Author Archives: julesmoon

big star

I have a new design up on Ravelry! But before I go into it, I first have to tell you the back story…

One of my most favourite knits ever is this big shawl:

Faroese

I first saw this traditional Faroese shawl in one of my very favourite knitting books, Nordic Knits by Susana Pagholdh, not long after I started knitting. I was floored by its beautiful simplicity but intimidated by the idea of lace and so I filed it in the back of my mind as something to come back to if I stuck to knitting and ever got “good enough to make it”. I finally came back to it a few years ago and had such a ball knitting it, both for the joy of the pattern itself but also in the knowledge that I was not only good enough to knit it but that I’d found such a lovely craft that I had indeed stuck to.

I’ve worn it most cold days since then, loving its incredibly light but warm fabric (it only weighs 350gm!) and the way I feel so enveloped in it. And so many people comment on it, especially in the yarn shops that I’ve worked in. Unfortunately Nordic Knits is no longer in print (though you can score the odd copy second hand- do watch out for it as it’s a real beauty) and the other book it is found in is only available in Faroese and it is always disappointing to tell people that. So that I decided to use it as a springboard for my own design, using the same traditional elements: bottom up construction, lace panel, central gore and the ubiquitous fringe!

This is Big Star!

Big Star

Detail of the Big Star lace panel

Jeni Reid’s beautiful handspun Big Star

Just like the original shawl that inspired it, this one is a large, cozy shawl incorporating the characteristic features of a traditional Faroese shawl: garter-stitch body, large graphic lace panel, central gore, shoulder shaping and fringe. It is constructed from the bottom up, with garter stitch to start, an interesting lace section next and rapid decreasing to finish, it’s a surprisingly quick knit with just enough to keep you interested. Big enough to wrap a couple of times around your neck, it can also be worn in the traditional way- wrapped around the waist and tied at the back… Either way, Big Star keeps you as warm as toast!

Big Star owes much to the original design but is a hybrid, combining traditional lace motifs from both Faroese and other knitting cultures of the North Atlantic and Baltic that, together, form a series of stars and evoke the folk knitting and warm, utilitarian shawls of knitting cultures around the world.

I was lucky enough to have a lovely bunch of knitters to test-knit it without even having seen the new version of the design- how ace are they! Thank you so much, Kerry, Jeni, Laura, Leona, Liz, Mel, Susana and Zoe! I’ll post some shots of their beautiful versions here over the next few days.

I also sought the help of a tech editor for this one and found a great support in Joeli, who answered all my many rookie questions about pattern writing and chart software and was particularly helpful in suggesting formats for charting such a large lace panel.

Special thanks goes to Jeni Reid, photographer extraordinaire who not only spun up a special Shetland fleece that she’d bought at last year’s Shetland Wool Week to make her own stunning version but also took these beautiful photos of my version of the shawl. We had a hilarious time trying to get some good shots but Jeni did a great job at enduring my grimaces and general dislike for having my photo taken and captured the shawl and Dundee beautifully. Next time, however, I’ll ignore the dark blue yarn in my stash and reach for something more easily photographed that shows up lace well!

Seafield Lane, Dundee

St Peter’s garden, Dundee

Faroese shawls are traditionally made in the natural shades of the local sheep in yarns produced on the islands, such as Snaeldan aran-weight, but I deliberately left the yarn weight for this design flexible, ranging from fingering to light worsted; lighter yarns will create a lighter, slightly smaller shawl like mine with more open lace, such as mine, whereas Jeni’s and Mel’s are both heavier and warmer.

Both the original shawl and Big Star were knitted in Rowanspun DK, sadly discontinued but a great example of the type of yarn that I think is most suited to this large shawl- you’ll want to use a light, airy woollen-spun yarn that both traps air to keep you warm but has long metrage, resulting in a light but very warm shawl.

Suitable yarns include Brooklyn Tweed Loft or Shelter, Elsa Woolen-spun Sport Weight Cormo, Jamieson and Smith Jumper Weight 2ply or Jamieson’s Spindrift, Moeke Elena, Peace Fleece DK Sport, Rowan Felted Tweed DK or Rowanspun DK, Schoolhouse Press Unspun Icelandic, Shilasdair Luxury DK and Snaeldan 2ply.

After seeing Jeni’s beautiful version in handspun, I’m actually considering making a third with the fleece I bought in Shetland… did I mention that I’d bought one?! Now I just need to find a wheel to borrow ; )

Happy in my new cosy Big Star!

