New collection: Twisted Strings

I’ve been dreaming of making this collection a reality for literally years, and I’m so happy to be able to present it to the world! Twisted Strings is a collection of five accessories inspired by the decorative tracery found on Baroque string instruments, in unapologetic celebration of my particular brand of nerdery. The names of the individual designs - the Dowland Wrap, Tielke Shawl, Playford Hat, Jaye Mitts, and Simpson Cowl - are borrowed from seventeenth-century composers, instrument-makers, and music teachers and publishers.

My interest in the seventeenth-century musical world is a long-standing thing - I studied various aspects of it in my university days, which I touched on in my earlier post Why ‘Baroque Purls’? At around the same time I took up playing the viol - badly - before moving on to singing, which happily was a much better fit for me. I still enjoy messing around with songs from this period, but my cats do tend to object.

A couple of years ago I was fortunate enough to visit Europe for the first time, and one of the big highlights for me was visiting Leipzig and its Bach Museum, churches, and Museum of Musical Instruments. I took a ridiculous number of photos, some of which you can see below, and I took my inspiration for the cable patterns in this collection directly from a few of the decorative details I captured.

If you’re interested, you can find more examples of beautiful historical instruments in the Orpheon collection, and via the MIMO (Musical Instrument Museums Online) database, which I wish had existed when I was at uni!

A case full of viols, and an early edition of Playford’s Introduction to the Skill of Musicke (Musikinstrumentenmuseum der Universität Leipzig, 2016)

This clavichord was one of the few instruments we were allowed to touch (Musikinstrumentenmuseum der Universität Leipzig, 2016)

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Dowland Wrap:

Named for the composer John Dowland, famous for his melancholy songs and instrumental works for viols, the Dowland Wrap is a dramatic rectangular wrap featuring a central cable panel flanked by contrasting garter stitch.

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Contrabass, Italy, mid-17thC (Musikinstrumentenmuseum der Universität Leipzig)

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From ‘Flow my teares’, a lute song from Dowland’s Second Booke of Songs or Ayres (1600)

Dowland Wrap features:

• a rectangular wrap worked from end to end

• a central cable panel inspired by the geometric tracery decorating 17thC string instruments, with wide garter stitch edges for textural contrast

• simple 1-over-1 cables, which can be knit without a cable needle (instructions for my favourite twist method are included)

• requires 5 skeins of Malabrigo Dos Tierras (50% baby alpaca, 50% merino wool; 210yds/192m per 100g skein), or 1050yds/960m of DK-weight yarn. Sample colourway: ‘Azul Profundo’

• 72.5”/184cm long and 17.5”/44.5cm wide, relaxed after blocking

• charts and written instructions are both provided in full.

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Tielke shawl:

The Tielke Shawl is an asymmetric triangular shawl featuring a garter stitch ground and a cable panel which grows in complexity as you knit: it flows from simple twisted cables, representing the strings of musical instruments, into a complex intertwining motif. The shawl is named for the Tielke family of musical instrument makers - Joachim, who created richly decorated instruments in his Hamburg workshop, and Gottfried, who made the five-stringed contrabass (now in Leipzig’s musical instrument museum), which inspired the shawl’s cable detail.

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Contrabass by Gottfried Tielke, 1662 (Musikinstrumentenmuseum der Universität Leipzig)

Tielke Shawl features:

• an asymmetric triangular shawl worked from one point to the opposite side

• simple garter stitch with a cable panel running along one edge, inspired by the geometric motif decorating a 17thC contrabass

• simple 1-over-1 cables, which can be knit without a cable needle (instructions for my favourite twist method are included)

• requires 4 skeins of Malabrigo Washted (100% superwash merino wool; 210yds/192m per 100g skein), or 820yds/750m of worsted-weight yarn. Sample colourway: ‘Sunset’

• 74.5”/189cm wingspan and 31.5”/80cm depth, relaxed after blocking

• charts and written instructions are both provided in full.

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Playford hat:

The Playford Hat is named for the music publisher and bookseller John Playford, known for publishing music by various composers, the collection of dance melodies and steps The English Dancing Master, and instructional books for various instruments including the violin. The hat’s all-over cable pattern is inspired by the delicate latticework framed with hearts inscribed on a beautiful violin by Hans Krouchdaler (circa 1700).

Playford Hat features:

• a cabled beanie worked in the round from the bottom up

• an all-over cable pattern inspired by the geometric lattices framed with hearts on a highly-decorated Baroque violin

• simple 1-over-1 cables, which can be knit without a cable needle (instructions for my favourite twist method are included)

• requires 1 skein of Malabrigo Arroyo (100% superwash merino wool; 335yds/306m per 100g skein), or 205yds/187.5m of sport-weight yarn. Sample colourway: ‘Borraja’

• 18”/46cm circumference and 8.75”/22.5cm length, relaxed after blocking

• to fit 19-23”/48-58.5cm head circumference

• charts and written instructions are both provided in full.

