pattern | The Blue Brick | Photography and Handcrafts by Shireen Nadir

Posts Tagged 'pattern'

The Johnathan Hat

Published March 23, 2013 Knitting 1 Comment
Tags: cables, celtic, hat, Johnathan, knitting, pattern, touque

This hat was designed for my friend Johnathan to be a man-hat that’s actually fun to knit :) Enough cable to be interesting, while still being sufficiently manly for my Scotch-Irish friend who loves Celtic cable-work.

This close fitting cabled touque features a celtic cable up one side, framed by tapering columns of ribbing that blend into the brim of the hat. It’s a quick, easy knit, suitable for beginner cable knitters. The decreases are arranged to lie symmetrically around the cable panel for a balanced look.

The cable pattern, tapered sections and decreases have been charted as well as written and the hat requires 160-180 yards of DK weight yarn. The hat in the photos was knitted using Tanis Fiber Arts Yellow Label DK in the relatively new colourway ‘Spruce’. Tito gravitated to it at once when he saw it – I wonder if that colour was one of Chris’s creations? Definitely man-approved, but still luscious to knit with. Win.

I’ve also worked one up in Zen Garden Serenity DK, in the ‘moss’ colourway. It’s a great alternative if you’re looking for a solid piece.

I’ve provided instructions for medium and large. Medium fits a head circumference of 19”-21”, and large fits a head circumference of 20”-22”, but the hat is very stretchy and will fit a variety of folks :)

Ravelry Pattern Page here:

Etsy Page here:

Craftsy Page here:

Los Guantes De Claudia

Published December 10, 2012 Knitting 1 Comment
Tags: 2 needle, cables, fingerless gloves, knitting, pattern, Serenity DK, Zen Yarn Garden, Zen Yarn Garden Serenity Dk

My latest glove design, ‘Los Guantes De Claudia’ are finally complete!

These gloves were my first ever collaboration project. The lovely Claudia from Eweknit here in Toronto gave me a skein of Zen Yarn Garden Serenity DK, literally on a whim, the very first time I met her. We really hit it off! It was so random, and I was so excited to actually be commissioned to design something.

These lovely gloves look deceptively complex but are actually really easy and fast (like, fast enough for Christmas) to work up once you get into the rhythm of them. A stag horn cable emerges gracefully from the ribbing at the forearm and dissolves back in at the end with a little extra cable motif to complete it.

Best of all these instructions are for working the gloves on 2 needles – you’ll be using mattress stitch at the end to create a completely seamless result. Knitters who wish to work in the round can proceed with their weapon of choice ;)

These gloves use up less than 200 yards of DK weight yarn, and are worked on 3.5 mm needles. They are easy enough for beginners and would make a great quick knit for seasoned knitters.

Instructions are given for small and medium, but the gloves themselves have lots of stretch once completed.

You can obtain the pattern at your store of choice :)

Ravelry link here

Etsy link here.

Craftsy link here.

For those who hate wrestling the porcupine…

Published October 31, 2012 Knitting 8 Comments
Tags: Claudia, knitting, pattern, Zen Yarn Garden Serenity Dk

I’ve abandoned the blog! I feel awful, I allowed blog death to occur. Shame on me. I’ve been up to my armpits in stuff lately, most important and all-consumingly the final, full and official wedding of my dear friends Kris and Kev. I’ve even got a speech to write. It’s coming out in much the way I imagine a breach birth comes out. But I digress.

The creative muscles are in over drive, just not the ‘photograph-it-and-blog-about-it’ muscles, but I’m happy to say that this dearth of posts should be over for a bit because I’ve finally got ’round to shooting the jewellery, yarn and FO’s. One project I’m pretty proud of is my latest design, “Los Guantes De Claudia”.

This was my first ‘commissioned’ design – my friend Claudia, owner at Eweknit here in Toronto wanted me to design a pattern using Zen Yarn Garden Serenity DK. I really enjoyed working with this stuff – the yarn is beautiful and the stitch definition really lent itself to the cabled design.

Best of all, these gloves work up on 2 needles. Yep, 2 ordinary, straight needles. You can use dpns if you want to make me look bad, but for those of us who don’t enjoy the wrestling exercise that is dpns, these are the gloves for you. They have thumb gussets and everything.

The cables emerge gracefully from the ribbing and converge gracefully back in at the fingers, with a little motif to polish them off. The cables are deceptively simple. The pattern is being test knit right now, look for the release in a few weeks!

New Pattern – Dionne’s Slouch Hat

Published August 29, 2012 Knitting 1 Comment
Tags: knitting, pattern, slouch hat

I’m in the mood for fall knitting these days – and this new pattern was inspired by a friend of mine who had a slouch hat that she loved so much she wore it almost every day, indoors and out, last winter. It set me thinking about how much lovelier it would be if it was a handmade hat (hers was from a major clothing boutique) and how important that perfect slouch hat can be. From cold weather to bad hair; it’s a wardrobe staple alright.

Enter the Dionne Slouch Hat!

The perfect slouch hat for fall, this quick and easy knit works up fast on 4.5mm needles and worsted weight yarn. It’s a great pattern for beginners; all you really need is knit, purl, cast on and cast off. The pattern makes it easy to ‘read’ your knitting as you go, making it a good TV project for seasoned knitters as well. Solid and variegated yarns both work well in the simple, geometric pattern. A cute moss stitch band with faux buttons adds a nice touch to the brim.

Ravelry Project Page here.
Or, you can purchase the pattern on Etsy here:

Make All the Things!

