My starting point was some leftovers of iridescent silk taffeta. I planned to use it as a top part of a summer dress, but I end up using just a little piece to it so I had plenty of leftovers. I also wanted to make the dress in simple everyday style… …but the idea of some sort of item that upgrades it (or any other plain dress) to more festive occassion just nagged on my brain.

The piece can be worn with long chain and it settles nicely on the chest. But you can shorten the chain until the ends of the fabric piece meet and voilà – you have an extravagant collar. It reminds me vaguely for the prize rosettes from all kind of shows, hence the name of the post…

You need:
Iridescent silk taffeta. The warp on this particular fabric is mustard yellow and weft greenish turquoise, the resulting overall color is beautiful antique gold. You can use other fibers as well, but the iridescency (warp and weft in different colors) really contributes this piece. The edges are unfinished and you can even unravel them intentionally a bit, so the weft color gives a beautiful halo around the motifs. If you try different fibers, make sure that you can iron steel sharp pleats to the fabric. And of course you can combine colors and textures.

I did not measure the piece of fabric I used but I think that about 50 cm is more than enough.

A small piece of lightweight fusible fabric.

Fabric cutter and/or scissors plus some surface protection if you use cutter. I prefer cutter for round and smallish shapes, scissors for stripes, rectangular pieces and large shapes that are unpractical to cut with my cutter and smallish protective mat.

Some suitable thread and a needle.

2 large jump rings.

A piece of chain (or more jump rings to make a chain).

Clasp.

Add some beads, crystals or additional chains for your taste.

Pattern for the basic shape is coming really soon in PDF format, but this is really simple – you can probably figure it out from the pidtures!

Cut the basic shape from the folded taffeta 2 times. Trim about 6 mm from the pattern edges and cut the smaller piece from the fusible fabric once.

Cut four 10 x 30 cm pieces and four 8 1/2 x 30 cm pieces out of the taffeta, the long side was in the warp direction in my piece so I got the green out from the frayed edges.

Cut 2 about 2 cm ribbons, length of the whole fabric width.

Iron all pieces. Iron the fusible fabric to other side of another taffeta shape.

Now pleat the rosettes. A steam iron does a good job on this. Use a small piece of scrap fabric and gradually go up to the warmest setting your fabric can take without damaging using the steam all the time.

With silk there is at least two signs when you are close to burn the fabric. The silk has distinct smell and just before you are about to burn the fabric, this smell is accentuated. Don’t mix it to the smell to the smell of burning silk (the smell of burning hair). Smells are hard to describe, but I’d say that the smell of silk has some nutty aromas in it, it is not all pleasant but not disgusting either. The other sign is that the fabric stiffens a bit. It will relax back when it cools down.

When you find the right setting for your iron start to make small 7-8 mm pleats to the rectangular pieces. The setting is really good if your pleated pieces stay in a small nice packets like these.

Decently pleated rosettes should look like this:
tightly packed, not springing open.

Now it’s time to sit at your sewing machine for a while. Sew the taffeta pieces together from the short upper seams from the WS. Open the seams and turn the right side up. Now stitch around the base piece about 6 mm from the edge – the tubes for large jump rings are formed to the narrow upper edges. You can fray the unfinished edges of the main piece a bit.

This is the base piece, fusible fabric inbetween the pieces
gives it some body. Note that the seams and top stitching on the RS
form tubes for jump rings on the top.

Sew few stitches on the middle of the rosettes. If you use sewing machine to this, you probably need to be very careful and help from the wheel a bit, these babies are quite thick. Unravel the rosette edges a bit.

You can adjust almost everything in this project, but there is one rule.

Thou shalt plan your arrangement..

So open the rosettes and use pins to keep them open.

Roll the long fabric strips loosely around your hands so that you get few loops, larger than the diameter of the larger rosette and use a pin to attach the loops from the middle.

Here’s how to fold the long ribbons.

Now put the main piece to a working surface and plan how you are going to arrange the pieces to it. The fabric loops go under 2 rosettes and the rosettes should be nicely overlapping. I did not try to make a symmetric piece, but of course you can do that if you want to (then it might be a good idea to make on extra rosette for the center point). Mark the arrangement to the base piece with pins or lightly with fabric pen.

The pleated rosettes look like giant farfalles before sewing.

Now attach the rosettes to the base with few stitches. A good starting point is the middle – just take away the pins from the rosette when you are working with this. Use a few stitches to attach the rosette edges together – without these stitches your rosettes look like giant farfalles! For some rosettes it might be enough to attach them from the middle, for some you might prefer to add few additional stitches around to keep the rosette in place.

Here you can see the edges of the rosette stitched
together on the WS of the rosette.

For rosettes with fabric loops attach the fabric loop on the base piece first with few stitches.

You don’t need too many stitches to attach the embellishments.

