Le Tissier Designs

Of Larks and Linnets and Flying Fingers

Tag: shawl knitting

  • The Grande Pavilion KAL

    The Grande Pavilion KAL

    Now this is a Grand Pavilion – Brighton Pavilion on a glorious Summers’ Day.

    It’s Been a while since my last KAL, two years in fact. Life in all its glory has been making it self felt and there just hasn’t seemed to be time. But it is going to happen this year! And I am so excited!

    I am planning a Summer Knit-A-Long. Would you like to join me?

    There will be knitting and knitting with beads if you like.

    Think of a Garden Party in a fancy Gazebo or Pavilion with your best dress and tiers and tiers of your favourite goodies.

    Think knitting out in the park or your back yarn on a sunny day, there is a light breeze and there is champagne or a mint julip on the table beside you.

    Think perhaps of a gaily stripped tent, complete with ribbons and party favours! Perfect for afternoon knitting.

    Think of your favourite Summer Knitting Spot!

    Could you imagine knitting this garden! ? How clever is this!?

    A Zoom tea (read beverage of choice here LOL!) cause I know we all live all over the place and can’t get together except by Zoom! And Prizes, who doesn’t love a good prize. And did I mention some knitting? I will be starting a new thread in my Ravelry Forum for the KAL! Looking forward to seeing you there!

    Sign up will be on Ravelry. Forum Thread on Ravelry – LeTissier Designs Group – Grand Pavilion KAL.

    • Sign up – starts tomorrow, 7:00 am pacific time, May 14, Mother’s Day. For that day only sign-up is 75% off – code MUM
    • Sign-up May 15 to June 1 – sign-up for 50% off – code EARLY
    • Sign-up June 1 to June 30 – sign-up for 25% off – code Pavilion
    • Sign-up July 1 to close – full price – $8.00
    • Start date – Saturday July 15th
    • End date – Saturday September 2nd

    Skills used in the construction of the shawl include short rows, picking up stitches, basic and not so basic lace knitting skills. The shawl is a half circle shape, plus a little extra to sit nicely around the shoulders. The edging with be quite “frothy”. I will leave that up to your imagination.

    The shawl requires 800 yds of laceweight mohair and 800 yds of fingering weight wool (or favourite fibre), 4.0mm US #6circs 24 and 40 inches long and a spare dpn or 2, markers and the regular notions. If beading you will also need a .60 or .75mm crochet hook. If you are thinking of adding beads I still am not quite sure of how many I will be using and in what way. I have approx 3000 delica 8/0’s to play with. I most likely won’t use them all but I will be adding quite a few. Beads are always optional as I know that not everyone likes them.

    I went back to Ancient Arts for my yarn choice. I had used their Lascaux Fine for the High Summer KAL and loved the results. This Spring I fell in love with a colour of their Delicacy Lace, a mohair silk blend, the Mineral (varigated) colourway and the plan developed from there. My fingering weight yarn is the Lascaux Fine in the Wild Rose (a sophisticated pink) Colourway.

    Auditioning Beads
    Teaser Swatch

    Sign-up starts tomorrow! See you in the Forum.

    There will be more teasers as the next couple of months progresses!

    Happy Knitting

    Lynette

  • Juniper Moon Spring 2023

    Juniper Moon Spring 2023

    *Juniper Moon Yarns released 8 shawls onto Ravelry that I had designed for them over the last few months.  Each one is a different.  Knit with different fibres, different weights of yarn and different shapes.  Below are the covers of each pattern.

    My personal favourites – the ones I would have in my wardrobe and wear over and over are Tradition.  I may have to reknit that one for myself.  Dewey – just so pretty with the beaded edge and Grand Pennant – simple and elegant!

    So yesterday was an exciting day – to see the patterns professionally done and available to all!

    I hope that you have a fabulous day today!

    Be well and knit happy!

    Lynette

    PS – header is a detail from Tradition. It is fully reversible with flowers on one side and stripes on the other! Definitely my favourite!

  • New and Noteworthy

    New and Noteworthy

    I have been busy!

    I am currently working on a few patterns for Gathering Yarns –

    • Cats in the Cradle – baby blanket or shawl with coordinating beanies.
    • Funky Brimmed Hat with Bad-dana Cowl – Hat modelled by Glorious Gertrude
    • Caahh…shmere with beads swatch – lusious lace tank in the future.
    • Cashmere beaded Fingerless Mitts – The Bee’s Knees!
    • Cable Cool Balaklava and Mitts
    • Cable Cool vest.

