Izar
Quirky. Bold. Playful. Graphic.
Izar is eight knots and a starburst drawn with lace.
A modern, asymmetrical, take on classic celtic knots, Izar will lead you on a journey of twists and turns leaving you with a stunning shawl in the end.
The details:
Yarn:
MC: 840 yards (770 meters), fingering weight
CC: 420 yards (385 meters), fingering weight
I used The Verdant Gryphon’s Eidos in “Fenris” & “Blinding Polyphemus”
Needles: US 5s (3.75mm) 40″ circular
Notions: 8 stitch markers; 1 yarn needle
Gauge: 18 sts/ 38 rows to 4 in (10cm) in washed and blocked stockinette stitch
Dimensions: 38 in (96.5cm) diameter
Buy the pattern now. Here on Ravelry. Or here at the Verdant Gryphon.
………
something infinitely charming
Grabbed a picture of a swatch drying on the windowsill. As Gryphon put it “there’s something infinitely charming about this photo.”
The never ending bind off is finished. I used Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off, slow but surprisingly stretchy, and took breaks, lots of them.
I started the purple & grey shawl late last week and have been obsessed.
I’m working on the patterns for this collection of shawls.
I helped a friend move this week, and ended up with this vintage TV in the process.
In case you missed it I released Wafian last week.
my favorite bind off trick. part 2
My favorite trick for creating a bind off that won’t snap or break, involves increasing right before you bind off. I explained about the basic trick here yesterday.
In essence you’re creating a very subtle ruffle that will disappear once you block your shawl.
The ratio of stitches to increases (how often you increase) determines how pronounced the ruffle is.
Put another way, the more often you increase the more pronounce the ruffle is, the less often you increase more subtle the ruffle is.
Yesterday the directions I laid out had 1 increase for every 3 stitches, so your stitch count would increase by one third your original stitch count.
Evenly increasing one third of your original stitches works for really well for shawls with curved edges (circles, crescents, half circles, etc.)
However for squares, triangles, and other shawls with straight edges I find that increasing by a third gives you too much of a ruffle. So for shawls with straight edges, I like to increase the stitch count by one fifth. I [yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, yo, k1] around or across.
FOR A SQUARE SHAWL
1. Finish your patterning.
2. Knit 1 round plain.
3. Increase round: [yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, yo, k1] around.
4. Knit 1 round plain.
5. Bind off.
Of course if you don’t mind a little bit of ruffling you could absolutely increase your stitch count by a third on your square shawls. Or if you find that increasing by a third on your circular shawls is too much ruffle, only increase your stitch count by a fifth.
It’s your knitting, do what works for you.
