Celtic Knot #7

Intertwined Heart and Happiness Sign

This knot was inspired by an image from the Book of Kells found on page 28 verso (the back side of the page), where it is part of a border in a portrait of St. Matthew. Here's my hand-drawn attempt at reproducing this knot.

I know I suck at drawing, but you get the idea. My reference book is The Book of Kells Selected Plates in Full Color edited by Blanche Cirker. So.... here's what I came up with. I used Wolle Roedel Soft Merino knitted on US 8 needles (5 mm) for this swatch.

I wanted a cable that could be a continuous cable or a stand-alone knot. Like I tend to do, I charted this with some set-up rows (rows O1-O8), a chart repeat (rows 1-36), and some finishing rows (F1-F6). If you want to knit what I have photographed above, knit rows O1-O8 from the chart, then knit rows 4-36, rows 1-36, then rows 1-24, finishing with rows F1-F6.
For this combination of a picked-up knot cable, you need to begin with 24 cast-on stitches. If you want to knot a long continuous cable without the stand-alone start, you need to begin with 36 cast-on stitches. If that is your preference, I'd recommend knitting 3 4-stitch, 4-row rwisted rope braids as charted in rows 31-34 3 times. This might take a bit of swatching. Play with it and have some fun. If you want only the stand-alone knot, knit rows O1-O8, rows 4-24, then finish with rows F1-F6. Here's the chart...

Now I omitted the dots from the stand-alone parts of the knot. I originally swatched with some bobbles but I didn't like them - I suck at knitting bobbles. If anyone want to reproduce the original knot exactly, play with bobbles and email me a link to the pictures!

Here's some gratuitous detail shots...

Happy knitting!
P.S. Don't forget to get the legend.

From the depths of Ivanova's archives...

I posted a F.O. shot of some lace muffatees I designed about 2 years ago on Ravelry and someone requested the pattern! I sent it out to a free online knitting magazine but never heard back, so I am posting it here now, because it seems that at least one person out there is interested!

I also have nothing to post on current knitting because of a major project deadline in a month (eep!) and I've also been taking advantage of my new Mac Book Pro being a faster Matlab-Number-Crunching-Machine than the computational servers at work! I loooove my new Mac... and I also love not having to share CPU time with anybody else! So here it is... my lace muffatee pattern.

What do you do with a couple of hundred yards of lace weight fiber? Especially when most shawls reach the elbow, and don’t cover your arms? Knit some lace muffatees with a Victorian-inspired ruffle, and look positively enchanting! Only want wristwarmers? Work less pattern repeats!

Materials:
200 yards of any lace weight fiber that can be blocked.
The ones shown were made with 200 yards of handpaintedyarn.com lace pure wool, 850 yards per 100 g skein, color burgundy
¼ inch wide sewing elastic (optional)
US 5 ( 3.75 mm) needles
Stitch Markers
A tapestry or darning needle to weave in ends
Scissors

Additional notes: I made these from the leftovers from my Kiri shawl, because the handpaintedyarn.com skeins have such generous yardage. I really liked working with this yarn because it's reasonably soft and very elastic. Blocks like a dream!

Sizing:
One size fits most. The muffatees fit 6-6.25” wide wrists, 9-10.25” wide arms beneath elbow, and are 10” long including ruffle. Lace stretches! If you have smaller arms, consider getting some elastic.

Gauge:
Blocked conservatively: 24 sts. in lace pattern = 4”

Pattern Notes:

The lace stitch pattern is very easy to memorize. I suggest knitting from the chart because this four stitch four row pattern is so simple, the only part you really need to keep track of are the edges, where increases are incorporated into the stitch pattern. The decreases used are k2tog, or knit two together, skp, or slip one purlwise, knit one, pass slipped stitch over, and sk2p, or slip one purlwise, knit two together, pass slipped stitch over. On the ruffle, you will be making a yarn over on the purl or wrong side. To do this properly, hold your yarn as if you were going to purl the next stitch, wrap your yarn around the needle, then purl.

Instructions:

Cast on 38 stitches using an invisible cast on. Knit 2 rows.
Knit all even numbered pattern rows (not charted to save space).

