Tag Archives: Lucky Star shawl

Fall Shawl Retreat, done!

Just back from a very pretty weekend in the Columbia River Gorge. It was my second Fall Shawl Retreat at Quinn Mountain with Laurinda Reddig of ReCrochetions. We had a great group of knitters and crocheters working on their Lucky Star and Star Bright shawls.

I made a small sample to use for our blocking demonstration; we had blocking wires from Fiber Dreams. I should have brought an extra blocking mat; my sample was wider than I anticipated!

Knit Picks donated our needles and hooks. I really like the finish on the nickel plated needles, and they’re just pointy enough. The joins between the cable and needle are very smooth. The wooden interchangeable needles are nice, too.

They also donated this wonderful swift for winding our yarns; that made things go a lot quicker!

Twisted donated rainbow stitch markers, rainbow unicorn scissors, and needle gauges. Good tools make knitting and crocheting so much more fun! Thanks so much to all our sponsors.

I stayed overnight in Camas, which is a very cute little town.

Last year this statue modeled the beginning of my Nymphaea Shawl. This year she’s wearing Shall We Dance, my planned pooling cowl.

I brought my newly re-finished Parquetry Cowl, too. I changed my bind off, because why not learn a new thing? I’ll post about the Russian Bind Off in a separate post, after I make a video tutorial.

Here are a few more views at Quinn Mountain:

And the view from Cape Horn up the Columbia River Gorge towards Beacon Rock was so stunning I had to stop and take a better look!

How was *your* weekend?

Time jump! Fall knitting and events

Well, the rest of August went by in a flash! It’s time to catch up and think about fall.

I have a new shawl coming out soon; it’s syncopated brioche and I’m in LUV. So squishy. It’s being test knit now, and I plan to have it out before Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival later this month. If you’d like to know when it’s out, and get a discount on this and other new releases, sign up for my newsletter here!

I just celebrated my birthday; my friend Carole made me this beautiful (and delicious) cake for a gathering with friends. And I had a great dinner out with the family, too. September is my celebration month: birthday, anniversary, back to school, back to knitting (not that I ever stopped). But the festivals and retreats start up again!

I’m so excited about teaching at Vogue Knitting Live in Columbus, November 1-3! As part of the preparation for that, I’m doing an Instagram takeover of the VKLive account on Tuesday, September 10. Follow me on Instagram, pdxknitterati, and VK Live, vogueknitlive to be in the loop. I’ll be doing a giveaway on my Instagram page for a Buckeye Daytripper Package, so follow me and comment to win!

The last day of VKLive Early Bird registration is Tuesday September 10; prices go up at midnight EDT. Registration info is here.

Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival is September 28-29 (some classes are on Friday the 27th, too). Today (September 8) is the last day of online registration. My Brioche Pastiche class is full, but there’s still room in my Slip Stitch/mosaic class if you’d like to come knit with me. You can register on-site for classes that still have space, but registering early is better, as classes can be canceled if there aren’t enough people signed up for them. It pays to plan ahead!

My Seeing Stars Fall Shawl Retreat is October 11-13. It’s a very small retreat, so if you want to come, please sign up soon! We sold out last year. I have room for 7 knitters max. We’re knitting Lucky Star with very beautiful yarn from Mosaic Moon.

Oh! I’m speaking at the Tigard Knitting Guild meeting on Thursday, September 19. Social knitting is at 6, and I go on at 7 pm. Come hear about my design process! It’s evolving, just like me. Not a member? You can visit for two meetings before deciding if you’d like to join.

Back to my knitting…happy fall!

Planning for fall knitting classes

It’s the dog days of summer, but I’m busily planning for fall. (This is my friend Sissy at Lost Lake, Mt. Hood National Forest, last week.)

Dog at Lost Lake, Mt. Hood

First off, I’ll be teaching at Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival in September. This local festival is just the right size, with lots of things to do. I’m teaching my Brioche Pastiche Hat, and Slip Stitch Knitting on Saturday, September 28.

And right after that, I’m doing another fall shawl retreat with crochet designer Laurinda Reddig, October 11-13 at Quinn Mountain in the Columbia River Gorge. I’m teaching my Lucky Star Shawl, with ways to embiggen those stars. Laurinda was inspired by it to design her new Star Bright Shawl, which just took 3rd place for accessories at the Crochet Guild of America last week. Knit or crochet, you’ll be seeing (and making) stars! Registration is open now.

In November, I’m teaching in Columbus, OH at Vogue Knitting Live. I’m thrilled to have this opportunity! I’ll tell you all about it in a separate blog post in just a bit.

But summer isn’t over yet, so I’ll also be showing you my linen project…soon!

Second chance knitting

One of the things that I love about knitting is that you can always tweak it if it’s not exactly the way you want it.

When I first knit my carbon/pollen version of my Lucky Star shawl, I knit 9 repeats of the edging, and decided it was too much. I didn’t want the bright edging to overwhelm the shawl. I ripped it back to five repeats, and deemed it perfect.

And it was. Fresh off the blocking wires, it was just the way I wanted it.

But this very bouncy, round Knitted Wit Victory Sock yarn relaxed a bit, making the edging a little shorter than I anticipated.