Big Star is now up on Ravelry, just in time for the northern winter- enjoy! Do let me know if you make it- I’d love to you see your version and hear any thoughts about it…

dye workshop results

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Yesterday I held a day-long workshop in dyeing with plants at the Glasgow Botanics. We worked with a single dyebath of madder, in my eyes one of the loveliest dye plants around, and explored the variety of colours you can achieve from this one bath through the use of different mordants, modifiers and fibres. Each time I teach this class, I see different results! Participants made organic merino yarn and silk fabric shade cards, whereas I dyed a few small skeins and fabrics to expand on the variety of textures and shades…

A few of my favourite results…

Madder on silk, wool and other fibres

Madder on cellulose and silk fibres results in beautiful terracottas and pinks, while on protein fibres, oranges, rusts and reds. I was particularly excited to see a true red on a skein of alum-mordanted Jamieson and Smith Shetland Supreme- normally I’d expect to have to play around with pH to achieve a true red but this was a neutral bath so it must be the type of fibre that resulted in that fantastic shade…

Madder on cotton lace and Shetland yarns

Madder on Shetland (previously dyed with Prunus sp) and Falkland fibre resulted in rust shade

Madder on organic merino with various pre-and-post treatments, tannin/ alum-mordanted cotton and silk velvet and yarns of various different sheep breeds

Organic merino with various pre-and-post treatments (front), tannin/ alum-mordanted cotton and silk velvet fabrics (middle) and yarns of various different sheep breeds (top)

I also added a stunning piece of embroidery to the bath, one that I’d found at my lucky charity shop where I find so many treasures. It was such an incredible piece of work that I was a bit unsure whether to do so, especially after one of the participants, an very talented embroiderer, confirmed that it was highly unusual and skilled work! But the combination of sheer silk base fabric and denser cotton shadow-work was begging for colour to highlight the embroidery so I popped it in!

Thrifted embroidery piece- silk base fabric with cotton shadow-work

It is a little patchy so needs another dip but I’m so thrilled with how it picked up that dusty terracotta colour. Such amazing work.

As part of the day, we took a walk around the gardens in the rain, looking at some of the plants growing there that yield dyes and some of the markers that tell you that a plant might hold dye potential, and it was such a treat to have not only the bed dedicated to dye plants but the entire gardens themselves as a teaching resource. I’m planning to hold more similar workshops there in the spring, by which time I should have more burners, pots and a bounty of foraged dyestuff that participants can really get their hands wet with! A huge thanks to everyone who came yesterday and, if you’re interested in coming to another, keep an eye out here and on Instagram for announcements of dates : )

jokulsarlon

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A new shawl from the beautiful pattern of my very clever friend, Zoe (of Glasgow’s Queen of Purls), made from the leftovers of my Isager Winter Jumper….

Jokulsarlon

It’s not at all perfect in its sequence of colours… Zoe used a beautiful, smoothly graded rainbow, whereas mine is not! Although my colours are in the sequence of a rainbow, they don’t look like one at all. But I love it nonetheless and am so pleased to have found a good use for the many lovely colours of Spinni, a yarn that I love so much and that holds so many memories from the making of that jumper. In a nice twist, I cast this on on the ferry over to Shetland and knitted most of the grey section over Shetland Wool Week so this yarn is now worked into another project that will be close to my heart…

Jokulsarlon

The pattern is designed for Jamieson and Smith 2ply Jumper Weight, a lovely woolly 4ply, and 4.5mm needles but, because Spinni is a heavy laceweight, I jumped down to 3.75mm for mine and it made a light, warm and supple fabric that should be lovely to wear. I just knitted in the silvery grey until I’d used up the whole 50gm skein and then joined in the smaller balls (and used a felted join so that there were only two ends to weave in at the end).

I did agonise about how to work the stripes, anticipating that as they got wider as the shawl grew, each row would use more yarn and so I’d have fewer rows… But I wanted to use as much of the yarn as possible so in the end I winged it, just being sure to change colours on a right-side row so that the colour changes are nice and clean. Although the stripes do get narrower, I’ve found it actually doesn’t look that strange, probably because the eye is distracted by all that colour going on ; )

Jokulsarlon

I love this take on the traditional Shetland Razor Shell pattern and found it soothing and simple to knit with just enough to keep it interesting. Which, along with the stripes, means that what might seem a bit epic- a heavy laceweight lace shawl measuring 190cm from tip to tip- was a quick and lovely knit.

The perfect design for scraps of yarn- in case you have any…

dyeing with elderberry

shop update- Leona’s pouches