    For fun times in the future – beautiful handmade glass buttons.

    Ada made the beautiful buttons – Ada Babys Beads on Facebook – and I made her this hat with her favourite hearts! I finished the hat with one of her buttons.

    Well, I got the first box from the Beyond Merino Club (hosted by The Small Bird Workshop and Sweet Paprika. It contained 2 hanks of gorgeous, soft Corriedale sheeps wool from the Falkland Islands, one a natural grey and the other a beautiful deep Lagoon blue. Sweet Paprika did the dyeing. I made a half hap shawl. I finished it with I-cord edging and a couple of big, fat tassels. It will be part of the Happiness Hap pattern – coming soon!

    We are planning the next session of classes for Mad About Ewe Fine Yarns. I am planning to teach Mosaic Knitting. The first sample is done – a funky little Cloche – finished with a little tassel. I do love tassels. It is knit with Fleece Artist BFL DK and some Drops Kid-Silk.

    For myself – I am working on a sweater. I just started it last night. And like most sweaters for myself it will most likely get stalled along the way! You never know! I might surprise myself! LOL!

    It is pretty. Some soft mohair from Fleece Artist and a just a few little beads for show!

    Be well and knit Happy!

    I am trying to stay mellow and keep with the flow that comes with knitting. I hope that works for you too!

    Lynette

  • Completed

    Completed

    Today I submitted my last pattern to Juniper Moon Farm Yarns for a Spring Collection of shawls, eight in all. Pretty much the bulk of my knitting for the last eighteen months has been patterns and samples for Juniper Moon. The first 16 pattern are now all available from Ravelry and your LYS – if they carry Juniper Moon Yarns. I am not sure when the Spring patterns are released but I will certainly write about them at that time!

    It has been a very productive time for me personally as well. I have so many patterns half written and with samples knit that I am not sure quite where I am going to start….

    Though usually I start with the most recently knit and work my way backwards…. LOL!

    So Recent Knits include the class samples: They will be out first, before anything else! Needs must after all!

    We are in the middle of our Winter Classes at work so I did a couple of new pieces. A couple of hats. A new fair-isle hat for a fair-isle class and a redo of an older hat pattern – Burka Leaf, now called Galadriel’s Gift. Galadriel’s Gift is one of my favourite patterns, a beautiful beaded lace cap. And a new shawl, a small Shetland style Hap with the beautiful striped border and simple lace edging.

    So these things are completed! And patterns will be available in a couple of weeks.

    A busy start to the new year! I hope that you are completing some old projects and contemplating some new ones!

    Be well and Happy Knitting!

    Lynette

  • The Year Ahead

    The Year Ahead

    Last week we had one of the most colourful sunrises ever! My husband dragged me out and we raced down to Departure Bay Beach to capture the colours and light before the show ended! I hope that it is a promise of things to come!

    2023 is already shaping up to be an interesting year.

    I have signed up for the Sweet Paprika / SmallBird Workshop Yarn Box Club. This is a continuation of my own exploration into breed specific yarns as each box contains yarn, natural and dyed, from a specific sheep breed. Information about the yarn, breed, source, best uses etc. plus there will be zoom meetings about each box. I decided to join just as they ran out of the first run of boxes – of course! But this week they added some more subscriptions so I am in – I am very stoked about this.

    Every two months there will be a new box with the first one arriving mid-February! Six new yarns, and new ideas always come with new yarns. Today is the last day to sign up for the full shot!

    As well, Tom and I are going on a very small cruise – as in small boat, local waters exploration! The trip is around the end of May and we going to see and do things that we have never tried before.

    MotherShip Adventures specialize in Kayak Cruises (I am not a kayaker – a little too up close and personal), but they also do a couple of smaller cruises for history / photography buffs. We are going on one of these. The history and geography of Discovery Islands, Bute Inlet and Desolation Sound will be the focus of our tour. Hiking, zodiak trips and small island adventures await us. Hopefully lots of whale viewing and other wild life encounters! This will be a unique opportunity for us to discover more about our environment and enjoy a very up close and personal journey into the maritime history of B.C.

