News:
I have the joy to present a new pattern from EclatDuSoleil: the shawl Mist.
This shawl is worked in a very thin laceweight yarn (cobweb) but can easily be adapted to other yarn types.
More information in the shop.
For those of you who were disappointed not to be able to purchase the book presented in last month’s newsletter, I can now offer another book on the subject of Estonian lace shawls: The Haapsalu Shawl.
This beautiful book contains chapters on the history of Estonian lace knitting and the construction of traditional Estonian shawls, as well as more than 120 lace stitch patterns in charted form.
More information in the shop.
A light in the dark
It’s the darkest time of the year here in Europe – a good time to light candles and spend time together indoors.
This small pattern is designed to make a candle holder out of a glass with straight sides. You will, of course, need to customize the size of this « candle holder cozy » to fit the glass you’re using. Just be sure to make the crocheted cover a little shorter than your glass so that it doesn’t reach over the rim – this would entail a fire hazard with a lit candle in the glass.
The finished cover should also be just a tad smaller than the circumference of the glass, so that it stretches a little to fit over it. This will make it stay in place nicely.
When I designed the motif, I had the candle holder in mind. I wanted a center that would let light through. However, if you like it, why not use it in a small blanket, a scarf or a stole?
Motif:
With col A (white), ch 4, join in a ring with a sl st in first ch.
Round 1: Ch 5 (counts as 1 dc + 2 ch), (1 dc in ring, ch 2) 7 times. With col B (yellow), 1 sl st in 3rd ch at beg of round – 8 dc, 8 2-ch spaces.
Round 2: Ch 1 (doesn’t count as a st), 1 sc in same st as previous sl st, 3 sc in ch space, (1 sc in dc, 3 sc in ch space) 7 times. With col C (green), 1 sl st in first sc – 32 sc.
Round 3: Ch 6 (counts as 1 dc + 3 ch), skip 3 sts, ([1 tr, ch 3, 1 tr] in next st, ch 3, skip 3 sts, 1 dc in next st) 3 times, ch 3, [1 tr, ch 3, 1 tr] in next st, ch 3, 1 sl st in 3rd ch at beg of round.
Round 4: Ch 3 (counts as 1 dc), (3 dc in next ch space, 1 dc in tr, [2 dc, ch 2, 2 dc] in next ch space, 1 dc in tr, 3 dc in next ch space, 1 dc in dc) 3 times, 3 dc in next ch space, 1 dc in tr, [2 dc, ch 2, 2 dc] in next ch space, 1 dc in tr, 3 dc in next ch space, 1 sl st in 3rd ch at beg of round. Fasten off.
Work a couple of motifs to see how they fit around your glass. With three motifs made, I still had some space to fill to make the motifs fit. I could of course have added a row of single crochet to a couple of edges, but I decided instead to experiment with a technique for joining motifs that I had seen in Edie Eckman’s excellent book Connect the Shapes Crochet Motifs.
This technique consists in working dc2tog, inserting the hook for the first dc in one motif and at the corresponding spot on the other motif to be joined.
Here, I have worked the first dc2tog, straddling the motifs to be joined. I proceeded to add 2 ch between each dc2tog and to skip 2 sts in the motifs on each side.
This is how it looks when you spread out the motifs after having worked the first two dc2tog. However, in progress, it looks more like this:
And here is the finished join with the motifs spread out:
In the specific case of my glass and the size of my motifs, this was enough space added to fit the cover around the glass. I joined the third motif to the two others simply by putting right sides together and « seaming » with slip stitches.
A couple of ends to weave in, and my candle holder was ready.
I wish you a wonderful, creative 2013. Let many lights shine in the dark! (Just be careful with those matches…)
See you soon!
