Learning new tricks - Intarsia

Yesterday - inspired by a great book I got on sale, Icelandic Knitting Using Rose Patterns, I came up with an idea for a new shawl (actually, the idea was stuck in the back of my head for few weeks now). Here comes the tricky part - garter intarsia! I've never tried it before but it sounded like fun.... lot of fun with 6 small bobbins at a time and a yarn which loves to tangle :-) If you think normal intarsia is easy - try garter intarsia! 

Unfortunately, the book didn't have any clear instructions how to deal with all these colors and how to twist the strands without making holes or the whole thing breaking apart... To my surprise, you can't find much info on garter intarsia on the net or even YouTube.....

After a couple of tries (and different styles of bobbins) I finally found the solutions - my old business cards as bobbins. Now I'm working only with 3 colors but I'd love to add another two, blue and green - that's gonna be fun! I think I need another 50-70 rows to practice before I move to the shawl.

Shop Update

I have listed 2 new shawls in my Etsy shop this week - have a look!

The Rainbow Shawl 
Have to say I'm really proud of this one! The colors are great and I love the design. It's a semi-circular shawl hand knitted with pure wool yarn.

Purple Plum Shawl
This shawl is knitted with one of my favorite yarns - Zauberball. Love how the colors change creating a lovely striped pattern. This shawl is based on my own pattern as well.

Halloween for Cats

Top Hat by ToScarboroughFair

First of my Halloween themes - today I decided to find a cute outfit for Mr. Julius The Cat. I couldn't stop laughing while exploring Etsy listings! Here are some of my favorites.

Knitting a rainbow

I'm knitting my own personal rainbow! I absolutely love how all the colors blend together. This shawl will definitely become one of my favorites, the colors are so vivid and nice. I had this yarn for a few months before I decided to use it, 'cause I really liked the look of the center-pull ball. 

Today on my needles

I'm working on 2 new shawls currently - an airy and super soft mohair/silk stole and yummy purple/pink semi-circular shawl. Can't decide which one is my favorite. I absolutely love working with mohair lace yarn (but HATE unraveling it) but I like how the 2nd yarn creates beautiful striped pattern. 

I've also listed one of my last shawls - a beautiful brown triangular shawl knitted with Crazy Zauberball yarn.  You can find it in my Etsy shop.

Madelines Lace Scarf - new Ravelry pattern

I just published on Ravelry a new pattern for this gorgeous lacy scarf .

You’ll need:

• pair of straight needles or circular needles – 4mm (US 6)
• lace weight yarn (the grey shawl was knitted with Cashwool by Ice Yarns, 50g/250m per skein, 2.5 skeins used)

The pattern includes:

• written description row-by-row
• 2 charts

Stitches & techniques:

• knit, purl, k2tog, skk, yo, sl1-k2tog-psso
• pick stitches up along an edge

Madelines Lace Scarf Knitting PDF Pattern

Waiting in line

I just realized I have a huge collection of shawls I've finished within last month and never listed! I need an assistant :-) Here you can see 6 new shawls, one is currently blocked and I have 20-30 rows left to knit of another.... Wow - sometimes I amaze myself!

I'm still waiting for my new mannequin to be delivered, so I think I'll use my good old hanger this week and retake the photos later using the mannequin....

What you can see behind the shawls is one of my all time favourite film poster by a great Polish artist - Wieslaw Walkuski. I'm a huge fan of his works!