So I tinked the dark carbon bind off, and added two more repeats of the lace edging for a total of 7 repeats.

Each row is about 450 stitches, so I’m adding 3600 stitches. Piece o’ cake.

Binding off…again!

Now I just have a few extra ends to sew in. *After* I re-block. I could sew before blocking, but I never clip the ends until after, anyway. I don’t want the ends to pop through when I block my shawls. Since I don’t want to handle the ends twice, I just wait and take care of it all after blocking.

Do you sew your ends before or after blocking? And have you ever tinked a bind off to lengthen or shorten a piece of knitting? (Are you as fussy as I am?)

Evolution of a shawl: Lucky Star design story

I’m really happy with my Lucky Star shawl, and it seems like you’re happy with it, too! I’m looking forward to seeing Lucky Star shawls out in the wild. It’s a fun knit. And this one goes perfectly with one of my favorite skirts.

Just a reminder: the Lucky Star pattern is on sale for 10% off through October 31, no coupon needed.

Here’s how Lucky Star came to be:

Sometimes, designing is like falling off a log. You get an idea, you get some yarn, you start knitting, and BOOM! The project is perfect. Write it up!

Other times, it plays a coy game. Lucky Star took a while to decide what it wanted to be.

I had this main yarn skein for a while; I couldn’t resist the pops of color on it. It’s Knitted Wit’s Victory Sock in Box of Macarons. So sweet! I was going to pair it with a Sixlet pack of Gumballs (Victory Fingering) in Lover’s Rainbow, but it became clear that the colors were too different. I couldn’t tell in the mini skeins, but as soon as I put the tomato red with the Macarons, I knew it wouldn’t fly.

A quick trip to Lorajean’s studio set me back on track. The colors in Box of Macarons came in minis, too, and in the same yarn base (Smarties), so this was a perfect match: Madge, Orange You Glad, Genteel, Key Lime, Aquamarine, Tanzanite.

I was planning to use a flower stitch between sections of the color rainbow. I thought I wanted a lace stitch for the color sections, but this fabulously bouncy round yarn said no to my first lace pattern, too burly looking. And the flowers looked too wobbly.

Two row garter on stockinette stripes, with a simpler starry variation of the flower stitch? I liked my newly minted star stitch (and figuring out how to make it work), but the stripes were way too busy. Sometimes high contrast is not your friend.

I tried a more open lace pattern between the star stitches, but it was harder to track. I don’t want your knitting to be difficult; I want it to be zen! And it was still too burly.

Garter stitch to the rescue! Sometimes it pays not to try so hard.

I always knew there’d be a sweep of scallopy Old Shale lace after the minis were done. I wanted to accent the edge with some color, too. I didn’t like how contrasty this red one was, though.

I re-knit the edging. I think this blue is just right. The scallop is a little softer because I didn’t re-block after replacing the edge.

I love the way this turned out. Eventually. I hope you do, too. I do all the fussing, so you don’t have to.

And then! Test knitter Ann knit up this beauty with a much bigger mini skein gradient pack. I wanted a bigger one, too.

This is Knitted Wit Victory Sock in Pollen, with two Smarties Sixlet gradient sets in Carbon. Swoon! I had a lot of Pollen left, but I wanted to feature the gradient and not let the Pollen overwhelm it. It’s perfect!

Introducing: Lucky Star

It’s been a super productive fall, and it’s not over yet! Here’s the latest off my needles.

Lucky Star is a crescent hug of garter stitch stripes, interspersed with an intriguing star stitch. The shawl is knit from the top down, then finished with Old Shale lace for a scalloped edge. Designed to use mini skeins in coordinating colors, you can knit a rainbow, or a subtle gradient shift. You can use fewer, larger mini skeins, if that’s what you have. You could even use a continuous gradient cake. The garter stitch makes this a most meditative knit…or a multi-tasker’s dream.

This gradient version is knit with 2 Knitted Wit Sixlet gradient packs in Carbon, and a skein of Victory Sock in Pollen. Thank you to Knitted Wit for the beautiful yarn!

This rainbow version is knit with a single rainbow Sixlet pack, and a skein of Victory Sock in Box of Macarons.

Test knitter Ann knit hers with a gradient set with more yardage. Lovely!

This design uses my new Better Garter Tab Cast On for Top Down Crescent Shawls.

The Lucky Star pattern is available through Ravelry, pattern page here. It’s 10% off through October 31, no coupon necessary. Newsletter subscribers get 20% off with coupon in newsletter. Sign up here, if you haven’t already!

Knitting for the near future

I’ve been knitting up a storm.

Here’s a sneak peek of my newest shawl, coming soon. It’s called Lucky Star. You may now have a Madonna song running through your head. You’re welcome.

You know that hump that happens at the center neck of top down crescent shawls? I didn’t want that on Lucky Star, so I’ve worked on minimizing it. I’m making a tutorial on how to do that. It’s coming soon, too. I’m debuting it in my Favorite Shawl Shapes class at Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival this Saturday morning.

I’ve been knitting little samples for class, too. We’re going to have fun talking about shape and design.

You can still register for this class on-site. You can knit these little shapes, too!

What are you knitting now?