Ginkgo Night Moves scarf

This free pattern is Night Moves, a lovely shawl or scarf designed by PurpleIguana. For my project, I followed Fiber Spider's video tutorial and patern mods. His mods begin when we reach the first decreasing row. 

I also greatly appreciate PurpleIguana's notes about yarn usage that she included on her Ravelry project page. 

The shape of these crochet shells reminds me of ginkgo leaves. 

Fiber Spider project inspo photo

I had a partial cake of the Red Heart It's a Wrap Rainbow in the Foggy colorway that had 134 grams  out of the original 150 grams. (I also had two other full-size cakes on hand.) I wanted to try to use all of the partial cake for this scarf, so, based on the notes on PurpleIguana's project page (linked above), I calculated that I needed to crochet my scarf until it weighed about 89 grams before starting the decrease rows described in Fiber Spider's mods.

I was working from the white end of the cake to the gray end of the cake. On my first attempt, I started the decreases a bit early and ended up with still having quite a bit of the gray left, so I placed a marker to indicate where I started decreasing and then ripped back to that point. Then I crocheted another four-row repeat section using the original (increasing) stitch sequence before starting the decreasing rows again.

As you can see in my photo, the plies of this yarn are not spun at all, which can sometimes make it a bit fiddly to work with. But, overall, it is a lovely yarn that feels soft and light.

Plies not spun

On that second attempt, I ended up running out of the gray a few rows before the end of the scarf, so I stole a few grams of the gray end of one of my other cakes to complete this project. 😂 Hey, it's my yarn stash; I can do what I want with it. 😹

Before blocking

I soaked the scarf in a washtub with a splash of Woolite and a few drops of peppermint essential oil mixed in, with the hope that some of the fragrance will remain in the fiber after it's dried. I would have liked to have used lavender essential oil for the fragrance, but I only had peppermint on hand, so I used what I had. But now I'm thinking that I need to add a vial of the lavender to my collection soon (ha!!). This project turned out so well that I'm intending to enter it in the fair this fall, and I would like the fiber to have some lingering fragrance, if possible, to please the judges. 🤞

After rinsing and gently squeezing the scarf, I rolled it inside a fluffy bath towel and pressed out the remaining excess water. Then I pinned it to the blocking boards, gently pulling out the bottom sawtooth points and opening up the lace. As you can see in the photos, the blocking makes the scarf several inches taller than it was before blocking. But it would be lovely either way, with or without blocking.

Blocking

Dimensions after blocking: 80 inches by 14 inches. 

Tendril Shawl

The pattern for this Tendril Shawl is available for free on the designer Carmen Heffernan's blog. She also provides a video tutorial that walks you through the setup rows and the first couple of pattern repeats, which is very helpful for getting this project started.

I made mine at a heavier gauge than the original pattern calls for, but it worked out well and produced a lovely shawl/wrap/scarf. My yarn is Hobby Lobby I Love This Cotton in the Emerald Pine colorway, which is labeled as a 4 weight, and I'm using a 5.5 mm hook. I had a few skeins of this colorway left over from my Dressy Swingy Shawlivest project, and I thought they would look good being worked into the Tendril Shawl design. This yarn looks and feels more like a 3 weight despite the fact that it's labeled a 4 weight, and the cotton is so soft and smooth that it's a pleasure to work with.

Finished with gothpixy's edging

I love the sawtooth edge and the beautiful lacy-ness of this shawl. The project grows quickly, which is satisfying, and the four-row repeat becomes fairly intuitive after you've worked it a few times.

Finished size

The only downside to using this particular yarn is that the skeins are pretty short at only 153 yards each, so I was worried I might not have enough yardage on hand to make a full size shawl. The first skein ran out at the beginning of row 36. 

End of first skein

The second skein ran out after making it most of the way across row 52.

End of second skein

My third skein ran out almost at the end of row 64. Thankfully, I had another skein available to finish that row and continue, because the top edge of my shawl was only about 64 inches long at that point. I used the fourth skein to work another two "points" and then do the edging row.

End of third skein

I started working the picot edging row as written in the pattern, but I felt that it was coming out too tight, so I searched through the Tendril Shawl project gallery page until I found gothpixy's project.

Gothpixy suggested an alternate way to work the picot edging that I ended up using for my project. I like their edging better for two reasons: One, it provides a lovely bumpy, wavy edging that finishes the edge really well with an easier method than working traditional picots. And two, it utilizes an extra chain stitch between each bump, so the edging doesn't tighten the edge in the same way that the original pattern's edging row was doing for me. You should check out gothpixy's project to see if maybe you might like their edging better, too!

