Category Archives: 2012

New Patterns: Punto Cowl & Hat

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I am very happy to announce the release of Punto Cowl & Hat patterns which are released as part of Malabrigo Quickies. From Malabrigo Yarns website: Quickies are small, fast projects which require only one or two skeins of yarn. You could knit a small cowl and a hat in one skein each of MC and CC yarn. These patterns can be bought individually or as an ebook.

While I love variegated yarns,  I don’t like how muddy they look when used with cables or lace. I am not a big fan of pooling in stockinette stitch either, so the obvious step was to pair it with a plain yarn and make something colorful with it. Punto stitch pattern (as I would like to call it) is knit with one yarn per row (no carrying the other yarn) and the colorful CC yarn shows up as little specks or dots against the MC yarn.

Punto Cowl comes in 3 sizes. Small: 20 inches wide, a snug fit around your neck, Medium: 28 inches wide, a loose, comfortable fit around your neck and Long: 44 inches wide, where the cowl can be worn doubled up. All sizes are 8 inches high. Width and height can be easily modified by working more repeats of the stitch pattern.

Punto Hat comes in 4 sizes. S [M, L, XL]: 18 [20, 22, 24] inches. These are the finished sizes. Choose the size which give you no ease or an inch of negative ease.

Punto Hat
Punto Cowl

Punto ebook
Yarns Suggested: Malabrigo Merino Worsted in Natural Colorway
Malabrigo Seleccion Privada in Code B Colorway
Needle Size: US #6 4 mm

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New Pattern: Madhu Hat

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I had this gorgeous skein of Malabrigo Rastita in my stash in the beautiful colorway Archangel colorway. The beautiful hues kept calling my name every time I looked at them. I would pet the yarn and keep it back because finding a pattern for variegated yarn is quite difficult. I know slipped stitches help in breaking up the colors and help in avoiding pooling, so I picked up a simple yet beautiful stitch pattern and made a swatch.

When that experiment went well, I made a hat with it and figured out a neat decrease which didn’t disturb the stitch pattern and voila we have Madhu Hat. The slipped stitch pattern is called ‘honeycomb’, so I named the hat Madhu, which means honey.

This hat takes less than half a skein of sportsweight yarn and is particularly suitable for variegated yarn. It knits up in no time at all and it adds a bit of quirkiness to the classic beanie with its asymmetric ‘flap’.

Pattern: Madhu Hat
Yarn: Malabrigo Rastita [Sport/5 ply]
Needles: US#5 3.75 needles, circular or DPNs
Sizes offered: S [M, L]: 22 [24, 26] inches, unstretched
Yardage: 150 [170, 200] yards

The hat is knit bottom-up with a provisional cast-on (casting on using waste yarn). After working the brim and shaping the crown, the hat is cast off. The provisional cast on is revealed to get live stitches around the brim and then the asymmetrical ‘flap’ is shaped with short rows. If you are not adventurous to try to short rows or do not like the asymmetric flap, then you can cast-on with the main yarn (as opposed to waste yarn). If you see a small hole at the place where you turn your work for short row shaping, this should cover up while blocking.

While this knitting pattern is suitable for variegated yarn, it looks great in semi/solid colored yarn too.

New Pattern: Tara Shrug

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I am so excited that my Tara Shrug is published as part of Knit Now October Issue.  I worked on this design almost 6 months back and just when I was ready to self-publish it, I saw the call from Knit Now and they were looking for quick knits. Since then I have been patiently waiting so that I could show this pattern off.

Photo Credit: Knit Now

Tara shrug is a great last minute gift for the little star in your life. The lace is simple and easy to memorize with all wrong side rows being ‘resting rows’. The shrug is knit flat as a rectangle in the openwork diamond lace pattern. After working the sleeves ribbing, the shrug is seamed at both ends to make sleeves. The body ribbing is knit in round.

Sizes: 2 (4, 6, 8, 10)
Chest sizes: 20 (22, 24, 26, 28) inches

The shrug is intended to be worn with 1-2” of negative ease as the lace section stretches when worn.

Photo Credit: Knit Now

 

Ravelry Pattern: Tara Shrug
Yarn Suggested: Fyberspates Scrumptious 4ply
Needle Size: US #3 3.25 mm for the body

 

New Pattern: Texo Pullover

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Texo (Latin word Texo for ‘weave, twine together’) is a take on the traditional crewneck pullover with a cabled pouch added for extra warmth for the hands. The cabled pouch adds interest and texture to the otherwise plain pullover. The i-cord edges on the pouch give it a neat finishing touch. The top-down seamless construction makes this an ideal pullover to try it on as you go and also to modify the body and sleeves length.

Ravelry Pattern: Texo Pullover by Anjali M.
Yarn Suggested: Knit Picks Swish DK
Needle Size: US #5 3.75 mm for the body
US #7 4.5 mm for the cable pouch

New Pattern: Filo

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FILO are FIngerless GLOves with a simple and attractive all-over colowork pattern. FILO keep a toddler’s hands warm, leaving the fingers free for the child’s busy exploration. These unisex fingerless gloves are ideal for knitters who want to attempt colorwork since every row is knit with a single color. These are great stash busters to use up the left over sock yarn from other projects.

Ravelry Pattern: Filo by Anjali M.
Yarn Suggested: Knit Picks Palette
Needle Size: US #3 3.25 mm

New Pattern: Hira

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Around a year back, when I saw the Quilted Lattice Stitch in one of the Barbara Walker’s Treasury books, I knew I had to use this for a girl’s cardigan. I was in love with the collared-open-look cardigans and this stitch seemed to be perfect for that. I made my first sample using sports weight yarn and was mighty pleased with the result. I worked on grading and released the pattern to testers. While the testers testing the smaller sizes were very happy with the cardigan, the bigger sizes had a problem of the raglan edge puckering up. It was so bad for the biggest two sizes that I was completely disappointed with my designing (or lack of) skills. As I continued to knit from other designers’ patterns and work on my own design skills, I realized what was the problem with the original Hira. I redid everything using fingering weight yarn, re-graded, got it re-tested and I present you Hira take two.

