New pattern: Thistle Leaf Pullover

Thistle Leaf Pullover $7 on Ravelry (no account required)


Are you looking for a Springtime project? How about a Thistle Leaf Pullover? With a pretty lace body and stockinette sleeves, it's a lovely project in fingering-weight yarn to wear almost any time of year. My testers (and their friends) all went crazy for this one, and I must confess that when I wear it, I feel like a million bucks!

What you'll love about knitting your Thistle Leaf Pullover:

• worked in the round - always having the right side facing you makes it easier to see where you are in the pattern and means hardly any finishing work (weave the underarms together, darn in your ends, and you're all set)
• body is worked without shaping (no increasing or decreasing in lace - whew!) - put the stretchy quality of lace to work for you and your curves
• sleeves are worked straight from the elbow - no shaping, just knit around and around (and if you decide to make the sleeves longer, do the same and you'll have pretty flared sleeves with no more work)
• my three-motif-wide chart of Thistle Leaf Lace can be used to mark off your raglan decreases for the yoke - since I don't know where you will be in the lace pattern, I can't provide a definitive chart for the raglan decreases, but you can do it! Feel free to ask me for help - my contact information is on the pattern - or check in with fellow knitters in the forum.
• lace pattern is provided in both chart and written formats - I know that not everyone can read a chart (some folks just can't process visual information like that) and others cannot make their way through written instructions - use what works for you
• somewhere between two and four skeins of sock yarn will give you a pullover to wear almost any time of year (with a t-shirt underneath, I wore mine on all but the coldest days this Winter, and layered with a tank or camisole you're ready for Spring or Fall, maybe even Summer depending upon your weather

And what you'll love about wearing your Thistle Leaf Pullover:

• the curvy hem from beginning the lace pattern right away
• crisp, turned-hem cuffs on your sleeves - turned hems are a great way to deal with the curling nature of stockinette
• how the lace follows and flatters your curves, even though you didn't have to mess with shaping in lace
• the raglan lines, where the stockinette sleeves meet the lace body, drawing attention up to your beautiful face
• the delicate rolled neckline which doesn't distract from the lace and puts that stockinette curl to use

Size/Finished Measurements 
Women’s XS {S, M, L, 1X, 2X, 3X} (shown in size M with 4 inches negative ease)
Chest circumference: 28 {32, 36, 40, 44, 48, 52} inches/71.1 {81.3, 91.4, 101.6, 111.8, 121.9, 132.1} cm

Materials 
madelinetosh tosh sock (100% Merino; 395 yds/361 m per 3.53oz/100g); color: Ms. Taylor; 2 {2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4} skeins {approx. 575 (680, 790, 930, 1050, 1170, 1290) yds}
US6/4.0 mm 29-inch circular needle
Set of US6/4.0 mm double-pointed needles (DPNs)
Waste yarn
Stitch markers
Removable stitch markers
Tapestry needle

Gauge 
20 stitches x 28 rounds = 4”/10 cm in Stockinette Stitch

Skills Needed 
Casting on
Binding off
Knitting
Purling
Increasing
Decreasing
Working from charted or written instructions

Thanks! 
Technical Editing: Rachel Brown
Test Knitting: BillS25, frankiepaige, jessicakunttu, jgeorgieff07, puddinknits

Pattern is provided in both charted and written formats professionally formatted (by me!) to ensure you have everything you need to create your own beautiful Thistle Leaf Pullover.

Thistle Leaf Pullover is part of a bundle of four patterns inspired by The Unicorn Tapestries at The Cloisters in New York City. Inspiration for this design came from the magnificent tapestry known as The Unicorn in Captivity, where the Unicorn lounges amidst mille-fleurs, including a single white thistle just in front of the right side of his fence.

I hope you enjoy this pattern! There are two more new patterns and one re-release to share with you this week, so stay tuned :)

Thanks for stopping by, and happy knitting!
xoxo, Kathleen

quick + purly: 5 men's vests

There are lots of knitting patterns for us ladies (and I'm doing my part to bring more of them into the world - more on that next week), but there's good stuff out there for the gentlemen, too, if you know where to look.

Today I found five handsome colorwork vests that any man would be proud to wear. I have yet to steek anything I've knit, but these might tempt me over to (eek) cutting my knitting. What do you think?

1. Abbey Mill Farm Vest by Anne Podlesak (Wooly Wonka) $5.50 USD (looks like Interweave is having a sale at the moment, so this pattern is currently available for $3.85!) 

   

   I love Anne's pattern and color choices!

2. Eastlake - Revisited by Varian Brandon $8 USD 

   

   Varian TOTALLY knows what she's doing!

3. Wartime Farm Sleeveless Pullover by Susan Crawford £6 (GBP) 

   

   TV show-inspired, comes in ALL the sizes...

4. Windsor Waistcoat by Lorraine Condotta $9 (USD) 

   

   Isn't this an eye-catching pattern/color combo?

5. Kelebek by Elizabeth Morrison $6 (USD) 

   

   I'm entranced by the color pattern!

All images from the patterns' Ravelry pages. No copyright infringement intended - I just want to share the love!

There were a few more stranded vest patterns (including some beauties for the ladies) but not nearly as many as I would expect. Do you have a favorite to share? Even more importantly, do you have any advice on working stranded patterns like this and then steeking them? Let me know in the comments.