    The boat is the Columbia III and was originally a hospital ship that serviced the small communities that dotted the rugged coast of B.C. It was totally renovated and restored to become the tour boat that it is today!

    Of course there is always knitting and designing. That will never stop. More patterns, more yarns, ie – the yarn boxes offer intriguing opportunities. I am developing some designs for Gathering Yarns. This is an exciting new opportunity for me, new yarns, working with a Canadian Co. I am the first designer that they have worked with and I hope that we both have a great experience.

    Below are th new patterns that I will be releasing over the next few weeks! Multiple hats, a new Salish Sea Sweater Pattern – this one the Great Bear! and a new shawl, complete with a lovely wide beaded edging!

    We will also be starting classes up again at Mad About Ewe! I do love teaching people to see the amazing possibilities that can be created by yarn and needles. So, as always, knitting will be the focus and creative outlet of the year ahead!

    I hope that your Year ahead is happy and healthy and full of the things that make you happy!

    Lynette

  • Season’s Greetings

    Season’s Greetings

    Never quite sure how to acknowledge this Season. For me it means Merry Christmas, not because of any religious meaning, but because it was a merry time of the year for our family. One that included presents, good food, and many friends and family and laughter, there was always laughter. It was my Mother’s favourite time of year and the whole house reflected her joy in the Season. Because of this – it is also my favourite time of the year!

    So Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukka, Blessings this Solstice or however you and yours celebrate this Season of Light – I wish you all much joy and love.

    Every December for the last 7 or so years I have published a pattern on Ravelry that I make free for the month of December though January 1. It is my way of thanking you and wishing you all a Wonderful Holiday Season.

    This year’s pattern is the Mendenhall Shawl. This Shawl took a couple of years to come to fruition. It was going to be a joint project between Selena Miskin of Wayfaring Yarns and myself. Selena’s yarns and my patterns. We were the Sweater Sisters.

    Beautiful Mendenhall Glacier – those colours!

    Selena used to dye the most beautiful yarns, but due to health problems she hasn’t been able to dye any beautiful things for a couple of years. I kept hoping that would change – but life doesn’t always work that way. So, I am releasing the as a gift from us both.

    Included in the Mendenhall Shawl pattern is the code to purchase the co-ordinating Mendenhall Hat pattern. If you have purchased the 7 Hats More ebook you will not need to the code as the hat pattern is already in your ebook – the shawl will automatically be added to your ebook in your Ravelry library. This will be the last pattern of the book.

    Good Health, Happy Holidays and a very Merry Season to us all!

    Lynette

  • Work it… Work it….

    Work it… Work it….

    How do you work? It quiet solitude? In the hub hub of a busy room? On a neat desk with everything laid out? In chaos?

    Everyone – creative or non creative has a favourite place and way of working. There are even magazines devoted to creative work spaces! A friend of mine collects them for ideas and dreams of what she would like her ideal creative space to be like. I would really like to know about your spaces. Is it a dedicated space? A shed or studio out back? A room with lots of shelves and space designed just for you and your creativity? A spot in your living room?

    I have that too – a spot in the living room, surrounded by yarn and chaos, where I sit and knit and be part of the family dynamic.

    I would like my formal workspace to be tidy – I really would! I seldom achieve that as I would rather be creating than tidying – and when I start to tidy ideas come out of the chaos and bite me in the proverbial a… and all thoughts of tidying go out the window as I dive into a new idea! I have often said that I work best in Chaos. And right now Chaos is my constant companion.

    Right now my workspace has achieved the honour of being the messiest and most chaotic it has ever been! Perhaps this is a good thing as I have needed to be more creative in my knitting designs than ever. Its this big new “thing” I am doing. It requires a lot of time and creativity – and as I still am working full time – my housekeeping – never a great deal – has completely fallen to the wayside.!

    This big “thing” is a designing job. A largish number of patterns in varying yarns for a largish yarn company – in a smallish piece of time! It has been so much fun and so challenging in a creative way! I will share more as I can! I have had help with sample and test knitting – we all need help sometimes. I am learning how to ask for it as needed.

    bees and butterflies

    There have small breaks where I have worked on my own patterns as I waited for yarns to arrive. Bees and Butterflies was created in one of those breaks. I should have been tidying – but you know how the story goes! LOL!

