Faerie Knitting Page 4
Love Never Ending Cowl
DIFFICULTY: Intermediate
MATERIALS
Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Worsted (225yd/205.5m, 4oz/113g) 100% Superwash Merino Wool, 3 skeins in color #609 Fiddlehead.
Or any worsted-weight yarn that meets gauge.
Size 8 (5.0mm) 16"/40cm circular needles or size to obtain gauge.
Stitch marker.
Darning needle.
SIZES
One size.
FINISHED MEASUREMENTS
6"/15cm width, 68"/172.5cm length before seaming.
GAUGE
20 sts x 26 rounds = 4"/10cm in Stockinette stitch, after blocking.
Take time to check your gauge.
Knitting Wisdom
The cowl is knit in rounds, creating a hollow tube with the Leafstalk Lace panel twisting around it. The cast-on and bound-off edges are joined to create a circular cowl.
If desired, a provisional cast on may be used, and the cowl can be joined using the Kitchener stitch.
Each odd-numbered round increases 1 stitch within the lace pattern. The following even-numbered round ends with a decrease. After working 2 rounds, the stitch count is unchanged. Because the cowl starts with a set-up round, which includes a decrease, the final even round omits its decrease.
STITCH GUIDE
Leafstalk Lace (over 20 sts)
Round 1: P3, k6, k3tog, yo, k1, yo, p3, ssk, yo, k1, yo.
Round 2 and all even rounds (WS): P3, k10, p3, k4.
Round 3: P3, k4, k3tog, k1, yo, k1, yo, k1, p3, ssk, yo, k1, yo.
Round 5: P3, k2, k3tog, k2, yo, k1, yo, k2, p3, ssk, yo, k1, yo.
Round 7: P3, k3tog, k3, yo, k1, yo, k3, p3, ssk, yo, k1, yo.
Round 9: P3, k10, p3, ssk, yo, k1, yo.
Round 10: P3, k10, p3, k4.
For more abbreviations, stitches, and techniques, see Glossary.
INSTRUCTIONS
Cast on 68 sts. Place marker and join to work in rounds, being careful not to twist sts. Knit to last 2 sts, k2tog.
Round 1: Work round 1 of Leafstalk Lace, knit to end.
Round 2 and all even rounds: Work round 2 of Leafstalk Lace, knit to last 2 sts, k2tog.
Round 3: Work round 3 of Leafstalk Lace, knit to end.
Continue as established until rounds 1–10 of Leafstalk Lace have been worked 39 times or to desired length, eliminating k2tog from final repeat of round 10. Bind off.
FINISHING
Turn work inside out to darn ends on WS where skeins were joined. Turn back to RS. Steam or block to desired measurements. Sew cast-on edge to bound-off edge, matching sts at Leafstalk Lace panel.
Leafstalk Lace Chart
Leafstalk Lace Chart Key
Chapter 6
Blue Heron
he was the youngest daughter and no one noticed her. She was not beautiful, but she was quiet and kind. She excelled at quiet things: cooking, fishing, walking through the marsh at dusk. She spent her evenings knitting, using two twigs she’d found in the woods as her needles, spinning the wool she was given from a neighbor’s sheep in exchange for chores. She helped her six sisters in all things and did as her father told her. But there was one thing about her no one who knew her would have guessed.
She had a secret.
From the time her mother died, when she was eight years old, she had journeyed into the marsh in the evenings.
She had run off crying after her mother’s funeral. No one had noticed her missing. They were visiting with the neighbors, eating a cold supper, but she was devastated. Without her mother, there was no one who loved her or knew her for the person she was. She ran until she was lost. To see where she was, she climbed high into a tree. But the night was too dark to spy the path she had taken, and she soon fell asleep. When she awoke she discovered that she was in the nest of a heron, surrounded by its fledglings. When the mother heron arrived home she felt compassion for the strange girl fledgling she discovered, perhaps because she was featherless and defenseless. She let the girl who was so full of sorrow sleep under her wing. Every night the girl came to the heron’s nest, and even when the chicks grew up and flew away, she slept there. She stayed until the weather turned chilly and the time came when all herons must leave for warmer climates.
The girl knitted a shawl of feathers from the ones her heron sisters and brothers had left behind. She wanted to make certain that her heron mother would not worry because her skin was bare. By now there was ice on the water, and her heron mother had no choice but to fly away. They both cried when they parted, for herons have hearts that allow them to love what is quiet and kind.