Lace pattern (work the written instructions here or follow the chart):

Row 1: k1, k2tog, yo, place marker, *sk2p, yo, k1, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 3 stitches, place marker, skp, yo, k1.
Row 3: k1, k2tog, yo, place marker, *k1, yo, sk2p, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 3 stitches, place marker, skp, yo, k1.
Row 5: k1, yo, k2tog, yo, place marker, *sk2p, yo, k1, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 3 stitches, place marker, k1, yo, k2.
Row 7: k1, yo, sk2p, yo, place marker, *k1, yo, sk2p, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 4 stitches, place marker, k1, yo, skp, k1.
Row 9: k1, k2tog, yo, k1, yo, place marker, *sk2p, yo, k1, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 4 stitches, place marker, skp, yo, k1, yo, k1.
Row 11: k2, yo, sk2p, yo, place marker, *k1, yo, sk2p, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 4 stitches, place marker, k1, yo, sk2p, yo, k1.
Row 13: k1, yo, sk2p, yo, k1, yo, place marker, *sk2p, yo, k1, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 4 stitches, place marker, skp, yo, k1, yo, k2.
Row 15: k1, yo, k2tog, yo, sk2p, yo, place marker, *k1, yo, sk2p, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 5 stitches, place marker, k1, yo, sk2p, yo, k2.
Row 17: k2, yo, place marker, *sk2p, yo, k1, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 2 stitches, place marker, k1, yo, k1.
Row 19: k1, k2tog, yo, place marker, *k1, yo, sk2p, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 3 stitches, place marker, skp, yo, k1.
Row 21: k1, k2tog, yo, place marker, *sk2p, yo, k1, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 3 stitches, place marker, skp, yo, k1.
Row 23: k1, k2tog, yo, place marker, *k1, yo, sk2p, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 3 stitches, place marker, skp, yo, k1.
Row 25: k1, yo, k2tog, yo, place marker, *sk2p, yo, k1, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 3 stitches, place marker, k1, yo, k2.
Row 27: k1, yo, sk2p, yo, place marker, *k1, yo, sk2p, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 4 stitches, place marker, k1, yo, skp, k1.
Row 29: k1, k2tog, yo, k1, yo, place marker, *sk2p, yo, k1, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 4 stitches, place marker, skp, yo, k1, yo, k1.
Row 31: k2, yo, sk2p, yo, place marker, *k1, yo, sk2p, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 4 stitches, place marker, k1, yo, sk2p, yo, k1.
Row 33: k1, yo, sk2p, yo, k1, yo, place marker, *sk2p, yo, k1, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 5 stitches, place marker, skp, yo, k1, yo, k2.
Row 35: k1, yo, k2tog, yo, sk2p, yo, place marker, *k1, yo, sk2p, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 5 stitches, place marker, k1, yo, sk2p, yo, k2.
Row 37: k2, yo, place marker, *sk2p, yo, k1, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 2 stitches, place marker, k1 yo, k1.
Row 39: k1, k2tog, yo, place marker, *k1, yo, sk2p, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 3 stitches, place marker, skp, yo, k1.
Row 41: k1, yo, k2tog, yo, place marker, *sk2p, yo, k1, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 3 stitches, place marker, k1, yo, k2.
Row 43: k1, yo, skp, yo, place marker, *k1, yo, sk2p, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 4 stitches, place marker, k1, yo, skp, k1.
Row 45: k2tog, yo, k2tog, yo, place marker, *sk2p, yo, k1, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 4 stitches, place marker, skp, yo, k2.
Row 47: k1, yo, sk2p, yo, place marker, *k1, yo, sk2p, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 4 stitches, place marker, k1, yo, skp, k1.
Row 49: k1, k2tog, yo, k1, yo, place marker, *sk2p, yo, k1, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 4 stitches, place marker, skp, yo, k1, yo, k1.
Row 51: k2, yo, sk2p, yo, place marker, *k1, yo, sk2p, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 5 stitches, place marker, k1, yo, sk2p, yo, k1.
Row 53: k1, yo, sk2p, yo, k1, yo, place marker, *sk2p, yo, k1, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 5 stitches, place marker, skp, yo, k1, yo, k2.
Row 55: k1, yo, k2tog, yo, sk2p, yo, place marker, *k1, yo, sk2p, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 6 stitches, place marker, k1, yo, sk2p, yo, k2.
Row 57: k2, yo, place marker, *sk2p, yo, k1, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 2 stitches, place marker, k1, yo, k1.
Row 59: k1, k2tog, yo, place marker, *k1, yo, sk2p, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 3 stitches, place marker, skp, yo, k1.
Row 61: k1, k2tog, yo, place marker, *sk2p, yo, k1, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 3 stitches, place marker, skp, yo, k1.
Row 63: k1, k2tog, yo, place marker, *k1, yo, sk2p, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 3 stitches, place marker, skp, yo, k1.

When you have completed row 64, knit 5 rows in k2 p2 rib. Cast off in pattern.

Make ruffle (not charted):
On lower edge with RS facing, pick up 38 stitches. On the next row (ws) k1 p1 into each stitch except edge stitches which are purled (74 stitches total).

Row 1: k1, * k2, yo, skp*, repeat from * to * to * to last stitch, k1.
Row 2: p1, * p2, yo, p2tog*, repeat from * to * to * to last stitch, p1.

