Image © Interweave Press

Although we’re a little late to the show (can you tell March is “catch-up” month?), we’re really happy to announce Kate’s newest published pattern in Knitscene, the Conifer Shawl (rav link).  The inspiration for this shawl came when Kate was on vacation with her family in Maine.  Every summer, they leave the hot, humid city and spend the end of August on the rocky shores of Flanders Bay.  Part beach, part woods, it is a quiet, cool and amazing place to spend the late weeks of summer.  (And, typically, a place where Kate finds the time to finish a good chunk of knitting).

We  know Kate looks sad.  She is not.  When she smiles in these sort of photos, she tends to look a little crazy.  This is also not the gorgeous rocky shores of Maine, but her backyard in Philadelphia.

This past summer, Kate’s vacation was particularly exciting, as it was part family trip, part mini-honeymoon and part celebration, as we were in the final stages of working out our contract with Interweave for a book featuring our designs and Fibre Company yarns.  We’ve been alluding to it for months now, and now that the projects are knit and we can take a gulp of air, we’re proud to announce that we are doing a book with Interweave!  More on that in the next post, including the title, focus and theme of the projects and a few tidbits.

The shawl was designed and knit while Kate was in Maine.  The sample is knit out of Canopy Worsted in Chiclet Tree, which is perfect yarn for knitting of this sort, as it is soft, drapey and has great stitch definition.

Image © Interweave Press

We really love the way the shawl is styled in the magazine — all 3 photos show of the versatility of an accessory such as this.  We both wear shawls and scarves for many months out of the year, either as functional additional warming layer or accessory purely for “looks”, and really like to mix traditionally inspired knitwear such as this paired with a more modern wardrobe.

Image © Interweave Press

The shawl is also part of a really informative article by Miriam Felton on the construction of triangular shawls , and this one, like the Springtime Bandit, is an example of “top down” construction.  The shawl is designed to be a manageable “kerchief” or scarf size, but the construction lends itself really well to modifications, as each section can be worked as many or as few times as the knitter would like to customize the shawl to fit his/her size preference.

Kate found herself last Thursday — for the first time in 8 months! eep! — without a knitting deadline looming over her head.  She absolutely loves the graphic look of lace on larger yarn and needles, but wanted to change things up a bit as she already knit the sample shawl.  So, armed with a few skeins of Road to China Light in one of the new colors, Peridot, she started knitting the Conifer shawl at a slightly smaller gauge with more repeats of the main Lattice Chart.

The photo above is 4 repeats of the Lattice Section, and measures about 26″ wide and 17″ along the diagonal, stretched but unblocked.  The original is 30″ wide and 19″ along the diagonal for the Conifer section, so she will probably do a 5th or 6th repeat, plus the 1-12 rows required for the transition.  Even with the smaller gauge, it is proving to be a quick knit, so hopefully next week there will be a FO post to show!

Go grab a copy of Knitscene, some Canopy Worsted (or Road to China Light!) and knit one for yourself!