From The English Dancing Master (1651)

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Jaye mitts:

The Jaye Mitts, named for the viol-maker Henry Jaye, are a pair of fingerless mitts featuring a delicately intertwining cable motif, and simple twisted cables on the palms representing the strings of musical instruments. Many modern viols being played today are careful copies of Jaye’s original instruments.

Jaye Mitts features:

• a cabled pair of mitts worked in the round from the bottom up

• cable motifs inspired by the geometric decoration on a 17thC descant viol, and plain twisted cables on the palm side

• simple 1-over-1 cables, which can be knit without a cable needle (instructions for my favourite twist method are included)

• requires 1 skein of Malabrigo Sock (100% superwash merino; 440yds/402m per 100g skein), or 196.5yds/180m of light fingering weight yarn. Sample colourway: ‘Teal Feather’

• 7”/18cm circumference and 7.25”/18.5cm length, relaxed after blocking

• to fit 7-8.5”/18-21.5cm palm circumference

• charts and written instructions are both provided in full.

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Descant viol by Henry Jaye, mid-17thC (Musikinstrumentenmuseum der Universität Leipzig)

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Simpson cowl:

The Simpson Cowl is named for viol-player and composer Christopher Simpson, who wrote The Division Viol to teach players how to embellish and improvise on a melody or bass line. The short cowl is worked in the round, and features an all-over pattern of intertwining cable motifs which I extrapolated from the lattice motifs found on various seventeenth-century viols and other instruments.

Simpson Cowl features:

• a cabled cowl knit in the round from the bottom up

• an all-over cable pattern inspired by the decorative latticework on 17thC string instruments

• simple 1-over-1 cables, which can be knit without a cable needle (instructions for my favourite twist method are included)

• requires 1 skein of Malabrigo Washted (100% superwash merino wool; 210yds/192m per 100g skein), or 201yds/184m of worsted-weight yarn. Sample colourway: ‘Pearl’

• 22”/56cm circumference and 8.5”/21.5cm depth, relaxed after blocking

• charts and written instructions are both provided in full.

From The Division-viol, or The Art of Playing ex tempore to a Ground (1665)

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The cable patterns featured in these designs have some elements in common across the whole collection, most notably interwoven latticework motifs of varying complexity, combined with 2-stitch cable ribs which symbolise the twisted strings of musical instruments. The cable patterns are relatively fuss-free, and can be worked entirely without a cable needle - instructions for my favourite method are included in the patterns, and you can also find my tutorial here. You will come across a few stitches worked through the back loop (because they give a crisper look to the cable tracery), but I’ve kept these to a minimum for the sake of ease.

All five patterns are available for download on Ravelry and Payhip, where you can find additional photos and details, and purchase them individually or together in an ebook (with a reduced price per pattern).

New pattern: Beanstalk Shawl

Introducing my latest adventure in textured lace! The Beanstalk Shawl is a botanically-inspired triangular shawl in fingering-weight yarn. Its all-over lace pattern includes twisted stitches for crisp texture, and increases & decreases are worked on every row to create the gracefully-curving pairs of leaves.

The shawl’s stitch pattern grew out of the leaf-lace motif in my Ensata Scarf & Cowl and Hat designs (Ravelry links), which I couldn’t stop playing with further! I added more twisted stitches and stacked the leaves in unbroken columns, and through a lot of trial and error, found an elegant way of fitting the repeats into a triangular shawl shape.

The final effect is an abstract interpretation of growing vines or leafy plants, and makes me think of my Mum & Dad’s vegetable garden, which for its small size produces an awful lot of food. Their tomatoes are a particular point of pride, and I admit I actually enjoy their brussels sprouts (gasp)!

Do you ever find yourself enchanted with a certain type of stitch pattern? The combination of leafy lace and twisted stitches has been haunting me for a while now, and I don’t think I’m quite done yet - I still have a few more ideas charted out and ready to swatch…

The yarn I used to knit up my sample is Maniototo Wool’s Rough Ridge 4ply (90% Merino cross wool, 10% coloured Polwarth wool; 394yds/360m per 100g skein). This is an airy woollen-spun yarn with gentle heathering as a result of the inclusion of naturally coloured wool in the mix. I used two skeins of the undyed yarn for my shawl, but if you’re a colour-lover Mary has overdyed a few special shades to coincide with the launch of the Beanstalk Shawl pattern.