Repeat these rows 9 times then bind off loosely. Make another muffatee the same way.

Finishing:

When the knitting is done, block the muffatees before seaming them. Do not block the ruffle. To block, soak the muffatees for about 20 minutes before washing them, if you choose to wash them. Gently press out excess water without wringing them, place them in a clean towel, and roll the towel to remove more water. Stretch them to be about 1/2 an inch smaller than your arm measurements at the wrist and arm below elbow, and stretch to meet your arm’s length keeping side edges and top edge and wrist edge straight. Do not pull on the ruffle beyond stretching the wrist edge where you picked up stitches to make the ruffle. Seam up sides. If it is a little loose or you have small arms, sew in some elastic available at many fabric stores into the wrong side of the upper edge, below the elbow. If you use a dark color of yarn, you may want to use black elastic, I used white elastic in the example and it doesn’t show.

Enjoy!

Ivanova

Christmas Stash Enhancement

I finished the Kitty Hat well before Christmas and never posted about it. This is the third time I've made myself this hat. The first one was made from the recommended black Mission Falls wool, and I quite liked it but it got lost in the move to Europe. The second one was made out of Noro Kureyon (without ears) and I look kind of goofy and like a 12-year-old in it. This one is made from a 'more serious' yarn - Mercredi et Companie 100% laine - some stuff I picked up in Grenoble in the fall. The colors are beautiful - a nice heathered burgundy with flecks of grey and black, and it's EXTREMELY soft. But this yarn is horrible to knit with. It's completely inelastic and too loosely spun to knit easily. For fun I tried swatching cables with this stuff - big disaster. Frankly I have no use for a yarn I can't cable with in the stash. I would not recommend this stuff for anything other than fancy baby knits. After a month of wear it's fuzzed up horribly and will lose all stitch definition soon. No pills though. While this hat looks OK laid out on the bed, I still look like a big dork in in. The good points for this hat are that it fits over by giant hair and keeps my ears nice and warm. But I don't really want to look like a big dork. So I'll investigate more hat options soon. The hats made so far are Shedir which looked beautiful but didn't fit my head at all, and the Ragna cap which doesn't fit over my hair. I'm totally bummed. There has to be a nice big hat design somewhere that will fit over my hair and ears! And preferably with cables too ;).

I got lots of nice yarns from myself and others for Christmas, as well as books. Thrace gave me the Knitter's Almanac by Elizabeth Zimmermann and I will cast on for the February Baby sweater soon. I will need to modify the design a bit because the baby will be a boy, but I think I can swap out the lace and stick in some cables instead. I will also make it as written for a friend who really really loved the Baby Surprise Jacket. I just hope that I have enough time! Maybe I'll have to upsize it for a toddler by the time I get to casting on. I also got the latest Viking Knitting book by Elsebeth Lavold and a book of selected color plates from the Book of Kells. Thanks Thrace, you rock! I've already charted a new celtic knot from it and am currently swatching it. Maybe it'll be done by next weekend...

So now for the yarn...
Carloway Mills Shetland Aran, colorway Mallard. It's a beautiful tweed, and I'm still trying to decide what to do with it. When I ordered it from elann I wanted to make a shawl-collared cabled cardigan, but now I can't decide between the original idea and this (with celtic knots instead of viking knots) - it is someone's brilliant idea to modify Stefanie Japel's forecast. I was never drawn to the original cables in the design but liked the shaping. I love the modified design even more!

This is some Fleece Artist Kid Aran, and I think it will become the Sunrise Circle Jacket at some point. It's by Kate Gilbert and available for free from Knitting Daily.




Now for some more greenhouse eye-candy...

Arwen and more baby knitting

Top-down baby sweaters are really easy. This one was knit in 1x1 rib using Swish superwash and following the usual formula for a top-down raglan with cables from the harmony guide thrown in for the entertainment of the knitter.

Following EZ's advice to make a hat as a gauge swatch proved to be project-saving advice since my row gauge went from 7 stitches / inch to 8 stitches / inch when washed and dried (a loss of 12%, I think). Always, always launder gauge swatches in the manner that the garment will be laundered.



After finishing the back and left front, and using short-rows to subsequently widen the sleeves, the Arwen sweater got put on hold in November. I recently resumed work on the right front, sleeve and hood. So far, using my LK-150 to knit the stockinette sections of the sweater has been fairly easy: the only really tricky part to handle was casting on stitches for the sleeves, then weighing the newly cast-on stitches down so that no stitches get dropped when the next row gets knit. The cable panel is also a quick knit, so I'm hoping I'll actually get to wear this sweater this winter.





And finally, here's Miss Dashwood on Christmas morning.

Another year gone by...