Published April 30, 2012 Knitting , Sewing 3 Comments
Tags: cloth, pattern, Sewing, tanis fiber arts, Viola Viola, yarn

These are my purchases from Saturday. They make me so stupidly happy that I had to share them. Incidentally, this photo contains my favourite colour range (ocean, earth) and my 2 favourite yarn artists – Tanis Fiber Arts and Viola Viola.

Viola Viola, alas, is not dying any more yarn for the time being. She’s headed to England to go on an adventure, and I wish her well. However, this did result in my purchasing every thing I wanted from her at the frolic, because hey, this is all there is now!

Believe it or not, it’s all planned for. Yep, I’m organized.

1. TFA Blue label yummy sock yarn. One of a Kind colourway, oh yeah! This one is destined to be paired up with this one of a kind TFA sock yarn that I purchased on Etsy a while back:

I’m joining the TFA Colour Knit Along, and using this beautiful pair to make the Colour Affection shawl.

2. Viola sock weight in a gorgeous ocean blue. Yes, it’s time to finally make the Cream and Sugar Cowl.

3. TFA again, a real treat for me: Orange Label AND a new colourway – Frost! I couldn’t wait to get my hands on either. This lovely stuff has got to end up around my neck somehow, it’s so soft and squishy and luxurious. This baby is destined for my new Jeanette cowl (pattern coming soon!).

4. Another gorgeous, earthy skein of Viola. So earthy that I might make a smallish, long Saroyan from it.

5. Dew Drop by Viola. So lovely and soft! This lovely toned down colourway contains such gentle variations, I know it’s destined for a lacy pattern, I just don’t know what – but I’ll know it when I see it.

6. My last Viola – this one needs to be a simple neck kerchief, something I can tie on, or wrap around easily. Either a simple, shallow, long triangle shawl or I might try to create a sock weight version of Purl Soho’s Bandana Cowl.

7. I saw this fabric and couldn’t resist. I’m sewing pillow cases right now and definitely don’t feel ready to tackle this with my current skill set – but when I do I’ve bought enough to make a lovely, girly, A-line skirt.

Oh, and the best part of the weekend? I got to give a yarn bowl to my favourite fibre Artist. Thanks Tanis!

New FO – the Citizen Shawl

Published April 2, 2012 Knitting 8 Comments
Tags: Citizen Shawl, knitting, pattern, shawl

I was looking for something cuddly to make out of some of the alpaca skeins I bought last autumn at Alpaca Acres in Stratford. Alpaca is so soft and luxurious – I knew it would make a great wrap!

I selected the Citizen Shawl by Liz Abinante. I have knitted her Travelling Woman shawl a few times and thought this would be perfect.

For anyone trying this pattern out, a few warnings! The pattern has got a few holes in it – the most important one being that you should end up with 251 stitches before the lace pattern, instead of 248, so make sure you download the latest version.

Here is my Ravelry project page where I list all the changes I made to the pattern. It’s easy enough, and some of the changes are obvious, but I think they might be tricky for someone new to lace knitting.

The shawl was a gift for my lovely friend Annie. Her and her partner Jane have created the most beautiful home, filled with art and warmth and music. In fact, their home is so lovely it deserves it’s own post later on this week!

I still have 3 precious skeins of Alpaca left in the “Sandy” colourway – I’m looking for a fabulous summer wrap pattern! Any ideas?

You don’t have to be a grandma to crochet a doily!

Published March 6, 2012 Crochet 3 Comments
Tags: Crochet, doily, free, pattern

I had this gorgeous skein of cottony blue yarn with absolutely no stretch to it, as I found out while trying to make fingerless gloves from it. Because I was determined to make something out of it, and because I was hungry for a quick FO, and because the colour is perfect for my home…I crocheted a doily from it. Yes, I crocheted a doily. This may just be a whole new stage in my life.

Even Ollie doesn't seem impressed

The pattern is super easy and sort of granny squareish in that it grows on it’s own and you don’t need to pay much attention to it. It was started at lunch, followed me around all day, and was blocking by 8. Beat that, knitting!

Of course now I need to make more – a hexagon tile blanket? Coasters? Oooh, maybe I’ll use what’s left of the gradient yarn to make a doily for the dining table…. or just use it as a stash buster for all my TFA yarn bits and seam them together later. In the meantime, here is the pattern!

For mine I used a 3.75mm hook with 100 grams of worsted weight yarn. You can use whatever your heart desires, it will still work.

Ch5, join with slip stitch to form a ring
1st round: (Chain 6, 1sc into ring) x 6, join with slip stitch to base of first chain 6
2nd round: (Ch4, 1sc into next ch6 space) x 6, join with slip stitch
3rd round: (Ch4, 2sc into next 4ch space, 1sc into next sc) x 6
4th round: (Ch4, 2sc into next 4ch space, 1sc into each of the next 2sc) x 6
5th round: (Ch4, 2sc into next 4ch space, 1sc into each of the next 3sc) x 6

See the pattern? Each round you will have one more sc in each group. It’s like a granny square in that way; it grows on it’s own without you having to keep count of stitches. Just remember to work the corners correctly and the rest takes care of itself. You can grow it as big as you like.

Oh, and we didn’t get northern lights here in south Ontario last night but I have hope… it the skies are clear we’ll be trying again!

The Blue Brick | Photography and Handcrafts by Shireen Nadir

Posts Tagged 'pattern'

The Johnathan Hat

Los Guantes De Claudia

For those who hate wrestling the porcupine…

New Pattern – Dionne’s Slouch Hat

Make All the Things!

New FO – the Citizen Shawl

You don’t have to be a grandma to crochet a doily!

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