Tag Archives: shawl shapes

Weekend in Buffalo NY

Posted on May 23, 2023 | 4 comments

I had the great pleasure of teaching for the Knitting Guild of Greater Buffalo this weekend. We had a day of brioche, and then we explored elongated novelty stitches (some of which are also great for assigned pooling) and designing with favorite shawl shapes. So much fun!

I usually choose my airplane seat by whether there might be a view of Mt. Hood. It only matters during daylight, and it was a very pretty morning. (No view? Aisle seat please.)

Maureen was the perfect hostess/tour guide/organizing whiz. I met her (and Sharon, the other half of the organizing duo) at Madrona years ago. She took my entrelac and Syncopation classes and knew we’d have a good seminar weekend! My one non-knitting wish was to see Niagara Falls. We went over to the Canadian side for a better view.

Niagara Falls, American and Canadian, on the Niagara River

The water is a pretty green from dissolved minerals.

American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls (the smaller one to the right)

Looking across the ring of Horseshoe Falls

I think the Canadian falls are prettier than the American falls, but I’m not trying to create an international incident!

I didn’t think to take class pix until the last class, which was on shawl shapes. It’s a pretty relaxed class, and you have a bunch of mini-shawls when you’re done. Vince says he’s going to string his on a cord and hang them like a garland on his mantel. After blocking and weaving in ends, of course! Blocking is magic for shawls.

When in Buffalo, one must have Buffalo wings!

Thank you to the Greater Buffalo Knitting Guild for having me! I love teaching for guilds. If you want me to come teach for yours, let me know…

Now I’m home trapped under these cats!

4 Comments

Posted in classes, travel

Tagged Buffalo NY, classes, Niagara Falls, shawl shapes

Knitting for the near future

Posted on September 20, 2018 | 5 comments

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?

5 Comments

Posted in classes, events, Knit, pattern design, Portland area fun

Tagged Lucky Star shawl, OFFF 2018, Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival, shawl shapes

Shawl shapes, Bellatrix, Lacey

Posted on July 27, 2016 | 2 comments

I’m playing along with the 5 Shawls, 5 Days challenge. Each day, we knit a mini shawl to explore the different shapings. It’s not too late to join, I think.

Of course, I can’t just follow directions. I have to play with them; I’m a designer!

The first day’s shape is the top down triangle shawl. I’ve knit this shape before, and if my yardage is limited, I like to knit the winged triangle (longer ends via additional increases on the WS rows). This way the shawl grows wider faster than the traditional triangle shawl, and is shallower. Great for not pointing directly at your butt, and it also gives you enough width to get a nice wrap around your neck or shoulders before running out of your single skein of precious luxury yarn.

The second day’s shape is the 3/4 shawl. It’s three triangles instead of the usual two on a traditional triangle shawl. I don’t love this shape, so I didn’t knit it. But many years ago I did a frankenstein version of this shape, with the extended ends of the winged triangle on the outer two triangles.

It was a big fail (my fault, completely). Here’s a picture so you can laugh, and here’s a link to the blog post I did at the time, Big Cup o’Fail. Don’t worry; it got better. I frogged the whole thing and ended up designing the Zen Rain Shawlette.

This would be a winged triangle, but with a center panel to automatically add some width and avoid a pointed center. See how much you can play with shawl shapes?

The third day’s shawl shape is a crescent. I have designed several crescent shaped shawls, but they’ve all been from the bottom up.

I like it! It’s a lot simpler than short rowing from the bottom up. I’m using this particular swatch to play around with striping, and I want to play with an edging, too, so it’s still on the needles.

Two more shapes coming. I’ll keep you posted.

(fuzzy low light picture of her sticking her tongue out. sassy!)

In other news: The cat formerly known as Trix has a name! In the end, she wasn’t a Biscuit, either. DH said, “Maybe her name is Trix.” That was her shelter name, but I thought it was too short. She’s pretty tricksy, though. So her name is now Bellatrix. It means female warrior. It’s also the left shoulder star in the constellation Orion, one of the two constellations I can identify in the night sky. I’m calling her Bellatrix or Trix most of the time, and it seems to fit. “Trix” also sounds like the litte squeak she makes when she tries to meow. She doesn’t have a voice! She may have lost it when she was sick; I’ve never heard her meow.

Also, this is Lacey! Thank you for all your suggestions, for both the mannequin and the cat. Random.org says that commenter number 3 is the winner, so Chris Pugsley will be getting a copy of Aura. But Paula Johnson actually suggested Lacey, so I’m offering her a choice of one of my PDXKnitterati patterns via Ravelry download. Bonus prize!

Keep knitting, and here’s a picture from yesterday. Ahhhhhh.