Sanddollar Hat

...and speaking of sand dollars, one of my favorite seashells...



I am drifting along on the waves of a new pattern: The Brat Sister hat by Grace Akhrem, using Swan Island Worsted in Robin's Egg Blue. As you can see, the design on the hat top makes a perfect sand dollar!



This pattern using size 3 needles, so it's not ideal for worsted weight, but the Swan's Island is a fairly light worsted and its working well. My winters are spent in a state with rather brutal snow storms (hard to imagine in this 90 degree F weather!), so I wanted a hat with more heft than the original fingering weight version yielded.

I got my copy at The Loopy Ewe, but it's available at a variety of online shops. I found the cast on and first 3 or 4 rows to be a bit challenging - sort of like juggling porcupines when the first 5 stitches on size 3 DPNs needed to be joined and then increased in each stitch. After that is was super easy and fast, fast, fast!

I hope that when I'm in the midst of ice and snow this winter, I'll remember my idyllic days by this oceans this summer.

Mara

I finished the wonderful Mara this weekend and I love it. Mara is a small shawl by Madeline Tosh. Originally designed for her worsted, I substituted the Swan's Island Worsted that I'm currently in love with, in Teal. The above photo is the accurate depiction of this colour - for some reason, the weak sunlight here washed out the deep teal tone in the other photos. Swan's Island is so soft and pleasant to knit with. It's the same yarn I used for my Mr. Woodhouse's Scarf and I have two skeins of a cherry blossom magenta red for a narrower version, and a skein of a deep true red in for a hat, and the same red in the fingering weight for a lace scarf, and a skein of natural grey and one of a deep coral in the worsted that are un-determined as to pattern. I would buy the whole of Swan's Island line of yarns if I could!

Let me just go on about Swan's Island yarn for a moment. This is 100% organic merino, which is why it's so soft, and it's spun in Maine and dyed with natural dyes like Indigo, cochineal, madder, weld, and other plant dyes. Originally used for special woven blankets (that are available form the company) it's now available to the public for knitting and weaving. It's very evenly spun, has a consistent soft twist and results in a predictable gauge and fabric, unlike some softer worsteds that turn out a little 'thick-and-thin' in their spinning. The softness in this yarn comes from the base yarn itself, not from having a loose spin.



When my LYS first started carrying Swan's Island yarn, I picked up these two skeins of teal without knowing what I wanted to do with them. I had a vague idea that this might be a good yarn to use in my quest to learn colourwork. But then I came across the Mara shawl, and there you are - my imagination was captured! Each skein is 250 yards, so I knew I would be short and went ahead anyway as is my usual practice. Improvisation is my creative friend. I didn't know if I would do the fluted edge in a complementary colour, or if I would change the needle size for a lighter, larger shawl, but I wasn't concerned.

As it turned out, I used the recommended needle - size US7 - and ended up with a two inch instead of a four inch flute on the outside edge. It's the perfect size for my shortness (5' 3"). The width is the same as described in pattern. I made other modifications, as you can see:



Instead of garter stitch, I used mostly stockinette with just a few decorative rows of garter near the neckline. I don't plan to block it (the pattern recommends light blocking) and am going to wear it today - a rainy, windy, icy day - for a little knitted comfort.

Emma's Father

I've been watching the new BBC production of Jane Austen's Emma on PBS, Sunday nights. I was prepared to hate it - how could the two former productions - Kate Beckinsale's and Gwyneth Paltrow's - be bettered? But I actually like it. I like the way that they've tried to make Emma herself more like a young girl with more imagination and energy than her limited country life allows her to expend. And, of course, I like the fashions.

Mr. Woodhouse's scarf-shawl caught my eye immediately:



So much so, that I went out the very next day after the first episode and bought the yarn from my LYS to begin a project to replicate it...



It looks as wide as a shawl - at least twice as wide as a regular scarf, maybe more.

This is my plan... I used 3 skeins (250 yds ea) of Swan’s Island worsted in Robin's Egg blue and a size 8 Hiya Hiya circular needle.

I started with a cast on of 69, using one st on each edge for the edging and making the pattern on the remaining 67. After some experimentation, I ended up with 20 rows moss st and 12 rows plain (garter st.) knitting. I have done this four times for the end of the scarf, and now will knit moss stitch for the central part of the scarf - the part that goes around the neck - then repeat the pattern for the other end, ending with moss st.



I do think I will put the fringe on the ends; I think it makes it look more old-fashioned.



When I'm finished and have all the unexpected problems worked out, I will post this on Ravelry and here as a free pattern all nicely written up and printable.