Pattern Spotlight: Pax Shawl

It’s no secret that I love shawls, especially those knit out of fingering weight yarn. When I received word that Anzula had a new fingering weight cashmere yarn, I had to check it out for myself.

When those three lovely skeins of Serenity ended up on my doorstep, I knew that I had to make a shawl that could easily use as much of that luscious yarn as possible. A sideways-knit shawl seemed to the way to go – without much effort you can increase the shawl until you’ve used half the yarn, and then decrease the shawl to a point. Pax was born.

View fullsize

Pax starts with just a few stitches and is worked sideways, slowly increasing to form the triangle shape of the shawl. The geometric lace pattern is interesting to both look at as well as knit – I couldn’t put this shawl down! Once I reached the center, I worked the mirror image of the lace while decreasing on the second half of the shawl. The small lace border is worked as you go, giving Pax a delicate touch.

View fullsize

Pax can be found on Ravelry, or if you’re a shop owner, you can order individual printed patterns from Stitch Sprouts or kits from Anzula.

---

You can find Serenity at these shops:
McKnittey.com - Online only
Amazing Threads - Maple Grove, MN
Bliss Yarns - Brentwood, TN
Knit One Purl Two - Rockford, IL
Knitting Store - Oceanside, NY
Knitting to Know Ewe - Newton, PA
Needle Tree - Greenville, SC
Spun - Ann Arbor, MI
Woolly & Co - Birmingham, IL and online
Yarn Garden - Charlotte, MI

We have more Serenity in the dye pots for Loops and Yarn Kandy, and more shops so check back for updates.

As always, you can place a special order at your local Anzula shop for any of our yarns, we will dye it just for you and send it to your LYS.

---

Stay up to date on all things Jen Lucas:

Ravelry - https://www.ravelry.com/designers/jen-lucas
Rav Group - https://www.ravelry.com/groups/jen-lucas-designs
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jenlucasdesigns/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/JenLucasDesigns
Email - jenlucasdesigns@gmail.com

---

Pattern Spotlight: Argyroneta

Hi I’m Barbara Benson and I am so excited to be able to introduce y’all to my new summer shawl in Silken! Argyroneta is a fast and easy knit that is super flexible when it comes to yardage and gauge. It is the perfect pattern to carry along on your summer adventures or simply to knit night when you want to do a bit more chatting than paying attention to your pattern.

View fullsize

Argyroneta Shawl.

As a designer I have a wee hoard of yarns that are “on my list”. Beautiful yarns that spoke to me when I saw them and I just had to acquire them even if I didn’t have an immediate idea what their special purpose would be. This summer I decided that I had to realize the potential of several of these skeins, mostly because I really, really wanted to knit with them.

This skein of Silken (color Lapis) was calling to me and couldn’t wait to become … something. But luckily I had an idea, and a rather simple one at that. What would happen if I moved the lace that typically trims the bottom of a shawl up to the top where it could frame the wearer’s face? The more I thought on it the more ideas I had that simply had to be pursued.

View fullsize

Lace along the top edge, "face framing lace!"

Also contributing to the design was the fact that it is summer and I wanted simple knitting. Once I started swatching with the beautiful 50% silk/50% merino blend that Silken brings to the table I knew that it was a perfect match for my plans. Some squooshy garter paired perfectly with the openwork created with double yarn overs in this straightforward lace.

And when I say straightforward I mean it. After you finish the set-up (which is pretty short) there is literally a two row repeat! By working the shawl on the bias the shaping does all of the heavy lifting. The stitches added to the right side increase just enough to offset the lace pattern so that you are working the same two rows over and over again until you’ve had enough or a fixin' to run out of yarn.

Argyroneta, from the back.

I chose to knit my sample for Argyroneta with only one skein and I was pleasantly surprised at my end size. But if you would like a larger shawl it would simply be a matter of adding on another skein and continuing to knit!

View fullsize

Perfect for summer!

Now that this shawl is done I have started looking towards the Fall and knitting something that is a bit … snugglier. The lovely people at Anzula have said that it is OK for me to give y’all a little sneak peek at something I am working on in their decadent new 100% cashmere yarn Serenity.

View fullsize

Sneak peek: fingerless mitts in Serenity!

I do like things easy so I am working on a pair of fingerless mitts that look like stranded knitting but are actually created using a slip stitch technique. No carrying multiple yarns along a row - simply knitting stripes and slipping stitches. I don’t have a name yet but be on the lookout! You can follow me on Instagram to make sure you don’t miss anything new!

---

You can find Silken at the following shops, all of which would be happy to ship to you:

Knitting Off Broadway - Fort Wayne, IN
Twisted Ewe - Garden City, ID
Knitorious - St Louis, MO
Knit 1 - Chicago, IL
Stitch Niche - Lexington, KY
Fancywork - Bend, OR

You can find Serenity at these shops:
McKnittey.com - Online only
Woolly & Co - Birmingham, IL and online
Knitting to Know Ewe - Newton, PA
Yarn Garden - Charlotte, MI

We have more Serenity in the dye pots for Amazing Threads and Yarn Kandy, and more shops so check back for updates.