Every spring the girl waited for her heron mother’s return, wearing the shawl of feathers. She helped to raise the new fledglings. Each time a new group left, she stood on the edge of the huge nest woven of twigs and moss and wished she could fly away with them. In her human life, each of her six sisters was married by now, and her father was old, a hundred at least. Years passed and she was now a woman, one who carried the secret of the other life she led close to her heart.
One morning when she came home her father confronted her: Where had she been? Why were there feathers in her hair? Mud on her feet? A string of fish she’d caught, ready for cooking? Why was she always disappearing?
She could not explain, so he decided she was up to no good and it was time for her to be wed. He arranged a marriage for her with a man who ran the lumber mill that cut down trees in the marsh. She hated him before she met him, for she had the emotions of a heron, and herons love trees as much as they love flying through the air. The Mill Owner came to supper; he looked her up and down, felt her leg, then said he’d have her. She cried all that night in the nest in the marsh. Throughout the years her heron mother had learned bits of her language. She knew certain human words: love, sorrow, kindness, comfort, fish, feather, fan.
Before you marry, she told her human daughter, slip on the shawl.
The wedding was held in a hall in town made of stone and bricks. Her six sisters, who had always ignored her, were there with their husbands and children. The Mill Owner looked older and meaner in the bright daylight. The girl who had lived with herons wore a plain blue dress. She asked that all the windows be left open, for it was a warm day. She wanted sunlight, blue sky, escape. There was a wedding cake on the table. The girl had made it herself, knowing she would never taste a bite. Let the neighbors devour it; let them eat every crumb. When she and the Mill Owner stood before the reverend, the girl wrapped the shawl of feathers around her shoulders. She felt a freedom inside her, the taste of the salt in the marsh. Afterward, people said she rose up and left through the window; some even said she had become a bird, a beautiful blue bird as large as a woman. Her nieces and nephews swore they found feathers on the floor.
She went back to the marsh. She knew the way by heart. She found an inlet where no one without tall boots and a map would ever find her. A fisherman saw her take off her shawl and thought she was beautiful and kind and quiet. She lives with him in a cottage right next to the water, so they can catch fish from their front porch. There she found sunlight and blue sky and freedom. In the dusk of evening, she kisses her fisherman before she throws her shawl over her shoulders and goes to visit her heron mother. Her husband trusts her to come back by morning, and she always does. Some people say that if you walk through the marsh at midnight you may spy two blue herons, a mother and a daughter, mending their nest of twigs, and if you’re fortunate enough to find one of their feathers, you can weave it into your own shawl. Then, every night, you will dream the same dream the herons do.
Blue Heron Shawl
DIFFICULTY: Advanced
MATERIALS
Prism Radiant Petite Madison Layers (372yd/340m, 100g/3.5oz) 73% Merino, 7% Cashmere, 10% Silk, 10% Stellina SPK, 3 skeins in color Platinum.
Or any sport-weight yarn that meets gauge.
Size 5 (3.75mm) 24"/60cm and 32"/80cm circular needles or size to obtain gauge.
Darning needle.
SIZES
One size; change size by varying gauge and/or number of pattern repeats.
FINISHED MEASUREMENTS
80"/203cm width, 38"/96.5cm length of center spine from cast on to center point bind off, after blocking.
GAUGE
26 sts x 30 rows = 4"/10cm in Feather Lace stitch, after blocking.
27 sts x 30 rows = 4"/10cm in Stockinette stitch, after blocking.
Take time to check your gauge.
Knitting Wisdom
On right side, slip first stitch knitwise with yarn in back; on wrong side, slip first stitch purlwise with yarn in front.
After row 3, pattern increases 4 stitches every right side row.
After row 11, pattern reveals itself and new tiers (feathers) are created every 8 rows.
Change to 32"/80cm needle when needed.
It is impossible to use fixed stitch markers on this project, as the stitches are constantly shifting with increases and decreases every other row. Let the yarn overs be the guide for counting tiers. If needed, place a removable or locking stitch marker on the center stitch and move it up every few rows.
This pattern doesn’t lend itself to a chart because of the shifting stitches. Refer to the written directions.
The sample Blue Heron Shawl is 30 tiers in Feather Lace; the center point adds an additional 9 rows.
