New Pattern: Calliopsis (and Cowl Sale!)

I'm excited to share a lovely new cowl for spring: Calliopsis.

Knit in two colors of Fibre Co. Meadow, Calliopsis is a light and airy lace confection. It can be styled lots of different ways, depending on your mood, your outfit, or the weather.

The pattern is on sale—along with my other cowl patterns—through Sunday, April 9. Use the coupon code COWL25 to save 25% on cowls in my Ravelry store (magazine patterns are not included). The code can be used as many times as you like.

Named after the flower Coreopsis (also known as Calliopsis or—less romantically—Tickweed), Calliopsis features two pretty lace stitches, each knit in its own color, separated by striped bands. These bands, knit back and forth on a circular needle, employ a really fun technique of sliding the stitches across the cable and knitting them again with the other color on the same side of the work. I first encountered this technique back in 2008 when I knit Norah Gaughan's Almost Garter Scarf. It's so clever!

Calliopsis is worked flat from end to end, from a provisional cast on. After blocking, the two ends of the piece are joined with a three-needle bind off to form a loop. Instructions for these techniques are provided in the pattern, and the lace stitches are given in both charts and line-by-line written instructions.

It's easy to customize this design. Aside from choosing any two colors you like, you can also vary the lengths of the two lace sections, to make a cowl that's uniquely your own. 

Knit in a laceweight or light fingering weight yarn, Calliopsis is the perfect accessory for spring. I knit the sample in Fibre Co. Meadow—a luscious blend of merino, baby llama, silk, and linen—in Prairie (for the main color) and Bergamot (for the contrast color). As I mentioned in my previous post, after I swatched with Meadow I felt no need to look at other yarns for this design. It has an exquisite softness and drape—it's almost weightless—but a really pleasing rustic quality, too. This was my first time knitting with Meadow and I'm sure it won't be my last.

If you get bored knitting scarves or cowls that are "the same thing over and over," you'll love Calliopsis. The lace and color changes are engaging and keep the knitting fun. 

As always, I am grateful to Jenny Sennott for her careful tech editing. I'm so fortunate to have her eyes on my patterns, making sure they come to you error free.

Thank you very much for reading!

Unrumpled

Lace looks so unimpressive while you're knitting it ...

The rumpled stitches are like ugly ducklings, awaiting their transformation ...

But once lace gets a good soak in wool wash and is blocked, it's an ugly duckling no more. How I love that part of the process! It never fails to make my heart leap just a little (sometimes a lot).

This is a new cowl design I'm working on, knit in Fibre Co. Meadow, a light fingering (almost laceweight) yarn. Usually, I like to audition a few yarns for a design, to get a feel for what fiber content and weight might be best. But once I made a couple swatches with Meadow, I felt no need to look at other yarns. Without a doubt, this rustic blend of merino, baby llama, silk, and linen was "the one." 

There's still some work to do on the pattern, plus photography, but it won't be too long a wait. Look for the pattern in early April.

P.S.  Did you know that free patterns are one of the rewards for my Patreon page? For a pledge of $2 per month, you'll receive a coupon code for one free pattern of your choice. For a $3 pledge, you'll get two free patterns. To learn more and see the progress of my Stitch Journal 2017 project, follow me on Patreon.

New Pattern: Singing Beach Cowl

I'm pleased to share a new pattern today: Singing Beach, a pretty garter stitch-and-lace cowl. 

With its scalloped edges and garter stitch lace, Singing Beach brings to mind seashells, waves, and shifting sands—memories of sunny days at the beach. It's discounted 25% in my Ravelry store through November 30 with the coupon code SCALLOPS.

The cowl is named after a popular beach in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts, where the sand "sings" or "squeaks" when walked upon. Years ago when my sisters and I were young and shared an apartment in Boston, we had some great times taking the train up to Singing Beach on summer weekends.

It's knit in the round with just one skein of fingering weight or sock yarn. It works especially well with semi-solid, hand-dyed yarns like Watercolors II from Periwinkle Sheep (shown here in the Rhinebeck 2016 colorway).

Singing Beach can be styled many different ways. It's a quick knit, making it a great choice for holiday gift knitting. And there are no charts to follow—the stitch patterns are written out. 

Singing Beach was tech edited by Jenny Sennott, who always does such a great job of checking all the little details for accuracy.

I hope you love this design as much as I do! Thank you very much for reading.

New Pattern: Sweetdrop Cowl

On this gorgeous New England day—so bright and full of color—I'm excited to announce a new pattern that's just perfect for these crisp fall days. The Sweetdrop Cowl is now available in my Ravelry, Etsy, and Craftsy pattern stores, as well as at LoveKnitting.

Pattern: Sweetdrop Cowl by Bonnie Sennott

Yarn: Luna Grey Fiber Arts Zeta

You can make this cowl in one of three sizes—I made the smallest circumference, 24 inches; the other options are 32 and 48 inches. For each, you'll need 200 (275, 400) yards of DK weight yarn. For the sample, I used Zeta, a DK weight, hand-dyed wool/silk blend from Luna Grey Fiber Arts. The colorway is called Harbor, just one of many subtle, beautiful colors available from Luna Grey, where the pattern + yarn are available as a kit. I absolutely loved knitting up the cowl in Zeta. It is fabulously soft and the color—reminiscent of a shimmering lake—kept me entranced.

Sweetdrop is worked in the round on a circular needle—no seaming or grafting required. Featuring a pretty, easy-to-work textured stitch, it knits up quickly. Depending on the color you choose, it could easily be a unisex design—great for holiday gifts!

This is the fifth and final pattern in my All You Need Is One collection, featuring designs that require just one skein of yarn (the others are On the Other Hand, Conklaree, Hulst, and Hop Brook). I had fun putting this collection together throughout 2015 and trying out some new-to-me yarns like Luna Grey Zeta. I hope you've enjoyed it, too!

Credits and thanks go to:

• Jenny for editing the pattern (superb work, as always!)
• Jackie at Luna Grey Fiber Arts for offering the pattern as a kit. I hope you'll go take a look at her colorways and give Zeta a try. (Check out all the other kits, too!)

Thank you very much for reading.