Be gentle when working with rosettes. There is no way to iron or clean the piece when it’s finished, so don’t squeeze it or sweat on it!

And here’s the arrangement without the chain.

Now attach the jump rings to the main piece and the chain to another jump ring. You can attach the clasp to the end of the chain or to another jump ring. If you have another embellishments, now it’s time to attach them. I had to make the chain from 18 mm jump rings, my hometown crafts supplier did not have any chains…

So here you can see the jump rings, clasp and chain attached.

And this is the finished piece used as a collar, as a necklace and again as a collar!

And that’s pretty much it. Wear and enjoy!

Store the piece on a flat surface or hang it loosely (not squeezed between the clothes on a clothes rack).

Download free Selma Cape knitting pattern here

NOTE: the pattern is updated for better readability on setup row! Two mistakes corrected and some vague advice revised. Please upload the new version (8.4.2008)

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Now I have had just over a week time to get used to this cape – and actually I have found it quite practical. In Helsinki we have right now quite unpredictable early spring weather: some beautiful sunny days with just few degrees above zero celsius; interrupted by some uglier days with mild frost and even light snowfall. Selma is just great piece for the sunny but still quite chilly days, I wear it over a light cashmere jumper and feel just comfortably warm. When the weather warms up I change to lighter undergarments, long sleeved T:s or airy tunics. Actually there is nothing to be afraid to in those short sleeves of Selma – they make this rather heavy garment very versatile, depending on what one wears underneath.

The undergarment changes the look dramatically, too – that cashmere jumper blends well with the colour and structure of Selma, but white or black sleeves contrast beautifully, colours are also easy to combine that very neutral shade of grey. My body is quite top heavy, so best option for me is quite narrow sleeves when wearing this rather bulky garment, but women with lighter build would pull off nicely wearing undergarment with floaty sleeves.

For the bottom I suggest anything that does not continue the A-line down to the ground: mini skirts with thick stockings, above the knee skirts in floaty, a-lined or straight shapes, pencil skirts below the knee, hip hugging straight or flared trusers, skinny jeans with slouch boots… …use just one colour (and some heels) if you are afraid that this kind of cape makes you look shortish.

Don’t be shy to try the pattern – even if you are not too experienced with cables. The cable patterns are pretty basic and that large body is surprisingly fast to knit with large needles.

I calculated slightly smaller version of the cape for the pattern, but please note that it is not test knitted. I don’t see any great danger to go wrong with it, though, this pattern is very forgiving with sizing issues. The size I made would probably fit nicely to 90-110 cm bust, possibly even larger if you add some length to the bottom ribbing – that A-lined shape is very generous. On the other hand that good drape (could be even better with other yarn, there is suggestion on the pattern) of that fluid cabled structure flows flatteringly close from the upper body, so there is no fear to end up looking like Pooh the Bear with this cape.

If you have any general questions about this pattern, please ask them in the comment section of this post – in that way my answers might help others who might struggle with similar issues. And please, please report me if you find errors on the pattern – I apologise those in advance and will fix them as soon as possible! My free patterns will probably never be test knitted, so there will be a slight aura of thriller knitting while making the first copies of Selma. But I know that you can do it!

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Everything has started from my controversial interest in Noro yarns. My regular readers probably have read a lot about my hesitations about multicoloured yarn. Pretty in skein, yep. But all hard work of a knitter is easily disguised underneath bold color changes. Or results can be even worse: the finished object ends up looking like your cat puked on it. And so on. I know that I’m not right claming this, these are matters of taste after all. I understand well that a knitter can be deeply in love with multicoloureds. Even my eye wanders so easily to the multicoloured skeins sparkling in jewel tones when visiting my LYS. But then I hesitate again…

So I’ve found thought of incorporating those bold and wide ranging colour changes of Noro yarns to my work almost impossible. But at the same time I have been strongly drawn to those gorgeous materials and beautiful handspun look. That handcrafted part in manufacturing process is not announced loudly in yarn labels, but you can read about making the yarn in Noro website.

I visited shortly in London after last Christmas. I really have to say, that if you shop briefly in Oxford Street and neighborhood, visit the John Lewis yarn department. Otherwise that store does not really shine on the row of magnificent London department stores, but that yarn department stands out from the others I know. There I encountered Noro Kochoran for the first time, live. And I was instantly in love in the look and feel of it. This affair just did not leave my thoughts in peace.

“Oh, excuse moi – this clearly is a wrong photoshoot…”

In the end of January I made a small test project and knitted a colourful pair of socks from Noro Silk Garden Lite. Although perhaps a bit too hippy for my regular style they have been in constant use – the material is so pleasant to wear. And I’m really surprised how well the material has held up, in spite of a bit too loose gauge for socks.

