When people visit new places or are on a vacation, they tend to buy souvenirs like key chains, fridge magnets or mugs to remind them of the lovely time they had. I prefer to buy something more practical and tend to gravitate towards buying yarn. It is interesting to learn the place’s woolly history and to buy some locally grown yarn which can be made into a wearable and when worn, it reminds me of the time we spent there and the rich history and culture. So when I found myself walking down one of the beautiful streets of Milan and spotted this very inviting local yarn store, I knew I had to walk in and buy something.

Alessandra, the owner of Hydrangea Yarns, a charming yarn store was so warm, friendly and welcoming. She helped me choose the right yarn and colors for a colorwork sweater which I wanted to knit. (This yarn is still languishing in my stash and hasn’t yet turned into the sweater I wish it had). As we continued chatting and I shared my short experience with knitting and designing, she generously offered me a skein of her very own hand-dyed yarn. This lovely skein of sock yarn in the most beautiful shades of pink sat patiently in my stash for almost a year, until I was inspired to design something, almost a year later, but this time again, in Italy.

As I sat by Lake Maggiore, savoring the sunset and taking in the beautiful evening hues in the sky, this beautiful skein turned into a lovely shawl. A hat tip to the strong Italian connection this design has had, so I named it Valeriana Shawl.

Valeriana comes in two sizes. Small size is knit with a single skein of sock yarn, resulting in a lovely shawlette, which is perfect to drape over a summer dress. Large size needs two skeins of yarn. The beautiful textured lace is a simple 8-stitch repeat which is easily memorized.

Valeriana on Ravelry
Valeriana on Knitty

As the second wave of COVID-19 swept through India, we went into yet another lockdown. We had already been working from home, but this lockdown put a stop to even the small escapes like an evening stroll or a morning run or even a chat with our neighbors. It hit us hard this time – many more casualties than the first wave and emotionally too. The helpless cry for hospital beds and oxygen from all around us was just heart breaking. As with the first wave, I took refuge in knitting.

Knitting is my haven and my safe space. It embraces me and loves me with no judgement. It ignores my mistakes, tolerates my tantrums, celebrates my wins, applauds my accomplishments and loves me unconditionally.

I grabbed two random skeins of yarn from my stash and casted on a random number of stitches. I did not know what it would turn into, but I started knitting anyway. I started with mindless stripes and added on lace, colorwork and texture – everything to my whims and fancies. I thought I would end up with an non-coherent wrap which would look more like a sampler scarf. I was very surprised when I ended up with a wrap (longer than I thought) with the different elements of lace and texture and color, somehow working together.

So, here is Diya Wrap, featuring beginner-friendly lace and colorwork. Even though the wrap uses two colors, you always knit with only one color at a time. I knit my sample using fingering weight yarn, but this wrap would look beautiful in laceweight yarn too. Or use a sportweight yarn to make it more cosy.

Diya Wrap is available on Ravelry and PayHip. Diya Wrap happens to be my 40th published design (how did that happen!) and to celebrate this milestone, I am offering this pattern at a whopping 40% off with coupon code DIYA40. Coupon is valid on Ravelry and PayHip.

I am so happy to release this pretty baby/child dress out in the world. Prisha Dress offers lot of options for beginner and adventurous knitters, alike.

It can be made in a single color which gives it an elegant look. The single-color Latvian braid gives this dress a structure, as it flares up into a full skirt below the braid. This is perfect for beginner knitters or adventurous knitters who need a mindless knit.

If you want to amp up your adventure, you can make this dress in two colors (or go wild and add a third one!) which features icord edges on the neckline and sleeve edges and a 2-color Latvian braid. The shell lace is also made alternating these two colors.

Prisha Dress comes in chest sizes from 18.5 to 27 inches (46 to 67 cms). It is knit from the top down, so you can easily check the fit as you knit.

Yarn: Malabrigo Arroyo or Knit Picks Shine Sport or any sport weight yarn

Gauge: 22 sts x 28 rows = 4” (10 cm) in Stockinette stitch, knit round, after blocking

Prisha Pattern on Ravelry
Prisha Pattern on LoveCrafts

I absolutely love the beautiful effects of tie dye technique and have worn my fair share of Bandhani dresses. It is common to see this technique used on fabric and I wanted to try this out on a hand knitted fabric. This posed quite a few problems – some foreseen and some new, but I am quite happy with how my experiment turned out.

Tie dye is a resistance based technique in which you tie pieces of fabric and block it from dyeing, thus creating different shapes and patterns. The parts of fabric which are tied do not get dyed and remain undyed while the rest of the fabric gets dyed and becomes colorful.

Hand knitted fabric differs from a woven, store bought fabric in many ways. The most important of those, from the perspective of tie dyeing, is how loose the fabric is. Woven fabric is tighter and the individual threads are finer than hand knitted fabric. This makes it easy for the dye to seep into the yarn and thus makes it hard to prevent the tied fabric from getting dyed. After many failed attempts, what finally worked is to use thicker thread to tie and to tie it really tightly and broadly.

Winter Sunset is my humble attempt at creating a beautiful tie dyed hand knitted scarf. The scarf pattern is kept intentionally simple since the focus is on the tie dye effect. The scarf uses a simple eyelet pattern and is knit on bias to create an interesting shape. Since we use food colors to dye this scarf, you need to use any animal based yarn. I have used 100% merino wool and it absorbed the colors really well.

Once the scarf is knitted, it is tie dyed using whatever pattern you choose and the colors you like. Read the article for detailed instructions on how to dye.

You have created a stunning scarf which is truly unique! You can style this over jeans-tee or even with a simple kurti.

Winter Sunset Tie Dye Scarf Pattern

Tie Dye Article