    My desktop – it can barely be seen right now! Much more chaotic than normal!

    UPDATE – Started this a few months ago – in the height of the crazy creative time. I am in a bit of a lull right now – working on things for myself and looking forward to the next spate of crazy times. Still can’t really talk about the earlier project but the patterns are due to drop any day! Then I will be talking like crazy!

    I am almost finished the Shetland Fusion Ebook. I “found” another pattern that I had started before Covid and it is perfect for Shetland Fusion! Summer Shells, a half Pi shawl that features Shetland Lace Shell Patterns! Umm and maybe a few beads.

    Summer Shells
    Fascinator
    Shetland Wheel
    Shetland Wheel
    Lizzie’s Hap
    Plumier 2
    Plumier

    So it has been a good day – so much accomplished – but no housework! LOL!

    Wrote a couple of blogs, did some knitting, made a pie – making dinner – how has your day gone?

    Be well and Happy Knitting

    Lynette

  • There’s a Little Spring in My Step

    There’s a Little Spring in My Step

    It is official – Spring is happening here. The Indian Plum bushes are starting to green out and the birds are singing a bright and happy song. This is the time of renewal and rebirth; of flowers and leaves emerging from the dark earth; of ideas bursting forth from our heads and fingers in much the same way!

    My brain is buzzing with idea’s tried and new ones waiting! I have yarn to knit and patterns to write – but the knitting is calling out more loudly. Old projects are begging to be finished and the new projects are waiting impatiently for their turn. While I contemplate how to bring order to my ideas I watch the world outside my windows change with the the advent of Spring.

    Squash Blossom Dreams in Buffalo Wool Co. Sexy, hand-dyed by Lorna’s Laces is on the short list to be finished this year.

    The Robin’s next door are busy building their nest in the evergreen ivy on the tree out side the window and I love watching them flit back and forth as they bring bits of string, grass and tiny twigs that all disappear into the green leaves of the Ivy. These Robins have been coming back for many years – I imagine that they are the same birds – and build their nest in the same spot every year.

    We walked around Buttertubs Marsh this morning. It was humming with life, birds, robins, starlings, chickadees, Canada geese, mallard and white headed ducks mostly, but I watched a fat brown squirrel as he leisurely crossed the path in front of us. He did a good job feeding himself over the winter! The people were out too! “Good morning’s” and “Hi’s” making the air happy, and the smiles on most faces, those smiles, making the heart happy!

    I have just about finished work on a big project and I am starting to look forward to and plan the next project. I can’t say much about the big project – except that it involves a big yarn company, pretty yarns and quite a few patterns!

    Butterflies and Bees Hat under construction.
    Butterflies and Bees Cowl

    The next yarn project will involve finishing up a couple of shawls. One I haven’t looked at for over 2 years and the other I started last year! In between I will be working on patterns for the hats I started last fall! Oh Yeah, and the Japanese Lace cowl and hat that I sort of snuck in there! No rest for the wicked! And I do so love doing what I do!

    I have been receiving a great deal of support for my creative journey lately – and from some new and unexpected sources! Life is good!

    I hope that you are all well and moving forward in your individual creative journeys.

    Happy Creating

    Lynette

  • Lizzies’ Hap and Other Fine Things

    Lizzies’ Hap and Other Fine Things

    Happy New Year! It is so hard to believe that it is February already!

    Life has been busy, chaotic, and generally a little off kilter of late. So what is new you might ask? That is sort of how life has been generally for most of us right now. That is the feedback I get from many!

    So I have been creating, working on patterns and waiting for the last bits of the kitchen to be finished. One cupboard is holding us up!

    The kitchen redo is done – except for the one cupboard and the tiling. Tiling won’t be done until the cupboard is in. The missing cupboard is my fault – I decided I needed it after the other other cupboards went in. So the one cupboard went into the queue and we wait. I will share before and after pictures when the kitchen is complete.

    I finally finished writing the pattern for Lizzies’ Hap or the Roamin’ Hap. It is now up on Ravelry. And I hope that you love it!

    This shawl was a long time coming.

    Lizzies’ Hap was an idea that I had been toying with ever since I knit the Roamin’ Hat for Kate Davies in 2018. It came into being in 2019/2020 as a result of Kate Davies’ design competition on “Place” and what it means to you. And then Covid hit and it languished as I struggled with the changes that Covid imposed and the emotions brought about by the concept of place and what it meant to me.