Whatever yarn weight you choose, work a gauge swatch before beginning the full project, because when working on a circular needle, unless you transfer stitches to a strand of yarn, you will not be able to lay the shawl flat to measure your work.
Work a swatch of 5 tiers (45 rows/95 stitches) and work the Feather Tip bind off. Measure the center spine for row gauge and along cast-on edge for stitch gauge. Each tier adds 8 rows and 16 stitches, so do the math from your swatch gauge to determine the desired size for your finished shawl.
Your stitch count, after completing a pattern row 8, will be as follows: 3 (edge stitches) + multiples of 8 (# of tiers along one side) + 9 (center stitches) + multiples of 8 (# of tiers along other side) + 3 (edge stitches) = your current stitch count. With 30 tiers complete, the sample ends with 3 + 240 + 9 + 240 + 3 = 495 stitches before binding off.
STITCH GUIDE
Feather Lace
Each 8-row repeat creates one tier. Sts in brackets will repeat as stitch count increases in pattern.
Row 1 (RS): S1 knitwise, k1, yo, p1, [k6, k2tog, yo], k4, yo, k1, yo, k4, [yo, ssk, k6], p1, yo, k2.
Row 2 and all WS rows: S1 purlwise, purl to end.
Row 3: S1, k1, yo, p1, [k6, k2tog, yo], k6, yo, k1, yo, k6, [yo, ssk, k6], p1, yo, k2.
Row 5: S1, k1, yo, p1, [k6, k2tog, yo], k7, yo, k3, yo, k7, [yo, ssk, k6], p1, yo, k2.
Row 7: S1, k1, yo, p1, [k6, k2tog, yo], k2, KYOK (see Glossary), k2, [yo, ssk, k6], p1, yo, k2.
Row 8: S1, purl to end.
For more abbreviations, stitches, and techniques, see Glossary.
INSTRUCTIONS
Cast on 5 sts.
Row 1 (RS): S1 knitwise, k1, yo, k1, yo, k2. 7 sts.
Row 2 and all WS rows: S1 purlwise, purl to end.
Row 3: S1, [k1, yo] 4 times, k2. 11 sts.
Row 5: S1, k1, yo, p1, k2, KYOK, k2, p1, yo, k2. 15 sts.
Row 7: S1, k1, yo, p1, k4, yo, k1, yo, k4, p1, yo, k2. 19 sts.
Row 9: S1, k1, yo, p1, k6, yo, k1, yo, k6, p1, yo, k2. 23 sts.
Row 11: S1, k1, yo, p1, k7, yo, k3, yo, k7, p1, yo, k2. 27 sts.
Row 13: S1, k1, yo, p1, k6, k2tog, yo, k2, KYOK, k2, yo, ssk, k6, p1, yo, k2. 31 sts.
Row 15: S1, k1, yo, p1, k6, k2tog, yo, k4, yo, k1, yo, k4, yo, ssk, k6, p1, yo, k2. 35 sts.
Row 17: S1, k1, yo, p1, k6, k2tog, yo, k6, yo, k1, yo, k6, yo, ssk, k6, p1, yo, k2. 39 sts.
Row 19: S1, k1, yo, p1, k6, k2tog, yo, k7, yo, k3, yo, k7, yo, ssk, k6, p1, yo, k2. 43 sts.
Row 21: S1, k1, yo, p1, [k6, k2tog, yo] 2 times, k2, KYOK, k2, [yo, ssk, k6] 2 times, p1, yo, k2. 47 sts.
Row 23: S1, k1, yo, p1, [k6, k2tog, yo] 2 times, k4, yo, k1, yo, k4, [yo, ssk, k6] 2 times, p1, yo, k2. 51 sts.
Row 25: S1, k1, yo, p1, [k6, k2tog, yo] 2 times, k6, yo, k1, yo, k6, [yo, ssk, k6] 2 times, p1, yo, k2. 55 sts.
Row 27: S1, k1, yo, p1, [k6, k2tog, yo] 2 times, k7, yo, k3, yo, k7, [yo, ssk, k6] 2 times, p1, yo, k2. 59 sts.
Row 29: S1, k1, yo, p1, [k6, k2tog, yo] 3 times, k2, KYOK, k2, [yo, ssk, k6] 3 times, p1, yo, k2. 63 sts.
Row 30: S1 purlwise, purl to end.