Techniques involved in the pattern include working lace increases and decreases on RS and WS rows (I have a tutorial coming soon for the WS decreases), and knitting and purling through the back loop to form the twisted stitches. I strongly recommend using stitch markers between repeats of the leaf-lace pattern, to help you keep track of the increases and decreases in the WS rows. Marking out the repeats also helped me get fully into the rhythm of the stitch pattern, which is worked over 6 rows.

Beanstalk Shawl features:

• triangular shape, worked from one point to the triangle’s opposite side

• all-over textured lace pattern including increases and decreases on every row

• twisted stitches add crisp definition to the leafy texture

• requires two skeins of fingering-weight yarn (shown in Maniototo Wool’s Rough Ridge 4ply), and 10 stitch markers

• suitable for solid, semi-solid, or gently-speckled fingering-weight yarn

• one size, easy to alter by changing the number of repeats

• pattern includes full written instructions as well as charts.

Find out more about my Beanstalk Shawl pattern, including Ravelry and Payhip purchase options.

New pattern: Xerophyte

My Xerophyte shawl has just been published in Making's DESERT issue!

Xerophyte is a generously-sized crescent shawl with contrasting textures inspired by desert plants. The name comes from the botanical term for plants which have the ability to conserve or store water, for example cacti and succulents.

Photo by Making

The shawl is knit from the top down, beginning with a garter tab cast on. The first part of the shawl is scattered with mini-bobbles, which are simple to work and don’t require any turning, and echo the prickle-studded lobes of prickly pear cacti. The shawl’s border begins with rows of shaping to create gentle scallops, whose softly rounded shapes contrast with the crisp geometry of the twisted-ribbing.

I knit my sample using two skeins of beautiful botanically-dyed yarn by A Verb For Keeping Warm. Floating is a dreamy, drapey blend of 70% superfine alpaca, 20% silk, and 10% cashmere. The shade I used is called Lamb’s Ear, a very subtle sage colour which changes with the light.

Photo by Making

Xerophyte shawl features:

• a crescent-shaped shawl, knit from the top down

• dotted with simple one-row mini-bobbles edged with a scalloped border in twisted ribbing

• one size, with 85½" [217 cm] wingspan and 16½" [42 cm] depth at centre

• requires two skeins of fingering-weight yarn (shown in A Verb For Keeping Warm's Floating), and 12 stitch markers for the border

• pattern includes written instructions only, no charts.

Photo by Making

Find out more about my Xerophyte shawl pattern, including Ravelry and Payhip purchase options. You can also pick up a copy of the magazine from a local yarn shop, or order one here from Making's website.

New pattern: Windcatcher

The Windcatcher shawl began as a collaboration with Nikki of Dark Harbour Yarn for last year’s Indie Untangled yarn club. The club’s theme was ‘Where We Knit’, and because Nikki and I both have a strong connection to Wellington NZ (it’s her home, and my former home), we decided on Wellington harbour as our inspiration. For a few years, I lived high on one of Wellington’s hills with a view of the water, and I spent a lot of time watching the birds, boats, and changing reflections while working on some of my very first knitting patterns.

Wellington is known for its wind - it’s not uncommon for passengers to applaud when their plane lands safely! - so I designed a shawl with the shape of a sail, and a stitch pattern that echoes the rippling water. The harbour’s edge is a lovely place to go for a walk in the city - you can see more photos in my older posts tagged Wellington. The photo below, which I took a couple of years ago, was the inspiration for both my shawl and Nikki’s colourway, which she called In swings the tide.

The shawl’s shape and lacy stitch pattern make it possible to knit using only one skein of precious yarn - I used Dark Harbour Yarn’s Starboard Fingering, a blend of 70% merino and 30% silk, which gives it a wonderful sheen and drape. I really like using single-ply yarn for lace, because it holds blocking well, and it’s so soft and delicate.

Because the pattern was originally created for a yarn club (and would be a surprise to the subscribers), I tried to keep the stitch pattern relatively straightforward. You will only need a few different stitches - knits & purls, yarn-overs, and k2tog & ssk decreases.

Windcatcher features:

• asymmetrical triangular shape, worked from one point to the triangle’s opposite side

• all-over textured lace pattern made up of simple stitches (k, p, yo, k2tog, ssk)

• WS rows use only knits and purls

• suitable for solid, semi-solid, or gently-speckled fingering-weight yarn

• one size, easy to alter by changing the number of repeats

• pattern includes full written instructions as well as charts.

Find out more about my Windcatcher shawl pattern, including Ravelry and Payhip purchase options.