Shawls/wraps | Italian Dish Knits

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Capella Shawl

November 30, 2016

capella-shawl-hanging-back

(For all of you who are on Instagram, I just wanted to let you know that I started an Instagram feed of my knitting projects. If that’s something that you would like to follow, you can find the link here.)

I just finished a big knitting project. If you like lace knitting, this Capella Shawl from German knitwear designer Isabell Kraemer is a real winner. I thoroughly enjoyed knitting this. It’s a beautiful lace pattern but the garter stitch banding is the finishing touch that I really think makes it different.

capella-shawl-front

I used Quince Chickadee yarn for this shawl, although the pattern calls for fingering weight. This pattern is from Quince and if you have never checked out their website, hop on over there! They have wonderful patterns and super soft, squishy yarn that’s sourced and made right here in the U.S. I love the fact that they are producing these yarns in Maine. You can read about their story here.

capella-shawl-quince-yarn

capella-shawl-hanging-wrapped

I am a big believer in Addi Lace Circular needles. I use them for all my knitting, flat or circular, lace or not and have replaced all my old needles with these. If you enjoy lace knitting and have never used these, you will be amazed! The tips are so pointed and sharp, you can easily knit intricate stitches, pick up stitches and especially knit twist stitches. This pattern has a S2KP: “slip 2 stitches tog knitwise to the RH needle, K1, pass 2 slipped stitches over knit stitch” and that is so much easier when using lace needles.

capella-shawl-with-needles

I did an Icelandic bind off because of the garter stitch edge. I thought a regular bindoff would not be stretchy enough, but Jenny’s Super Stretchy Bindoff would be impossible to do for this length of garment. The Icelandic bind off worked great and I will be posting a video on how to do this bindoff soon.

capella-shawl-closeup

I followed the chart on this pattern and except for one lone row of Purl only, you really have to pay attention to your knitting. That’s the reason this project took me so long – it was hard to watch TV and knit this at the same time! Was such an enjoyable knit, though. I hope you get out your needles and try it. And check out Isabell’s patterns – she is a fantastic knitwear designer.

capella-folded

Pattern: Capella Shawl
Yarn: Quince Chickadee in Kittywake
Needles: Addi Lace Turbo #6 40″ circulars
Ravelry Page

Posted in finished objects, knitting, Shawls/wraps | 3 Comments »

Capella Shawl WIP Sneak Peak

September 13, 2016

capella-shawl-closeup

capella-shawl-detail

Currently enjoying knitting this wonderful pattern and will post final photos when it’s finished!

Posted in Shawls/wraps | 6 Comments »

Sideways Garter Stitch Vest

March 28, 2015

this vest is vertically reversible!

If you do not subscribe to Purl Soho’s e-mail newsletter, you really should. This great little shop in New York’s Soho neighborhood puts out an awesome mailing that includes free patterns. That is where I saw this pattern for a vest that is done entirely in garter stitch. It caught my eye right away, so I looked it up on Ravelry to see how many people were knitting it and what their creative spins on it might be. One great feature of this vest is that you can turn it upside down and wear it the other way, with the contrasting color on top. Each way gives you a different size collar.

This was such an easy project to knit – it’s just one big rectangle of garter stitch -but it does require doing afterthought armholes, which I kind of love doing. I’ve done a lot of afterthought thumbs for mittens and afterthought heels for socks, so I know the technique well.

You just knit a length of contrasting waste yarn across the required number of stitches, slip these stitches back to the left needle and knit in your regular yarn. This leaves you with this contrasting yarn embedded into your piece:

To make the armholes, you slip your stitches just under your waste yarn, picking up one leg from each stitch underneath:

Here are the stitches on the needles after they are all picked up, both below and above the waste yarn:

Now you can get rid of the waste yarn by just picking it out and cutting it as you go to remove it:

Now it’s a matter of just binding off those stitches you just picked up:

After they are all bound off, behold – an armhole:

It’s really pretty easy. A lot of people on Ravelry decided not to do Afterthought Armholes and, instead, just bound off the stitches as they knitted the garment but as I understand it, this method does not make as nice an armhole. I guess the tension can vary too much.

I really love this vest. It turned out with a very nice drape – I used a Made in Michigan yarn called Shepherd’s wool that I really love.

Pattern: Sideways Garter Vest
Needles: US # 8 Addi Lace 40″ circulars
Yarn: Shepherd’s Wool in Pewter and Black
Ravelry Page

Posted in Shawls/wraps, sweaters, techniques | 3 Comments »

Jared Flood’s Autumn Leaves

September 5, 2012

Wow – it’s been a while since I’ve posted around here but hey – something called “Summer” happened. There was a lot of yard work to do and feeding my summer addiction. But I was knitting. I’ve been working on two big, long projects and finally got one of them finished – the Autumn Leaves Stole by Jared Flood.

This stole is knit in two halves and then grafted together, using kitchener stitch. I had the first half finished the first part of the year and then, after it went on a stitch holder, I got distracted and picked up some other things to knit. But discipline set in and I determined to finish the second half. The second half just flew off the needles. Such fun to knit!

Jared’s pattern is, as usual, so well written and the chart is easy to read. The pattern is very easy and once you get the hang of the stitch symbols, a very fast knit. This stole can be worn as a scarf, also. I’ve used Madelinetosh Vintage, which is a yummy yarn, so warm and soft.