Ravelry Pattern: Hira by Anjali M.
Yarn Suggested: SweetGeorgia Merino Silk Fine
Sizes: Chest size 18″ – 32″


I used SweetGeorgia Merino Silk Fine in Pomegranate colorway. The different shades of pink and purple in this colorway are soft and subtle. These pictures do not do justice to the amazing colors, but I had to be satisfied with these. Felicia of SweetGeorgia yarns is so sweet (is it why the yarn name has ‘sweet’ in it?) and agreed to send me some yarn for the sample. The yarn is buttery soft, has lovely stitch definition and the silk content adds a shine and drape to this. Knitting with this yarn was a pleasure in itself. The stitches just glide over the needles like butter.

I made the non-beaded version, but one of my testers, Steph, made the beaded one and I love it. Her choice of yarn color and the beads work so well, do you agree?

I am so pleased with this cardigan that I am planning to make one for myself. Do you think this cardigan will work in adult sizes? Would you do any modification to make this work for bigger girls?

New Pattern: Quilla Stole

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I tried my hand at dyeing some time back and got two hanks of beautiful mohair yarn. I was very grateful to Di for hosting the dye-a-long and also for the moral support. When she announced she is moving to Kolkata, I decided I had to make something for her from the dyed yarn. She is a super talented knitter and crocheter, so I couldn’t just make a set of coasters, so I thought of coming up with something of my own. A quick skim through the stitch dictionaries gave me this beautiful lace stitch which looked great with mohair yarn. Thus, Quilla was born.

Pattern: Quilla Stole
Yarn: Lace or fingering or sport weight
Needles: Depends on the yarn weight you choose
Sizes offered: 10″ x 70″
Yardage: ~430 yards

I used laceweight mohair and I think it looks good. I might be biased, though! The lace pattern is open enough to accommodate the mohair’s halo.

One of my test knitters made this using Knit Picks Chroma Fingering and I think the stole looks beautiful, don’t you agree? The long color changes and the lace pattern go really well together. Quilla can be knit using lace, fingering or sport weight yarn. You can try heavier weights too, but the resulting stole might not have the drape that you see in pictures.

The lace is a simple 2-row repeat stitch pattern and is ideal for newbie lace knitters. If you can do yarn-over, k2tog and slip-sts, then you can knit this one. This is great for mindless knitting and the stole will be done in no time.

Happy Knitting! Hope you enjoy knitting this as much as I did.

New Pattern: Just Hatched Booties

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Just Hatched Booties are designed to go with Just Hatched Cardigan. They both use the same stitch pattern which adds interest and texture. These booties knit up fast owing to the use of worsted weight yarn. They need so little yardage that they are ideal to use up left over yarn from other projects.


Pattern: Just Hatched Booties
Needles: US 9 (5.5 mm)
Yarn: Any Worsted Weight Yarn
Sizes offered: Newborn, 3 months, 6 months
Yardage: 60 – 90 yards

When I knit up a baby cardigan, I am usually left with some yarn from the skein which I use to knit up these booties. Hope you all enjoy knitting this one as much as I did.

New Pattern: Aviva

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Aviva, Hebrew word for springtime, is a lacy spring cardigan. The elegant lacy body is accentuated by German rib collars and hems. Aran weight yarn combined with a simple 2-row repeat of lace pattern makes this cardigan a quick knit.
Aviva has a very different construction. The back is knitted up and the neck stitches are bound off. The two fronts are knitted separately and then seamed to the back. Collar is knit by picking up stitches along the fronts and the neck.

This was the first time I used a model for a photoshoot and had a great experience. Shristi, a friend and a budding model, graciously accepted to model for my cardigan. The photographer is Ajo who is again a friend and an upcoming photographer. The combination was perfect: designer, model and photographer – all amateurs and trying to establish in their respective worlds.

Here are the pattern details.

Ravelry Pattern: Aviva by Anjali M.
Yarn Suggested: Knit Picks Swish Tonal
Needle Size: US #7 4.5 mm

Double Espresso

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Double knitting has been on my to-do list since ages. The fact that it produces reversible fabric with reversed colors on either side intrigued me. I knew how it works theoretically, but wanted to try my hands at it. I finished working on Annis and wanted something quick and easy as a filler, so I decided to knit this pretty hotpad.

I had some NaturallyCaron’s Country yarn in two shades of brown, which was perfect for this coffee hotpad.  I looked at videos explaining how to cast on with two colors alternately. After going cross-eyed watching those videos, I decided to cast on with two strands held together. Clever, eh? On the next row, I treated each strand as a separate stitch, so I had the required stitch count for both colors.

It took me some time to get used to holding a strand in both the hands, but once I got the hang of it, it was a smooth sail. Working the chart was very addictive. After completing one row, I would be so eager to work on the next row and the just-one-more-row syndrome made this hotpad a very quick knit. Before I knew it, I was casting it off. To match the cast on edge, I cast off treating two strands as one stitch and knitting with both strands together. The small loop is an i-cord knit using two strands held together and attached to the hotpad later on.

The yarn is splitty and was a pain to work with. It was a wrong choice for the hotpad, I wish I had used some sturdy cotton instead. Well, lesson learnt.

My Ravelry Project Page
Pattern:  Coffee and TeaPot Holders
Yarn: NaturallyCaron.com Country
Needle: US 7 4.5mm