicken issue when coming to the end. I wanted to use as much of the yarn as possible.
No yarn chicken here!
I ended up with just over half a gram left, which was less than one round’s worth of yarn. Perfect.
Souvenir qiviut cowl
I gave it a light steam blocking. The top edge doesn’t wave as much as the bottom; that’s the nature of this stitch pattern (Old Shale). It doesn’t matter; the whole thing will collapse around my neck. I began and ended with a garter stitch edge to give it some heft, and to avoid curling.
Old Shale stitch pattern detail
I’m glad I chose this stitch pattern; it has just enough going on to make it interesting, but I was never fighting with not being able to see the stitches with this dark and fuzzy yarn.
Qiviut cowl
I’m really happy with how this souvenir qiviut cowl turned out. I didn’t have much use for this cowl on vacation in Hawaii, but I put it on right after we landed back in Portland. I was so glad that I had it with me in my carry-on bag! 36 degrees F which was quite a shock to the system. This cowl is so lightweight, soft, and warm. I love it.
Is it worth writing up a pattern, or should it just be one and done? It’s great for any precious souvenir yarn. This particular yarn began in Alaska and ended in Hawaii, the 49th and 50th states. It’s been a good knitting year.
I did bring some fingering weight yarn with me for a design project, too. It didn’t take up too much room!
It’s a lovely sweater, but I like it better on me than on him. I think it’s because this yarn (Berroco Vintage) is soft and drapey, and the sweaters that I like on him have more body to them.
I want to knit another sweater for him, and when I saw Paul Haesemeyer’s sweater in Knitty, I was smitten. Bonus: He’s having a KAL and it’s opening weekend right now!
When Harry Met Lucy KAL
The sweater is knit in bulky weight yarn, which should be relatively quick. The sample was knit in an alpaca blend, but I ordered Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Bulky in Mineral Heather, which should have more body, and be less warm.
why yes there’s a cat hair on it already…
I think I’ll make it with a relaxed fit, but not as oversized as Paul’s. DH is not a large person, and I don’t want him to look like the sweater is wearing him! I could knit it in the round up to the armholes instead of in pieces. Does it need the structure of the side seams? My favorite sweater that I knit for him was knit in the round to the armholes. I altered the drop shoulder construction to cut in at the armhole, and picked up the stitches at the shoulder and worked downward, instead of knitting the sleeve and then sewing it in. Hmmm.
On the other hand, knitting it flat would make it easier to swatch for gauge, and I could avoid the “keep knitting and figure it out” debacle that I just did gauge-wise on my recent Starfall sample. (Knitting in the round takes longer to figure out that your first instinct was a bad choice…) I don’t have to decide about the sleeves until later. And I could knit it with or without cables on the sleeves…
Anyway, I’m dreaming of how I want to modify it, and I haven’t even swatched yet. Stay tuned.
Remember these two beauties? I last posted about them, wondering which color I’d use to knit a Starfall sample. I have now knit three cowls with these two skeins. (You’ll see why/how in a bit.)
Wine Mom, first swatch
At first glance, I didn’t think there was enough going on with Wine Mom. And the color run was longer than in my previous Starfall cowl, so there was a lot of color on each side of the star. This swatch was knit on a US5.
Keith’s Irresistible Orchid
This colorway called my name. I was knitting on a US4.
Starfall Cowl, unblocked
I knit this over the Thanksgiving holiday, but I wasn’t really happy with it. The stars are pretty small, and the fabric is a bit firmer than I like. There’s a lot of color at the sides of the stars, too. I wondered if it would be better on a US5, even though I thought that looked a little puny with this yarn. What if I made 6 stitch stars instead of 5 stitch stars? Would there be enough yarn to finish the cowl? I didn’t want to frog the whole thing and reknit it, if it could mean losing at yarn chicken.
Of course that meant that I should knit an entire cowl with Wine Mom, just to make sure the yardage would work out. Behold, 6 stitch stars on a US5 needle.
Starfall cowl in Wine Mom
I love it. Which meant I had to frog and re-knit the first cowl. And that’s how I’ve knit three cowls with these two skeins of yarn. I re-knit the Irresistible Orchid cowl in 3 days. Don’t try this at home; my arms are definitely feeling some tendinitis. Oops. But I did binge watch the current season of Virgin River on Netflix, so that was fun.
Bisquee is ready to help with blockingStarfall encore
The stars are bigger and there’s less color leakage at the sides of the stars. And the fabric feels right, too. Winner! I also added one more 4 row repeat of the old shale lace at the bottom edge, because there was enough yarn left to do that. I would have added that to the end of the Wine Mom version too, if I had thought of it. It all depends on how much yarn you have left.
Blocked photos coming soon. And I’ll figure out if kits are happening with Keith, the dyer of these gorgeous yarns.
