Rockrose – now available as a scarf!

I’m pleased to announce that the Rockrose Scarf is now available!

Copyright Charlotte Walford 2014

After making the Rockrose Wrap I wanted to see if I could make a smaller version with just one precious (100g/400m) skein of 4ply yarn, you know the sort of thing, it called to you in the shop and though you couldn’t quite resist it, you only bought one skein (two would be an extravagance).  Now you want to make something with it, but what?  Well, I made this!

Copyright Charlotte Walford 2014

On my birthday this year I decided to treat myself to a single skein of Posh Yarn Audrey Sock (made with mulberry silk and cashmere), being such an indulgent yarn, I thought I’d just stick at one skein, but I wanted to make something elegant with it and use up as much of my precious (try not to say that in a Gollum-like voice) skein as possible.

I’d been pretty pleased with the wrap version of this pattern, so I thought I could do with making a smaller version for those with less time, patience, or an aversion to lace weight yarns (I have to be in the right mood to knit with lace weight).  It also gave me chance to make sure my hastily scribbled charts made sense now that I’d redrawn them neatly on the computer!

Copyright Charlotte Walford 2014

I was pretty pleased with the result, this yarn is really beautiful and makes the scarf incredibly soft with a really lovely drape.  Sadly Audrey Sock has been discontinued, but Posh Yarn Natasha Sock (baby camel and mulberry silk) would give a similar effect.  So scarf knitted, it went off to my lovely tech editor and testers and now finally it’s ready to share with you!

The Rockrose Scarf is the latest pattern in Wildflower: The Lace Collection eBook, available here.  There are at least five more patterns to go!  If you buy the collection the patterns will be automatically added to your Ravelry library as they are released.

Also, if you’ve already bought the Rockrose Wrap (or if you add both patterns to your cart together), you can get the scarf version free (and vice versa, if you buy the scarf pattern you will get the wrap pattern free), just add it to your cart and the price of the scarf pattern will be deducted automatically.

♥ Until midnight GMT Sunday 2nd November 2014, the price of the Rockrose Scarf and Wrap patterns has been reduced from £3.75 to £2.75!  No need for a code, the price has been altered on the pattern page and will return to the higher price at midnight on Sunday. ♥

Hope you like it,

Lottie x

Finish line: Part 1

My Holden Shawlette is finished!

Finished!!

I am so pleased with how this has knitted up and the way that the colours look in the edging.

Pretty edging!

I needn’t have worried about the unevenness of the stitches either, as they all evened out perfectly with blocking.

Despite feeling bored with this project earlier, I really enjoyed finishing it off and I am really chuffed with the result 🙂

Great pattern = Perfect shawl corners

The pattern is well written and includes written directions and charts (I love charts, but they don’t suit everyone, so it’s great to have both options), and the corners of the shawl are well thought out, so the edging pattern doesn’t stop abruptly when it reaches them.

Did I mention how much I love the colours?

If you fancy making a Holden Shawlette by Mindy Wilkes you can download the pattern for free on Ravelry.  There are over 5000 projects for this pattern on Ravelry, so there’s lots of inspiration for different yarns to try.  I used Jillybean Supersock in the ‘Lola’ shade which is 100% BFL and blocks out nicely, but a drapey yarn with silk in would be beautiful.

Once again thank you to Helen and Steve for the gift of this yarn 🙂 I enjoyed knitting it up!

Keeping score

So now for an update on the WIP (works in progress) count!

No. of WIPs before:

Unknown (I’m not going to excavate the whole stash just to find them!), ok so there are about seven that I can think of, but there’s probably more lurking somewhere. 

No. of WIPs now (assuming I really did have 7 to begin with):

5 (I’ve finished another, but more of that next time)

No. of FOs (Finished objects):

2 (including the one I’ve not shown you yet!)

The WIP Amnesty continues……have you finished anything recently?

Lottie x

All photographs Copyright Charlotte Walford 2013

Progress so far…….part 2!

So what else did I make from my pile of yarn from Andyfest?  Well, so far only one other item, but hopefully I will get some more done this year.

I’d been thinking that I should really make an Ishbel for a while, as it is such a pretty shawlette and I love shawlettes (in case you have been living under the knitting equivalent of a rock for the past few years, Ishbel is a shawl pattern by Ysolda Teague which has acheived cult status, and at the time of writing nearly 12,000 projects on Ravelry!).

One of the *ahem* three skeins of Fyberspates Faery Wings I got at Andyfest was a gorgeous cherry red colour, which I bought with my Mum in mind.  It’s been a while since I’ve had a chance to make anything for her, so I thought it was time to sort that out.  Quite a few people have made Ishbel in Faery Wings, so it seemed like a safe bet (Faery Wings is a bit shorter than most 100g skeins of 4ply yarn, so I wanted to be sure I would have enough).

