Tag Archives: free shawl pattern

We’re back!

Good Morning Friends and welcome back, I mean me! My sincerest apologies for the absence but we have literally been without internet for 31 days! What didn’t help was lots of snow and icy road conditions, making going out difficult, too. In this rural location, we rely on the cell tower for our businesses’  communications, internet, weather, news, etc.  (In one conversation with an AT&T representative, “Paul” remarked that he was looking at a computer map that shows cell strength.  He said that around us it was completely white.  I asked, “What does that mean?”  “It means nothing, it means you have nothing,” was his reply.)

As you know, we had already been having AT&T tower problems for the last few months. The entire tower crashed, however, exactly two weeks before Christmas. I had several Christmas blogs in mind that will have to wait for next year, such as how to make Christmas Stollen, a German holiday bread studded with candied fruits and filled with almond paste. 

So time to catch up on some other news, as well as four weeks of Emily Estrada’s Fibretown Podcast :)

Meduseld is thrilled to be an advertiser inWild Fibers Magazine’s Tenth Anniversary Issue. I have been reading this magazine since before we even started up making yarn, and it is like traveling overseas without leaving the comfort of your living room. It covers diverse natural fibers all over the globe. My only complaint is that they don’t cover the wonderful domestic farms very often, but hopefully there will be more attention given to our own country’s fantastic (albeit struggling) fiber industry in the future.   Look for our ad in this issue, which contains a link to our free Icicle Shawl Pattern. 

We were not idle while the net was down. I started some seed trays for a friend who is firing up her own “high tunnel” or hoop house. While most of the seedlings are coming up fine, I have had the most frustrating time keeping a mouse out of the cucumber and squash trays, having to replant each time some four legged creature makes a feast of my seeds. I even put the four legs of the table in buckets of water and the little varmint still gets to them. BTW, sprinkling hot red pepper over the dirt doesn’t stop the mice either. I have now planted those trays for the fourth time. Please keep your fingers crossed for me!

Coming up: Maple syrup making, new yarn I am expecting from the mill, gardening plans for 2014, and some recipes I have been testing while things were “quiet.”

Golden Gauze Shawl – Free Pattern

Meduseld's Golden Gauze Shawl

Meduseld’s Golden Gauze Shawl

Here is another shawl pattern that I have been asked for frequently. When I wore this shawl at the Shenandoah Valley Fiber Festival, someone literally offered to buy it off my back. She was even more disappointed when I told her that to my knowledge the yarn for this shawl was not available at any of the booths at the festival.

The shawl is generously sized, gauzy and light, and yet still warming. The sequins sparkle in their multitude of colors and no picture seems to do it justice. For all its beauty it’s incredibly easy to make one for yourself.

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The finished dimensions are approximately 6.5 feet x 2 feet.

Materials needed are:

5 skeins of S. Charles Adele in gold (other colorways are available) click on yarn in Amazon store – will take you to Amazon where you can buy this in gold.

US 10 knitting needles

Cast on 90 stitches. Turn

k2, yarn around (brings yarn to p side), p2tog. Repeat this until end. You should end with 2 knit stitches. Turn

k2, yarn around (brings yarn to p side), p2tog….etc for the full length of shawl. It is really that easy.

By bringing the yarn around, it means a full loop around the needle bringing it to the front for the p stitches. This is more than a simple yarn over.

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Notes: This shawl can be made in other dimensions. Make sure that you choose an even number of stitches that when you divide it by two gives you an odd number. For example about, 90 divided by 2 equals 45, an odd number, others examples are 50, 30, 26 etc… this provides for the two knit stitches on each side, giving you your border.

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Icicle Shawl Pattern

Meduseld’s Icicle Trim Shawl was very popular at Shenandoah’s Fiber Festival last week, and I received numerous requests for the pattern. As promised, here it is, FREE!

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The shawl is springy and light and the icicle fringe gives it the appearance of winter, or even like dew on a spring morning.  The body of the shawl is knitted and the trim is an easy crochet pattern.

Materials:

2 skeins of Meduseld’s Lace Romney, approximately 500 yards

silver EE (#6) beads

US 6 Knitting needles

US G crochet hook

US 10-13 stainless crochet hook or beading needle

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BODY – Place one stitch on your left knitting needle. Make one YO on right needle and knit the stitch on the left needle. Turn. YO, knit the two stitches. Turn, YO, knit the three stitches.Continue with this pattern until you have 164 rows. Each row will have one stitch more than the row before, and very quickly you’ll have a shawl with large loops at each side from the yarn-overs. Bind off the stitches of the last row keeping the remaining stitch and do not cut the yarn.

ICICLE TRIM – Insert crochet hook into the remaining stitch. Turn the shawl so that the side is up. * SC in first yarn-over loop. Chain three. **SC three stitches, placing a silver bead in each SC (see photos). SC in third chain stitch, Chain two, SC in same yarn-over loop. SC in next yarn-over loop. SC in next yarn over loop, chain three, ** repeat stitches between ** until you reach the tip of the shawl where you create an icicle in all three of the yarn-over loops. Resume from * and finish the other side of the shawl. Bind off and weave in yarn end.

Place a bead on the #10 hook. Pull yarn through the bead. This loop forms the next crochet stitch. Put the G hook through this loop and draw a stich through it to close the stitch.

Place a bead on the #10 hook. Pull yarn through the bead. This loop forms the next crochet stitch. Put the G hook through this loop and draw a stitch through it to complete the stitch.

 

Place three beads this way. You can see that each is separated by the closing stitch. Now SC in the third chain stitch, and chain two more to complete the "icicle."

Place three beads this way. You can see that each is separated by the completed single crochet  stitch. Now SC in the third chain stitch, and chain two more to complete the “icicle.”

BLOCK – wash gently with a mild soap and block or lay flat on towel to dry, shaping the shawl.

Special notes: You will have yarn left over. You can make the shawl larger by increasing the number of rows.  Just keep in mind the approximate amount you will need to crochet the edge.

For beading, I use a US #10 stainless crochet hook which is used for making crochet lace. The #10 size is fine enough to go through most of the beads and still has a large enough hook to draw the yarn through. Kate Rabjohns, our expert knitter, uses a #13, which being finer fits through more beads. Note that the hook is smaller though.

Meduseld's Icicle Shawl

Meduseld’s Icicle Shawl

Pattern by Patricia Culver, Meduseld