Butterfly

I was finished my post when Candice sent an email. I love her bright colours.

I thought you might be interested in what one of your customers is knitting during the time of isolation. I decided I’d find a pattern that used stash yarn since yarn stores can no longer fulfill orders. It gave me a sense of purpose. I found Luverne. Then, I dove into my bag of fingering and sock yarn and wound up with this. It’s been great fun and an endless source of visual delight. I call this my Isolation Wrap and plan to knit it till our isolation ends or I run out of yarn, which ever comes first. Four days down . . . 

Now I want to make this! In these colours. I love the lime and orange and purple mixed with some grey/beige. I might have to go yarn shopping on Monday 😋I'll share pictures.

You can purchase the pattern for Luverne on Ravelry.

Luverne is a randomly striped, simple chevron shawl with a knit as you go “mock” icord edge. Once established, the two row pattern is easy to remember. The sample shown is knitted in fingering weight yarn, but it can readily be adjusted for a sport or DK weight. Luverne is also a small town in south Alabama, and is self acclaimed to be the “friendliest city in the south”!

I spent some time in the store this morning. While I was there I received a few panicked phone calls. Customers needed colour advice for a new project. The first was for Butterfly.

The shawl uses two skeins of a multi coloured yarn. We used Uneek Fingering for our sample along with a solid fingering weight. Our sample is SweetGeorgia Tough Love Sock. You can also use Hedgehog Sock.

This short row shawl looks lovely in either a long transition mutli-colorway or in placed color OR with bits and pieces from your STASH. 

Instructions are expressed in a new and unique method which I developed and that most American knitters are familiar with. The instructions let you know when you are on the right side or wrong side and gives extensive stitch counts. For some, it takes away a lot of the confusion sometimes found in other expressions of short rows. 

There is a lot of counting and this is very important. It is not a great project to knit while only partially focused in the short row sections. But there is also a lot of plain, garter knitting employed. For every short row section, there are rows in between that are more simple to execute. 

A few pattern notes: 

Pre-reading of this pattern can cause confusion. If it does not make sense when doing this, try casting on and only reading a bit ahead to see if it starts to make sense as you work.

I like this statement. Many knitters come in and tell me that they don't understand their pattern. We start reading the pattern and they are worried about the collar on a bottom up sweater. Or how the sleeves are sewn in. Or how to pick up the stitches for the button band. 99% of the time it will make perfect sense when you get there.

Uneek 3012 with nightshade or violet

Uneek 3019 with iris or Cedar

Uneek 3010 with lollipop or charcoal. Our sample is 3010 with charcoal.

Uneek 3006 with charcoal

Uneek 3008 with Cedar

Uneek 3003 with Kelp

These aren't my best pictures but I was in a hurry. I have my Throwback laid out and I'm preparing to steek.

Before cutting you do a crochet reinforcement. I did it in orange so that you can see what it looks like. When I am ready to cut I will do the reinforcement in the same yarn as the sweater was knit in. Take a look at Tin Can's blog for more information about the crochet reinforcement.

When I cast on my cardigan I added 8 stitches to the pattern. Four on each side of the cut line. I probably didn't need that many but it was better to be safe.

After I cut the extra stitches will be folded to the inside of the cardigan and tacked down.

It's rainy and foggy here so I decided to leave the cutting until tomorrow or Monday. I want to sit at the kitchen table with the sun shining so that I can see better. I'm going to start knitting the first sleeve.