Continuing in this manner, rep rows 1–8 of Feather Lace and AT SAME TIME increase the multiple of stitch repeats in brackets as work progresses for each new tier.
Continue until center spine of shawl, from cast on to triangle point, measures approximately 33"/84cm or to desired length, ending after Feather Lace row 8.
Left side Feather Tip bind offs
With RS facing, work first tier tip as follows:
Row 1: S1, k2tog, k6, k2tog, turn.
Row 2: P9, turn.
Row 3: S1, k2tog, k4, k2tog, turn.
Row 4: P7, turn.
Row 5: S1, k2tog, k2, k2tog, turn.
Row 6: P5, turn.
Row 7: S1, k2, k2tog, turn.
Row 8: P4, turn.
Row 9: S1, k1, k2tog, turn.
Row 10: P3, turn.
Row 11: S1, k2tog, psso, do not turn.
With RS facing, pick up knitwise and AT SAME TIME immediately bind off 10 sts evenly along decrease side. Knit 1 st (above a yarn over) from left needle and bind off. One st rem on right needle.
Work next and all rem left side Feather Tip bind offs to center spine as follows (with 1 st rem on right needle):
Row 1: K5, k2tog, turn.
Row 2: P7, turn.
Row 3: S1, k4, k2tog, turn.
Row 4: P6, turn.
Row 5: S1, k3, k2tog, turn.
Row 6: P5, turn.
Row 7: S1, k2, k2tog, turn.
Row 8: P4, turn.
Row 9: S1, k1, k2tog, turn.
Row 10: P3, turn.
Row 11: S1, k2tog, psso, do not turn.
With RS facing, pick up knitwise (see Glossary) and AT SAME TIME immediately bind off 10 sts evenly along decrease side. Knit 1 st (above a yarn over) from left needle and bind off. One st rem on right needle.
Rep from * 28 more times (or to center section/point of triangle).
Center point
With 1 st rem on right needle:
Row 1: K8 (9 sts on right needle), turn.
Row 2: S1, p1, psso, p7, turn.
Row 3: S1, k1, psso, k6, turn.
Row 4: S1, p1, psso, p5, turn.
Row 5: S1, k1, psso, k4, turn.
Row 6: S1, p1, psso, p3, turn.
Row 7: S1, k1, psso, k2, turn.
Row 8: S1, p1, psso, p1, turn.
Row 9: K2tog. Cut yarn and pull tail through loop.
Right side Feather Tip bind offs
With WS facing, join yarn to top of triangle and work first tier tip as follows:
Row 1: S1, p2tog, p6, p2tog, turn.
Row 2: K9, turn.
Row 3: S1, p2tog, p4, p2tog, turn.
Row 4: K7, turn.
Row 5: S1, p2tog, p2, p2tog, turn.
Row 6: K5, turn.
Row 7: S1, p2, p2tog, turn.
Row 8: K4, turn.
Row 9: S1, p1, p2tog, turn.
Row 10: K3, turn.
Row 11: S1, p2tog, psso, do not turn.
With WS facing, pick up purlwise (see Glossary) and AT SAME TIME immediately bind off 10 sts evenly along decrease side. Purl 1 st (above a yarn over) from left needle and bind off. One st rem on right needle.
Work next and all rem right side Feather Tip bind offs as follows (with 1 st rem on right needle):
Row 1: P5, p2tog, turn.
Row 2: K7, turn.
Row 3: S1, p4, p2tog, turn.
Row 4: K6, turn.
Row 5: S1, p3, p2tog, turn.
Row 6: K5, turn.
Row 7: S1, p2, p2tog, turn.
; Row 8: K4, turn.
Row 9: S1, p1, p2tog, turn.
Row 10: K3, turn.
Row 11: S1, p2tog, psso, do not turn.
With WS facing, pick up purlwise (see Glossary) and AT SAME TIME immediately bind off 10 sts evenly along decrease side. Purl 1 st (above a yarn over) from left needle and bind off. One st rem on right needle.
Rep from ** 28 more times (or to center section/point of triangle).
FINISHING
Darn ends. Wet block to desired measurements. For best results, use blocking wires and pins to stretch feather tips. After drying, it may also be necessary to iron tips flat to prevent curling. If tips still curl, just remember that feathers do ruffle . . . it’s a fact of life.
Chapter 7
Brokenhearted