And now that I think about it, I have knit a lot of sweaters this year! Guess that makes me a 'sweater knitter' now, and not so much of a lace knitter. In my last post I promised some better pics of the fully finished Garnstudio Drops Sing Jacket, so here is one (though done in crappy light).
I've been wearing it constantly since it's been finished and I like it a lot! The Yorkshire Tweed Chunky blocked into a nice soft drapey fabric, though it was a royal pain in the butt to wash in a bucket. It was huge and wet and dripping all over the bathroom floor, and one sleeve would hang over my sweater-filled arms and stretch out like crazy! Luckily some pulling and patting got it to be more-or-less the same length as the other sleeve. Guess which one from the photo!

Anyways, the sweater was a huge hit at the 8 million or so holiday parties I attended. One lady asked my if it was very expensive because it looked very expensive (i.e. it cost a fortune or I made it myself). Yay! I think this would make it the best sweater yet. Now, being a perfectionist, I would always change those little details that I think are less than perfect. I would definitely add more buttons, and make them a touch closer together. I also deviated from the instructions on the collar, and having picked up more stitches along the neckline, I should have skipped increasing the number of stitches on the second row because the collar is too wide for my neck. I fold it over in half (inwards) and I find it annoys me less, but it doesn't really look like the original collar either. Oh well, not worth ripping over.

This sweater also nearly convinced my mother to take up knitting. If I were to do it again, I'd use Istex Lopi because it comes in such beautiful colors if I (or the recipient) could handle the scratch factor. I pawed lots of Lopi at North American LYSs over the break!

Now for a FO report for a baby sweater I gave to a friend, and has been successfully received so I can blog about it now.

Pattern: Ripples in Time by Fiona Ellis from Inspired Cable Knits
Yarn: Rowan 4 Ply Cotton, colorway Fennel

Mods: I made it into a cardigan by omitting the center wide cable panel and adding a 7 stitch wide seed stitch button/buttonhole band on each side. I also was not aware of the errata published for the pattern (even though I googled it several times and came up with nothing) so I knitted the wide cable panel WRONG (boo hiss!). If you are going to do this number, GO HERE FOR THE ERRATA. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and look for the 'download errata' link. And thanks to Ravelry editors of this pattern page for providing a link to the errata. Yay! All in all, I don't think that the error is so noticeable. I also remember being quite confused about the cable panel placement in the written instructions and had to figure it out from the not-full-body photo. The neckline instructions were also confusing, so I looked at photographs and Thrace went to a baby clothing store in order to figure out the assembly. Thanks Thrace, you rock!

Comments on the yarn: this is a nice soft cotton to knit with. I don't usually use cotton because I am always freezing and prefer wool garments for myself. But some people are cautious about giving wools to babies and this yarn is a very good option for fine gauge baby knits. It also comes in fantastic colors that are not babyish, and there are lots of gender-neutral options. Now can you tell there's a 'but' coming? There were about 4 knots in EACH BALL. Boo! Hiss!
I've said it before, I'll say it again. Rowan yarn is expensive, especially if you don't live in the UK. If I pay more I expect to get more, and I'm not getting more. I would only buy this yarn again if someone on eBay were to have a serious 50% off sale.

If I were to knit this sweater again... I would use a wool yarn. I had to knit at such a tight gauge (and I got row gauge but not stitch gauge, so I followed the instructions for the largest size to end up with finished dimensions for the second largest size) and the cables were so difficult to knit that I cannot recommend using cotton for this one. Maybe a cotton-cashmere, cotton-acrylic or cotton-merino blend would be better. But either way the recipient is happy, so I'm happy. No word yet on the baby liking it because he won't fit it for at least another 6 months or more. Here's a back shot so you folks won't have a heck of a time figuring out the assembly details.

On the needles...Trud by Elsebeth Lavold from the Viking Knits Collection Volume 1.
It's unblocked and the peplum is unseamed. I sure hope it fits! It's quite a relaxing knit with all of that (reverse) stockinette, but that peplum sure eats yarn. I'm currently working on the sleeve, so I can be sure I'll have enough to finish. And the yarn is as soft as buttah... yummy ;).
The cables pop out nicely, so I'm quite pleased with this Frankengarn undyed merino. It also comes at a nice price, and I'm considering their undyed dark brown for future DK weight knits.

Now for some eye candy, captured along the way while I went pretty much everywhere this holiday season.
This was taken from the tallest peak in the Black Forest - Feldberg. It was very very pretty and I have tons more photos of mountains and trees which I may upload to my Flickr account.
I also dashed into a North American greenhouse to escape the chill and saw some GORGEOUS flowers in some very nice arrangements. I want a yarn in this color...
The black and pink combo is spectacular. It would look very good in a variegated yarn, I think!
Funny how it always comes down to yarn! I also like these pinks and purples...
Happy New Year!

Ivanova