As always, you can place a special order at your local Anzula shop for any of our yarns, we will dye it just for you and send it to your LYS.

---

Pattern Spotlight: Tinos Cowl by Hilary Smith Callis

I’m sure I’m not the only one who experiences this, but I find that pieces I’ve knit carry with them all of sights, sounds, and emotions surrounding the time when I did the knitting. A cabled cardigan puts me back on my couch in San Francisco watching a Harry Potter marathon during a rainy weekend; a lacy cashmere shawl knit while on vacation at a foggy central coast beach will always make me feel a little chilly; the pink silk scarf I worked on in the hospital after my son was born will always take me back to the bliss and exhaustion of new parenthood. It’s as if memories are knit together with the yarn into each stitch, and one look or one touch transports me right back to that moment in time. My newest design, the Tinos Cowl, which was knit with and inspired by Anzula’s fabulous new yarn, Serenity, carries with it some particularly poignant memories that inspired its name, and I’d love to share them with you today.

View fullsize

The Tinos Cowl.

Tinos is a cowl designed to mimic the look of a little asymmetrical shawl wrapped around the neck – it’s a shape I’ve played with before, and it’s one of my favorites. In Tinos, two skeins of Serenity alternate in a stripe pattern that appears pixelated and textured due to the use of slipped stitches. Tinos is knit flat with increases and decreases creating its shape, then is seamed up the back. It’s simple and quick and I can tell you that it is absolutely glorious having that cashmere draped around your neck. You can read a bit more about the Tinos Cowl and download it on Ravelry here.

View fullsize

Tinos Cowl, from the back.

I designed Tinos last spring and, in the middle of the knitting of it, my dear Grams, the grandmother who patiently taught me how to knit when I was a child, passed away. This amazing woman was almost 94 years old and had lived in her own home, knitting, gardening, active in her community, calling the shots on her life, until a mere two weeks before her passing, when a stroke rendered her unable to care for herself on her own. No loss of a loved one is ever easy, but there was solace in Grams’ rich and adventurous life, her deep faith, her sound mind, and absence of suffering; the tragedy was that she couldn’t live forever.

Originally I wanted to name the cowl after her…but since I had already paid homage to her with a pattern name, Betty was out. But a glance back at the name of the yarn that inspired the pattern – Serenity – transported my mind to a peaceful little Greek island that I got to visit with Grams in the summer of 1996. I was 15 at the time, when my mom, my cousin, Grams, and I went on an adventure through Greece that culminated in a stay on the island of Tinos. This trip was hilarious and eye-opening and supremely memorable – the history, the food, the cute boys in the village square, beaches, fake nose rings, naked statues, Nescafé frappe, multi-generational cat-calls, the fact that Grams could strike up a conversation with anyone and everyone, and the time she felt compelled to give our Athenian taxi driver an in-depth description of public transit in the San Francisco Bay Area. Suffice it to say – that trip was one of the best experiences of my life, and Grams is right in the center of it.

Grams, being awesome, in Tinos, Greece.

Grams was the closest person to me that I have lost, and I miss her terribly. But over these past months, within this mixture of sadness in missing her and joy in remembering the amazing person she was, I do what makes me feel closest to her: I knit. Each stitch (formed Continental-style, just like she taught me) feels like a little tiny part of her legacy, a little part of her living on. And in those first days of losing her, the Tinos Cowl is where that energy, and that legacy, was directed. The pain, the joy, the memory of her, they were all knit directly into those slipped stitches and stripes. And the Tinos Cowl will carry those feelings for me forever.

---

You can find Serenity at these shops:
McKnittey.com - Online only
Amazing Threads - Maple Grove, MN
Bliss Yarns - Brentwood, TN
Knit One Purl Two - Rockford, IL
Knitting Store - Oceanside, NY
Knitting to Know Ewe - Newton, PA
Needle Tree - Greenville, SC
Spun - Ann Arbor, MI
Woolly & Co - Birmingham, IL and online
Yarn Garden - Charlotte, MI

We have more Serenity in the dye pots for Loops and Yarn Kandy, and more shops so check back for updates.

As always, you can place a special order at your local Anzula shop for any of our yarns, we will dye it just for you and send it to your LYS.

---

Stay up to date on all things Hilary:

website - http://www.theyarniad.com/
Ravelry - https://www.ravelry.com/designers/hilary-smith-callis
Rav Group - https://www.ravelry.com/groups/the-yarniads-symposium
Twitter - https://twitter.com/theyarniad?lang=en
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/p/Bjxr0R4HW_6/?utm_source=ig_twitter_share&igshid=i9gw4iqul4bz