Thanks for stopping by, and happy knitting!
xoxo, Kathleen

Video: 2tLTCO

How do you cast on when you have lots of stitches? Do you find yourself running out of yarn before you've cast on enough? Or do you end up with a long-long-long tail of yarn, when you only have that one precious skein? Me, too! Well, "me, too" before I unvented* the Two-Tail Long-Tail Cast-on (2tLTCO, for short).

2tLTCO is excellent because:

• you won't run out of yarn
• your yarn tail won't be too long
• you won't have to measure or guess how much yarn you will need
• when blending two skeins of yarn (hand-dyes, especially), you'll be ready to start alternating skeins right away

Next time you're casting on more than a handful of stitches, give this one a try, and let me know what you think in the comments below.

Thanks for stopping by, and happy knitting!
xoxo,
Kathleen

*Mother of modern knitting, Elizabeth Zimmermann, used the term "unvented" quite often as she turned her brilliant engineering brain to the wonders of knitting. There is no way I invented the 2tLTCO, but I have not seen it mentioned in any of the usual places. It grew out of the provisional LTCO that I like to use: Why not use the sameyarn for both strands of the cast-on? Ta-da! Ooh, I just realized it would be great for single-row stripes, too.

P.S. I shared this video with newsletter subscribers last week. Subscribe to the weekly newsletter and get the good stuff first.

FO-tastic: Sotherton

Sotherton is a favorite of mine because it really shows what a knit can do for your figure. There are many lovely examples on Ravelry - here's a small sample of what beauties people have created...

lanismom looks lovely in hers - she used short rows to create a neckline that she preferred to the original boatneck.

AnnemarieErbel's version is so delicate, perhaps thanks to her color choice. Super-flattering.

Not only did ucagranduca make a lovely short-sleeved version, but she had a charming photo shoot complete with blooming roses.

How gorgeous is sewfancy in hers? And the addition of colorway-matching flowers takes these pictures to the next level.

In case you can't tell from her RavID, mandyandbingley is a serious Janeite. And her Sotherton is seriously flattering - love the extra-long sleeves.

All images from the projects' Ravelry pages. No copyright infringement intended - just want to share the love and appreciation!

In case you want to check out the rest of the fabulous Sothertons in existence:

Thanks for stopping by, and happy knitting!

xoxo, Kathleen

P.S. Have a finished object (FO) you'd like to share? Let me know in the comments (just click on that little pencil right down there) or by sending me a message on Ravelry.

quick + purly: 5 cowls

Spring spring springspring SPRING! Now that the weather is improving, I'm starting to look for portable projects that I can work on outside. Cowls (a.k.a. circular scarves) seem like a great option:

• worked in the round = less likely to lose a DPN
• one skein of yarn = squeeze it into a bag
• repetitive pattern = easy to remember

Circular scarves continue to be part of the uniform for so many people, at least here in NYC. They add a touch of flair to your outfit and make temperature fluctuations (inside and out) more bearable.

1. Appia by Hilary Smith Callis $5 USD 
   
2. loggia by Asa Tricosa €4 
   
3. Dandelion Days by Chrissy Prange $4 USD 
   
4. Jemma Cowl by Carolyn Kern $4 USD 
   
5. Apollo and Daphne Cowl by Katie Carmack $4 USD 
   

All images from the patterns' Ravelry pages. No copyright infringement intended - I just want to share the love!

Do you have a favorite cowl I missed? There are so many pretties! Oftentimes I wear a wide-triangle shawl bandit-style around my neck, but the cowl has one significant advantage: no ends to wrestle with.

Thanks for stopping by, and happy knitting!

xoxo, Kathleen

Mother's Day ideas: Upon the Spanish Main

Are you planning to knit something special for Mother's Day? How about Upon the Spanish Main - a pretty, wide-triangle shawl with a deep lace border (charted and written versions included). You will only need one skein of sock yarn (maybe that special one? the one with some cashmere and/or silk? you know the one) to create your own version of this lacy beauty.

Upon the Spanish Main is worked from the top-center out. The deep border of Spanish Lace (often called Frost Flowers) is worked on both sides, but the pattern is easier to master than you might think. I was intimidated by this one for years, but once I started working it, I realized that it made a lot of sense and the rows flowed from one to the next with only one big change when you switched from the leafy part to the openwork part. I promise that you can knit this one! I've even charted and written it out, so you've now run out of excuses. Go get that special yarn and get knitting ;)

Thanks for stopping by, and happy knitting!

xoxo, Kathleen

P.S. Looking for something not-so-lacy? Find more shawls here.

Meet me in the Forum

Are you on Ravelry? My RavID is Purly - go ahead and "friend" me. (Do you ever marvel over the effect the internet has had on the English language? "Email" and "friend" are verbs, "like" is a noun...)

I have a forum over there, too, which is a great place to chat. Come say "hello", meet other knitters, and have fun. Some of us are knitting-along on the Kellynch Cardigan, and test-knits are wrapping up for some patterns I'm very excited to share with you later this month.

Now that two weeks of Spring Break plus having Good Friday off is behind me (I love my kids, but it is hard to focus on knitting work when they are home), I could use some interaction with other adults. Come tell me what you're working on or share a yarn you've fallen for (I'm always looking for new yarns to work with).

Happy knitting!
xoxo,

Kathleen

P.S. With all the friend-ing and like-ing, don't forget to sign up for my newsletter. I share exciting announcements with you there first.