    Place for me meant family. My Grandmother Elizabeth, Lizzie to her friends, was part of my place.

    When I first started knitting, I would ask Granny what she would like me to knit for her. She asked me for a shawl, a shawl like the ones from home, Scotland. She loosely described it as a big square with a striped edge that was knitted. At this point I had no idea of where to begin. Instead, I knit her a sweater with thistles in pink and grey, her favorite flower and in her favourite colours.

    I wasn’t a skilled enough knitter at that time and didn’t know quite what she meant. She passed away before I had learned. Since then, I have learned both about the type of shawl she had wanted and how to make one.

    This is my second shawl for her, the first one was a very basic hap that I knit in 2010. Only the center square with the simple lace pattern was kept from that hap. This shawl has a “thistles and heather” fair-isle insert, a striped border and a fancy edging – just for her – because she was just that important.

    This shawl features a totally reversible fair-isle insert that acts as almost a collar detail when wearing the shawl.

    In most ways this is simply a traditional hap shawl, in the stitches chosen and the construction techniques used. How this is not a traditional hap shawl is in the insertion of an additional border between the center square and the lace border. This fair-isle border is what sets this shawl apart from a more traditional shawl. The fair-isle border basically gets knit twice to keep the backside neat and the shawl reversible.

    Lizzies’ Hap is the second pattern in the ebook Shetland Fusion. The third pattern, Shetland Fascinator should be out by the end of the month. Lots of knitting has been finished and coming together in the last couple of months.

    Shetland Fascinator, knit with Juniper Moon Farms Findley Lace

    And I am working on new things – like this cool stitch pattern that I found in a Japanese Stitch library! I am knitting a cowl first – an easy way to learn and practice a new stitch and then I will make a hat to co-ordinate with it! It is a variation on the bee or butterfly pattern, which I have used in a couple of other pieces – I really love the look. But I have never seen it quite like this, as part of an all over pattern.

    Below is a video how-to bridge the gap that is created while knitting. The rows before are a set-up for this row.

    Of bees and butterflies 🦋

    And I just had to buy this new set of interchangeable needles from Lykke – the Cypra copper needles. They are beautiful! I love copper things. I have several of my grandmother’s pieces. And when these needles became available I, ahem, felt the need to own them. I was not disappointed.

    Copper and Verdigris
    Swans island organic merino in the verdigris colourway
    Covid be Damned – beaded randomly placed butterflies
    Shimmering Spring – butterflies in a column
    Bees and Butterflies!

    So life keeps on giving gifts, always new ideas and new opportunities, I am so lucky to be able to work with what I love and be able to create with my hands!

    I hope that you have a wonderful day! Be well and knit happy!

    Lynette

  • #Wovember

    #Wovember

    I am participating in #Wovember this year. Not sure how I missed it in past years – it has been around since 2011! Though I suppose I live it everyday. I am a proponent for all things woolly and wonderful and have been as long as I have worked at my LYS!

    What is #Wovember you might ask? It is the celebration of all things woolly! It is the sharing of wool related knowledge! It is your favourite wool sweater and how it came into being! It is your favourite yarn store! It is the person who shears the sheep! It the person who dyes the wool! etc.

    Or, you could check out the link in the first paragraph and learn the history of how and why it started, or you could just join in and follow @ithoughiknewhow on Instagram. She will be posting the list of prompts on Wednesday October 27th. You can participate by posting to Instagram something based on the prompt of the day. The start date is November 1st!

    Other ways to participate in #Wovember, include but are not limited to…. you just need to share anything woolly that you are doing with the #wovember hashtag, comment on other participants shares and/or wear something woolly every day!

    Below is an example of a prompt sheet from.a couple of years ago.

    The idea is to use the prompt to post something that is on topic for the prompt. Ie why wool? Is the prompt. A picture of my favourite wool sweater might be my answer, because it keeps me cozy. Or it could be intrepreted as why is wool important to you? Environmental issues, Sustainability issues could be part of your prompt. You decide.

    I will be participating. I am also going to figure out a way to offer up a pattern a day as a prize through my Instagram feed. Just not sure how as yet.

    Be well and knit happy! Wear Wool!

    Lynette