Oh! While I was knitting, I realized it would be easier for me (and you, the knitter), if I gave row numbers throughout the triangular increase section, instead of just telling you to repeats rows 2 and 3, 39 times. So I edited the pattern. If you purchased it through Ravelry, the updated pattern is available to you. I’ll get the Payhip version updated today, too.
Now I need to finish my qiviut cowl, and think about a sweater I want to knit for DH, and design something with some fun new yarn from Knitted Wit. Never a dull moment, right?
Current name: Whale Pod Migration. See the line of whale tails heading north? Somehow the name doesn’t reflect the bold yet graceful design of this piece. What would YOU call it? If I choose your suggestion, I’ll send you a copy of the pattern when it’s published.
I’m also looking for test knitters for this brioche cowl. It’s 2 skeins of DK weight yarn in contrasting colors. I used Anzula Lucero for mine. Knitting would finish at the end of December (I know, holidays!), but it would also make a nifty gift to knit, if you’re so inclined. Pattern has been tech edited. Let me know if you want to knit!
The cowl is the same construction as my Aspen Leaf Brioche Cowl, up from the wide end to the narrow end, knit flat and seamed at the neck. It’s a little simpler to knit; there’s less syncopation (just between the edges and the body). It looks like a triangle scarf, but it won’t fall off your shoulders.
Aspen Leaf Brioche Cowl
Speaking of Aspen Leaf, there are just a few more days for the introductory coupon code LEAFLET for 15% off the pattern on Ravelry or Payhip. Use by December 7!
Are you gift knitting? I’m not; I usually just shop my stash of samples. But I’m knitting madly away on some projects; there’s no shortage of knitting here!
I’m planning to make a sample of my Starfall cowl with Keith Leonard’s fingering weight Yarn Snob yarn. I love his yarns for assigned pooling. We’re planning to do kits.
The fronts, Wine Mom and Irresistible Bearded IrisThe backs, Wine Mom and Irresistible Bearded Iris
He sent two skeins, so I could choose. That’s a difficult choice when they’re both utterly gorgeous. Which one sings to you?
Starfall assigned pooling cowl
We started talking about kits when I told him how quickly I sold the extra yarn from my assigned pooling class.
A Wondrous Worsted in Times Square colorway
He’s waiting for a shipment of worsted to dye, so this kit is on hold for now. Soon!
I wore my Star Flower Shawl for the first time yesterday. It went perfectly with my new dress. So happy! This shawl was in the works from spring until fall; it took a long time to work out all the details.
I always say that as a designer, I make the mistakes so you don’t have to. They’re not really mistakes, though. They’re choices, depending on what I think looks good, and what I think is easily explainable and repeatable.
Dream in Color Smooshy, Tip Top Tangerine and Sonoran Magic
I chose these colors for an assigned pooling shawl. I planned to base it on my Aloha Shawl, with a contrast color floral triangle that moved into alternating sections of pooling and an accent stripe in contrast color. I thought this would be a simple design process. Nope.
The yarns have a nice tonal contrast with each other. But the colors in the applied pooling skein didn’t have a lot of tonal contrast with each other.
My first attempt told me that the pink flowers were lost on a stockinette stitch background. I could also see that my floral stripe was too bold, and stole the show from the assigned pooling.
where are my flowers?
I noticed on the back side of the fabric, the star/flower popped better against the reverse stockinette stitches, but I wouldn’t want something as dense as reverse stockinette on the right side of the shawl. Garter stitch was my next best choice. Also, I wouldn’t want the beginning and end of the wrap to be so prominent, so we’d have to begin and end the wraps on the wrong side of the fabric. Okay! I also made the flower bands smaller.
I knit nearly the entire shawl before realizing that I’d never like the smaller floral bands after blocking; they wouldn’t be round enough. They looked like columns with headers and footers, and would not be improved by blocking.
(No picture because it was late at night when I had this epiphany, and I wanted to frog it immediately.)
So I frogged back to the first floral stripe, and opted for this one instead. It’s an old favorite that I’ve used on several previous designs (Sophie’s Rose, Aloha Shawl, Nymphaea, Embellishment Cowl). I wasn’t planning to have so many features in common with Aloha, but it was the best choice.
I wasn’t sure I’d like this shawl until after blocking, but I forged on, and fell in love with the finished piece. So pretty!
I wanted to knit one more with a more contrasty applied pooling yarn, and also to double check my stitch counts for the lacy edging. It was then that I discovered that I didn’t like the star flowers to have garter ridges on the front of the fabric when there was this much tonal contrast (ridges depend on if you start the star flower on the right side or wrong side, wherever the pooling color begins).