Getting started

The designer says the finished fingering-weight samples she made measure about 70 inches (178 cm) on the long top edge after 64 rows (65 rows with the final edging applied), which is 16 "points" on the bottom edge, and 32 inches (82 cm) tall/deep on the border edge after blocking. 

I crocheted mine to 18 points, or 72 rows, plus the edging row. My shawl's total length is about 72 inches before blocking.

Little Rustic Pumpkin

Took me a while to get around to it, but I finally added the vines and stem. Pumpkin portion of pattern works up super quickly. This will be a lovely addition to fall decor around the house.

This is based on the free Little Rustic Pumpkin pattern by Rebecca Langford of Yarn and Chai. 

For the stem, using the green yarn, I FSC'd 22 then worked in continuous decreasing rounds (alternating SC, SC2tog) until 5 stitches were left. Then I SC'd in continuous 5-stitch rounds until stem was about the same length as a 12-inch pipe cleaner. I twisted two brown craft pipe cleaners together and threaded them into the slim cylinder of stitches to give coil-able structure to the pumpkin stem. I stitched the end of the stem closed then joined the yarn again at the base and worked some points onto the circle around the base of the stem. Stitched the triangle end of the stem to the top of the pumpkin and finished off. Voila!

 

Before adding stem

Moussaillon sideways cardigan free pattern

Finished my lil sideways sweater.

This simply brilliant free pattern is called Moussaillon by Cléonis.

You know how with most patterns (especially patterns for something as complex as a cardigan) you have to repeatedly count (and count AND COUNT) every stitch, every row? With Moussaillon, you can actually relax.

Front left panel complete; left sleeve started

Moussaillon incorporates picot edging and short rows, but don't let these frighten you because it's very easy to see when it's time to add them in the course of your knitting. (What row am I on??? What stitch number is this??? You can put all these concerns to rest because you simply will see where you are at all times.)

 The English translation of the pattern is written by a nonnative English speaker, so some native English speakers may find it difficult to read. But if you are generally familiar with knitting techniques, you shouldn't have much trouble figuring it out. And if you aren't familiar with making picots or short rows, there are dozens of video tutorials on YouTube that can show you how, so you don't have to rely solely on the pattern to explain them to you.

Trying on after finishing front left panel, left sleeve, and left side

A project this size you of course will not be knitting all in one session. With some knitting projects, after you put them down and come back to them later, it can take an agonizingly long time to figure out where you left off if you didn't leave yourself detailed notes/counts/etc. With Moussaillon, it is always easy to see where you are when you return to the project.

When you get to the beginning of a row, will this be a picot row? Just look at where the previous picot is. Are you two rows away from it? Then just begin the row with regular knitting. Are you four rows away from it? Then it's time for a picot here. Simple as that.

I used two stitch markers when making this: one on the top edge to show where I began a new section, and one on the needle to show where to turn for a short row (that way I didn't have to count how many stitches were left on the needle each time it was time to make a short row). How will you know if it's time to make a short row? Well, is the stitch beside your turning marker a regular knit stitch or a wrapped stitch? If it's a regular stitch, it's time to make a short row. If it's a wrapped stitch, knit through to the end of the row. So easy!! I didn't even fuss with picking up the wraps on the knit-through rows because they all but disappear on their own inside the garter stitch fabric.

Yes, Moussaillon DOES require some counting, but the beauty of it is that you don't have to spend your time CONSTANTLY counting and recounting (and getting frustrated when someone else in the room speaks to you and causes you to lose count!). When I finished the first front panel, I counted how many rows wide it was so I could make a note to make the same number of rows when I got to the other front panel. Ditto for the width of the sleeve and the width of the underarm side. To determine the width of the back (as well as the width of the front panels and sleeves), the designer repeatedly suggests that you try on the cardigan and make adjustments based on how you want it to fit. This is very easy to do and gives you excellent feedback on how to personalize the fit.

All in all, I highly recommend this pattern. I plan to make it again and am looking forward to experimenting with different yarn weights/needle sizes and even maybe adding some lacy yarn-overs to change up the look. SO FUN!!!!

Front panel: two rows plus 28 bumps. Sleeve top: 28 bumps. Underarm side: 9 bumps. Back panel: 32 bumps.