I started my Ishbel on holiday back in September after I’d finished Rosaleen and had hoped to be able to finish in time for Christmas, but with other things to do between then and now it was not to be, however I finally finished at the weekend!

Ishbel
(Photo copyright Charlotte Walford 2013)

Isn’t the colour of the yarn beautiful?  I confess that if this was for anyone other than my Mum, I would have had great difficulty in giving it away!

Ishbel edging – just look at the pretty points!
(Photo copyright Charlotte Walford 2013)

Faery wings has a beautiful drape (thanks to the high silk content) which is great for shawls, it blocks nicely (good for lace) and has a halo of mohair that just makes the fabric divine.  I even have a little bit left, which I might be able to use if I combine it with something else.

I made the smaller size, which is a nice size to wear as a scarf, and not so big that you get fed up before it is finished.

I enjoyed the pattern (I especially love the points at the end of the border) and even though it was a long time in between casting on and casting off, it didn’t really take that long to finish in terms of time spent actually knitting it instead of just thinking about knitting it!

If you’ve not made a top down shawl before, this would be a good place to start, as like most of Ysolda’s patterns, this pattern includes both charted and written directions for the lace (perfect for chart lovers and chart phobics alike).

Just two more skeins of Faery Wings to go!

Lottie x

Progress so far….

It’s been a little while since I went to Andyfest and came back with all that yarn *ahem*.

Unfortunately for the yarn/fortunately for designing I’ve not had much time for non-work knitting since then, so I’ve not made much, but actually having finished something(s) by now is quite good by my usual standards!

First, I made this lovely shawlette while I was on holiday all the way back in September.  The pattern is Rosaleen by Rachel Coopey with a skein of Easyknits Cloud in the ‘Petrolhead’ shade (I’m a bit of a motorsport fan, so it seemed quite appropriate):

Rosaleen Shawlette
(Copyright Charlotte Walford 2013)

I love the edging on this, the bottom edging reminds me of flowers and features beautiful twisted stitches (I love twisted stitches).

Rosaleen edging

The top edging is a twisted stitch rib that ties in with the bottom edge nicely.  Did I mention how much I love these twisted stitches?

Although I finished the knitting on holiday, it is a little bit difficult to block shawls in a hotel room, and I didn’t fancy trying to take pins on a plane just for that, so it did languish unblocked for a while before I got round to that bit, hence the lack of photos until now.

It’s a great pattern and it made a good holiday knit, being in DK weight yarn it was fairly quick to do.

The yarn is gorgeous and works well with the twisted stitches and the lace, although I was cutting it a bit fine with the yardage, as the recommended yarn is quite a bit longer per skein.  I had several moments of doubt about whether I would have enough, and spent a lot of time nearer the end of the shawlette working out how I could shorten the edging if necessary, as well as nervously measuring out the remaining yarn.  So if you’re planning on making this in the same yarn I would get an extra skein, especially as I knit fairly tightly, so I tend to use a bit less yarn.

Happily though I had just about enough to finish it as per the pattern, with a tiny ball of yarn the size of a cherry tomato left over!

Come back tomorrow for the second finished item!

Happy New Year!

Lottie x

Because I love you….

I’ve put a very special offer on my Moon River pattern until the end of August (23.59 GMT on 31st August 2012)!

Moon River, a little crescent shaped shawlette knitted in Noro Silk Garden Sock yarn

If you would like to make this fabulous little shawlette, you can get £1 off the pattern simply by entering the code: Lottieknits here

Enjoy! ♥

Moon River

Hello, and welcome to my brand new blog!

I start my first post in a rather over excited mood, having just released my first self published pattern:

Moon River

Moon River, a little crescent-shaped shawlette knitted in Noro Silk Garden Sock yarn shade #264

I’ve had patterns published before through my work with the lovely people at Artesano yarns (do pop over to their website if you can and sign up for their newsletter, which includes free patterns), but this is the first time that I’ve taken the plunge and done the whole process from idea, to knitted sample, to pattern and layout, and finally to publishing, by myself, although I did have some help from my friend and colleague Les, who very kindly test knitted and pattern checked for me, making this gorgeous version of Moon River in the process:

Les’ version of Moon River in Silk Garden Sock shade #301

Thank you Les!

Moon River is a little crescent-shaped shawlette with a simple crochet edging that should be manageable for even those new to crochet.  It is worked from the bottom up, then shaped with short rows and decreases into a gentle crescent shape.  I’ve also incorporated shaping into the tips like this:

Shaping at the tips of the shawlette

The whole shawlette is then edged with a simple scalloped crochet edging.  Et viola!  One pretty little shawlette that shows off the beautiful colours in just 2 skeins of Noro Silk Garden Sock yarn.

Moon River is available to buy on Ravelry or here:

I hope you like it – I would love to see your own versions!

Thanks for taking the time to pop over and have a look, I hope that you might become a regular visitor.

Lottie x