So I changed my draft pattern to have the garter ridges fall to the wrong side of the fabric. Much better. I was knitting this version on a camping trip to see the Perseid meteor showers, and suddenly this piece became the night sky. Stars, trailing meteor streaks, the contrast bands as the Milky Way. Which made me want to rip the whole thing out again so I could have the extra color pop all to one side of each star flower like a shooting star, instead of centering the flower in the color pop with color running out to each side. But NO, it really wasn’t worth knitting the whole thing over again. You can do it that way, if you want to.
So my Star Flower Shawl could also be Meteor Shower/Perseids. Knitters’ choice!
Every time I picked up my knitting, the cast on edge bugged me. It was a little too tight, and it was curling badly. I didn’t know if it was going to block out, and that made me hesitant to continue.
So I ripped it out. And while I was ripping it out, I started thinking…of course I did. I liked the fabric I was getting with the US 6 needles. I knew about how many stitches I needed for a cowl. And wouldn’t it be nice if it had fewer patterning rounds, and more plain knit since it’s so hard to see the dark stitches?
Do-over!
I cast on loosely, and then knit two garter ridges (4 rounds) before beginning the Old Shale lace patterning. I wanted a substantial edge that wouldn’t curl. I also wanted to put the first lace patterning row further away from the edge, hoping that would also help prevent the curl.
The Bubble Net pattern had patterning on Rounds 1 and 3, and plain knitting on rounds 2 and 4. I’m working Old Shale (with no garter ridges), which has easily memorized patterning on Round 1, then 3 plain rounds. Less paying attention, perfect. I’m very happy with the new start.
I guess I’m designing my own cowl after all.
I’m knitting on Knit Picks Rainbow Options (birch) interchangeable needles. I picked these up at their Knit in Public Day in June. They have just enough grip with this skinny yarn.
Oh, I want to give a shout out to this ebook, Old Shale Variations edited by Mary Spanos from the Greater Birmingham Fiber Guild. It’s a free download on Ravelry, and chronicles the guild’s group project of varying ways to knit Old Shale lace: wider, narrower, garter, stockinette, etc. Very fun to see how you can change the appearance.
I chose to use stockinette (no purling, in the round), and a short number of rounds. Fewer rounds means more complete repeats before heading into an ending garter stitch edge and bind off. (Example: If you only have enough yarn for 10 rounds, you can knit two 4 round repeats, or *zero* 12 round repeats which would waste a lot of this precious yarn. Shorter is better.)
Do you listen to that little voice that tells you to DO OVER? Sometimes I wait a lot longer, and the ripping is brutal! Glad I listened early.
I just finished a design project (picture soon). I’m a monogamous knitter, so that meant I had nothing on the needles. Quelle horreur! I poked around my limited stash, and found the qiviut I bought at Changing Tides in Juneau while on the Vogue Knitting Alaska Cruise in September.
This is one ounce of qiviut/qiveut (musk ox yarn), 200 yards. I guess that means it’s laceweight, not fingering! I don’t usually enjoy knitting with laceweight, but this is so fluffy, it doesn’t feel skinny.
Especially when knitting on US 6 needles! I poked around on Ravelry to see what other people made with a single skein of this yarn. The Bubble Net cowl is a popular choice. I bought the pattern and cast on. Yes, I could have chosen any simple lace pattern and figured something out, but this will be a one and done project. It’s not a design project and I wanted someone else to do the gauge/cast on math/needle sizing for me. Perfect!
The lace is a four row repeat, and two of those rows are just knitting rest rows. But the other two require chanting in my head, especially because the yarn is dark and it’s hard to read my knitting.
Knit Picks Chroma Twist in Sandpiper
So I also cast on a second project. Quite a novelty to have more than one project! This is one block out of 9 planned blanket blocks. I have the yarn for this project because I designed the Impressionist Kaleidoscope Blanket for Knit Picks in 2021. They sent me enough yarn for the design, but I only knit one of the blocks while designing it, the one pictured above. The rest of the blocks are all knit the same, so I didn’t knit them!
Knit Picks Chroma Twist in Lupine
Knit Picks chose their own color for the sample knit. It’s all garter stitch, from the mitered squares in the center to the log cabin borders. The pattern is easy to remember, but the constant change from mitered square to mitered square, and then to the log cabin border keeps the knitting interesting. It’s not just one big garter stitch blob.
Chroma Twist yarn changes color on its own, giving each blanket square its own dynamic personality. And the pattern is free! It was part of Knit Picks’ Twelve Weeks of Gifting in 2021. I’ll knit on this when it’s too dark to see my qiviut stitches, or if I need to zone out while dreaming of what I’m designing next…
Find my patterns on Ravelry: Michele Bernstein Designs
Here are some of my favorites, and the newest. Many of my designs are also available through my Payhip store.
PDXKnitterati 