These experiences have been present since, they have had some almos unconscious thought in my “system idle” -process and few ideas has spun off. This Wabi-sabi scarf is the first implementation.

Wabi-sabi refers to a certain Japanese view for aestethic. Actually it is quite comprehensive and I’m not a Japan expert by any means – just have stumbled on the concept in design literature several times. Shortly wabi-sabi means beauty in inperfect, it has strong elements of nature and handmade, with strong feeling of time passing by in marks of aging and use. Noro yarns have certainly a element of wabi-sabi in them – and thus the name for this project.

I wanted to stretch out the properties of Noro yarn a bit. Large amount of stitches convert the colour pooling effect of Noro to self striping effect and I decided to knit the shawl lengthwise. Other option I considered a while was a kind of ombre effect in large scale. The idea would be to pick as similar balls of yarns as possible and knit just couple of rows from every ball to extend the one colour cycle to one large garment. I have not abandoned this idea, but it has limitations – actually it is applicable only to yarns available in wide selection in my LYS (matching yarn balls is impossible in Internet) AND it’s not applicable to yarns sold in skeins, like Kochoran. Skeins are impossible to match.

It took a while – and ove 50 cm of swatching – to find the right stitch pattern for this shawl. Originally I had played with ideas of some variation of herringbone stitch. But they tend to be bulky – and very different looking in right and wrong side. After testing four variations I abandoned the idea and started to swatch texture stitches with reversible sides or at least presentable wrong side. Then I found those little crowns… …with amazing three dimensionality and emphasized handmade look. That really hit the sweet spot.

Knitting lenghtwise gave me a nice option to make fringes while knitting. Why to do this? Well, you don’t have to attach them when finishing (minimizing finishing work is almost always a good idea) ad the main reason: those stripes extend automatically – and beautifully – to the fringes. I made the fringes by looping the yarn over a cardboard piece before starting a new row. This is a gentle method for loosely spun and very hairy yarn. The option is to knit few extra stitches to the edges and frog them before casting off, but this might have been too much strain for this yarn – and knitter of this yarn.

Making fringe while knitting makes only one strand for one row. This is not enough for very plush fringe. Little crowns pattern emphazies the chunkiness of the knit – so I felt that there should be a nice bridge between the chunky knit and delicate fringe. So i tied three dense rows of knots to the fringe to gradually lighten the fabric towards the edges.

I made another detail to the fringe. Fringe loops are not cut by scissors but pulled broken by hand, with occassional help of teeth, nails and mild cursing. The result is slightly irregular fringe with gradually thinning yarn edges.

The shawl is practically sized, it can be used wrapped around a neck or thrown around the shoulders. I love those colours and the way the surface catches the light. The colours seem to change a lot by lighting. The white halo softens the colours, but sometimes you get a glimpse of VERY hot pink, sparkling jade green or something else bright and beautiful. I don’t know if it is the fading effect of angora halo, lovely handspun look, stitch pattern, tormented fringe, or what (perhaps all of those things), but the shawl looks like a vintage garment – a well held and precious one.

I probably will combine the shawl to dry surfaced, utilitarian garments: raw denim, faded twill… The contrast between materials is beautiful.

But summer in Finland is full of surprises and I know that I will throw the shawl over a printed sundress, when the chill of the evening sneaks in…

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Download the free Wabi-sabi shawl / scarf / throw pattern here (PDF)

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You need four skeins for the shawl. That yarn is not cheap, though, and I do understand those economical pressures. With two skeins you can create a narrow scarf – I almost cast off after few pattern repeats because the look of narrow scarf was so nice – I actually included that option to the pattern. There will be plenty of leftover yarn with this option, I bet that it’s enough for pair of mitts or wristwarmers. And oh, if you run to major Kochoran sale or win in the lottery I calculated the yardage for large throw, too. That beautiful garment lying in our living room sofa (blocking) just forced me to do that…

I have to say that I will be more than pleased to receive feedback about this pattern – especially if you find errors, please don’t hesitate to contact! The pattern is free, it has not been test knitted by anybody else but me – and I’m certainly not a professional pattern writer. My knitting skills are mainly aquired by knitting and reading those books that have happened to interest me – so it is quite probable that there are flaws. And please, please do notice that I’m not native English speaker! So if there are bad grammatical errors, clumsy expressions, funny words – anything – please let me know!

Here are few technical details described further, pretty obvious for experienced knitters but they certainly make the pattern approachable for the knitters just beginning their journey to land of stitces.

Detailed tutorial of the stitch pattern.

I recommend the long tail cast on to this garment. That KnittingHelp.com video is very good, but I prefer to cast on by helding both needles (or both ends of the needle with circulars) tightly together and wrap the yarn around both of them, snugly. This creates almost always the perfect gauge for cast on. The first stitch loops might look too loose after knitting few rows, but just stretch the edge so that the yarn distributes more evenly between the stitch loops and securing yarn loops on the bottom of the cast on (there is usually a noticeable juggle when the tension in the bottom row is released). When using two needles to wrap the new stitches, release the new stitches after every 20-30 sts or so to the main needle, just pull the another needle out backwards. Bring the needles back together again and continue.

When casting off I made a special effort and used Elizabeth Zimmermanns beautiful sewn cast off. It is not difficult at all, but it is a bit slow method – I’ve never used it to cast offs as long as this. But now I thought that the advantages are worth the extra work and just grabbed the shovel. Or the needle, that is.

Sewn cast off matches almost perfectly to the long tail cast on, see how beautiful can the cast off edge be! But wich one is the one, that’s the question… …anyhoo, here’s the quick tutorial.

Sewn cast off

This is just a wild guess, but I’d say that multiple the cast off edge length by 2,5 (and then add some, just for the peace of mind) to get the yarn lenght for the sewn cast off – if you want to manage with just one length of yarn. I admit that this makes it tedious to work those long edges, but at this time I really did it, I did not want those bulky yarn ends to be wowen in to the edges of the shawl.

But those basics.

The stitches of the last row are on the needle.

1) Pull the yarn through the first two stitches, purlwise. Don’t pull it too tight, but don’t leave loose loops, either. The right tightness is pretty easy to get.

NOTE: When sewing with long yarn and yarn with loose twist (like Kochoran here), pay some extra attention to not create extra friction to the yarn. The friction wears the yarn rapidly and you end up breaking it. Keep the sewn stitches close to the needle point to add some space to the yarn to go through – or even move the stitches to thinner knitting needle for sewing. Don’t twist the yarn against the yarn twist while sewing – loosening the twist weakens the yarn considerably.

2) Pull the yarn through the first stitch, knitwise. After that you can release this first stitch from the needle.

This looks like the starting position – and it is. Just repeat those two steps described above until there is nothing left.

Sewn cast off creates fake purl bumps to the sewing side. So, to extend logically the garter stitch edge with this cast off, don’t turn the work around for cast off! Just slide the stitches to the opposite edge of circular needle and start the cast off from the same edge you started to knit the last row (with straight needles there is some additional fiddling involved, as you can imagine).

And don’t forget to match the sewing yarn color to the edge color when sewing multicolours like this!

Spilt join for yarn ends

Another simple tutorial (experienced knitters – just go on knitting or have a cup of coffee). When knitting unstructured, loosely spun wool, wool mix or other material with felting potential I always start the new skein by splitting and combining the yarn ends. This saves finishing work – and with those yarn types, especially when knitting two sided garments the join looks much better than wowen in ends. Actually it does not look anything – it is invisible.

If the yarn has blunt end, just cut a small piece out of the end by pulling to get those soft ends.

Split the both yarn ends for few centimeters length and pull the other half off (just don’t use those scissors). Set those splitted ends like in the picture above (yes, you can bin those loose bits =), but see those yarns in the middle), let the split ply overlap the intact yarn a little.

Roll the join gently back and forth between your palms a while. If you want to the join felt better, just run some water to your hands and roll with moist palms. If everything goes right, the join is practically invisible. It probably doesn’t take a lot off pull though to split it again, so knit carefully over it. But when knit it lasts well enough!

It should be simple. Allthough I love skillfully made embellishments, my everyday style is more or less minimalistic and straightforward, so there is no order for frills this time.
In spite of that it should add some spice to my everyday outfits AND look good on top of my locks.
I would love if there were several ways to wear it.
It should be made of 100% wool.
It should leave no marks on forehead when weared extended times – i want a loose knit.
It should be large enough to cover all my hair – even when my mane is in it’s long state.
And ohh, what if it would go well together with my beloved Lumi Accessories handbag!

So I took my DPN:s and some worsted weight wool in perfect petroleum blue shade to meet some friends of mine at the local pub. Few hours of knitting with couple of pints of decent lager and I had a simple ribbed hat on my needles. On the next morning (there was no hangover, if you asked) I fitted and finished Cilla – a slouchy convertible ribbed beanie of mine.

The basic form is all about the slouchiness and the size – just right, roomy enough to cover the hair and give a nice silhouette. And I love the bold colour, too!

It can be easily moulded to resemble a beret. (Gee, I hate to model my crafts…). This form can be emphasized even more by wet blocking the beanie to shape.

Or the edge can be turned up for a sporty version of a beanie (not exactly my preferred style but might be handy sometimes…).

And here we go: this is my first free pattern!

Download the PDF here. NOTE: pattern updated for sizing information!

To be honest there is not much pattern in this, but I really needed something very simple to start with, just to get going easily. And I wanted to sample some fonts and basic layout of a pattern. All feedback about pattern, instructions, layout etc. is highly appreciated!