The answer was surprisingly simple. Chevrons to the rescue. Sideways chevrons to be exact.

They break up pooling and add cute little stripey bits and pieces.

And the simple lace edging isn’t obscured by the riot of color.

And you end up with some quite wearable and vaguely Missoni-ish. Long and narrow with a gentle crescent shape that makes it easy to wrap up in.

Needles: Size 6 needles (4.0 mm)

Yarn: 400 yards of fingering weight yarn, sample is shown in Dyeabolical Yarns Strong Arm Skinny in Flower Shop Inferno.

Gauge: 18 stitches and 20 rows = 4 inches in blocked chevron

Sizes: 72″ wide and 16″ deep

The Vittorio Shawlette is available to purchase for $6.00 USD

So last winter she sent me this:

This being some Smooth Merino Fine from Kitchen Sink Dyeworks. Beautiful, yes? So soft and so pretty. The colorway is based upon the descriptions of the book, and in the book Munchkinland is decidedly blue. So I got some of that, and I sent her back some of this:

This being the Munchkinland Sock. I wanted something a little different. I didn’t want a plug and play sock, so this sock is chart heavy. There are written instructions too, but trust me, it’s easier to use the charts. It’s got all sorts of details that make me happy. Like the way the patterning comes to a point on the instep:

And the way the lace pattern extends all the way to the back of the heel. These are great socks to wear with clogs:

There is no heel flap, no short-row heel. The gusset has an insert panel that does all the increasing for you so everything stays all pretty and organic:

And here’s the beauty part. The skein of yarn that you see below? It’s an extra! An extra that I’m giving away to launch the public release of the Munchkinland socks patterns. And sadly, Kitchen Sink Dyeworks is out of business, so this is like a collector’s item! All you have to do to be entered to win is comment with your favorite Wizard of Oz character.

So comment to enter, and you could win this skein of Munchkinland Sock Yarn, and a copy of the Munchkinland sock pattern. The winner will be chosen on Monday, March 19th. Or pick up a copy of the Munchkinland Sock pattern, which is now available for purchase. The details:

Needles: Size 2 needles (2.75 mm)

Yarn: 400 yards of fingering weight yarn, sample is shown in Kitchen Sink Dyeworks Smooth Merino Fine, 100% Superwash Merino – 400 yards

Gauge: 30 stitches and 40 rows = 4 inches in stockinette in the round

Sizes: Small/Medium (64 st) and Medium/Large (72 st)

Munchkinland Socks are available to purchase for $6.00 USD

I did four different designs, and only one of them did I truly, truly love. So I grabbed my FSU leftovers and knit up a Gryffindor hat sample:

And then I realized how I could make it better. So I broke out my leftover Gator colors and went to town. The end result is my favorite version of all:

I love the stripes, I love the purl ridges, I love the little contrast color “flowers”. I just love it. I want to make a hundred of them.

And the beautiful part of this is that you can use any colors you like. Any fandom will do – sports, sci-fi, college, or just your two favorite colors. Honestly I am totally itching to make one for myself in red and turquoise. I’m at that point where I think just about everything should be red or turquoise or some combination thereof.

So just in time for March Madness, and with a sale price of $4.50 while the madness goes on, I present the Fangirl Hat:

Needles: Size 7 needles (4.5 mm) – 16″ circulars and dpns

Yarn: Cascade 220 – 70 (80, 90) yards of EACH color

Gauge: 18 stitches and 26 rows = 4 inches in stockinette in the round

Sizes: Small (18.5″), Medium (20″), and Large (22.5″) – all circumferences are unstretched

The Fangirl Hat is available to purchase for $4.50 USD  

Kind of. And then I signed up for a swap. Don’t ask me why. I don’t have time for these things. But I asked the swap coordinators if I could design a shawlette for my recipient. And so the first prototype for Debussy was born. And then I went to Stitches South and CircusGirl helped me find the perfect color Bugga to knit up the real Debussy. And it went and went and went and went and went. And now it’s done. And while half of me is super happy to be finished, the other half (the insane in the membrane half) wants to do it again. And so I present the seventh song – Berlioz:

Berlioz is knit sideways – my favorite way, in a gorgeous silk/wool blend hand dyed by Fiddleknits. Seriously, this stuff is wonderful. So soft and shiny, and the color just sings. Kind of fitting that my final shawlette is knit up in yarn dyed by a musician, no? No I didn’t plan it that way. But I’m so glad it worked out!

You cast on 4 sts and you knit along and increase all happy like and then when your yarn is half gone, you turn around and go back. And when all is said and sung – you bind off 4 sts. And the angels sing. Well actually after you block it, the angels sing. Because blocking is magic my friends.

And because FiddleKnits was so supremely generous as to send me yarn at the very last minute (and save me from doom when the other yarn did not come as promised) and send me two colors so I could choose from them in person and because she’s awesome – we’re having a little giveaway. All you have to do is comment by the time I log onto my computer at the buttcrack of dawn on Thursday morning and you are entered for a chance to win this beauty *and* your very own copy of Berlioz!

So comment away – tell me something interesting – tell me your favorite song and you have a chance to win fabulous prizes. Parting gifts now that the Seven Songs have all been sung.

It uses the gorgeous Paca Peds yarn with the heel-toe skein from The Alpaca Yarn Company. I used almost all 90 yards of the heel-toe skein, and about 280 yards of the main color. I really love the way the yarns played off of each other, and I think it will be lovely in any of the colors they offer!

And yes, that is my new backyard. I love not having neighbors right up behind us, and instead having the lovely little lake. I actually saw otters in it the other day. A far cry from the feral cat community we had at the old house.

The motifs in the border are easy to memorize, but it is lace where there is patterning on the right and wrong side rows. The shawlette is finished up with short-rows, and then stitches are picked up all the way around to do a simple eyelet edging that finishes it off and ties everything together. And I really love the shape it blocks out to:

I’m very excited to be working on the seventh song. I’m so happy so many knitters have loved the projects that I’ve come up with so far!

Rachmaninoff is available for individual purchase for $6.00 USD
Or as part of the Seven Songs collection for $21.95 for all seven songs –

Ok, so she’s not wearing any shoes. But she does have a Sixpence Shawlette wrapped around her shoulders. This project was so much fun. The lovely bride was knitting up some Kataras for her bridesmaids and I told her I would be honored to design a wedding shawlette for her in exchange for some pictures.

We actually even had a “client” meeting. Ok, we met at Panera. And had lunch. And I showed her stitch dictionary elements I thought she might like. It was totally a professional meeting. Um, ok. It was lunch with a friend and we talked about knitting. Wait, that covers most of my lunches. Are all my meals with friends tax deductible?

The shawlette is worked from side to side with a stockinette body. The top edging is simple and the bottom more ornate – per her request. It’s worked to be a bit shallow so it doesn’t obscure the back of her dress too much.

And it’s available now on Ravelry.

Needles: Size 6 needles (4 mm)

Yarn: The Sanguine Gryphon’s Little Traveler

Gauge: 20 stitches and 24 rows = 4 inches in blocked stockinette

Notes: Worked from side to side – offered in written & charted format.

Sixpence Shawlette – $6.00 USD

The shawlette is worked from the bottom up from a cast-on of only 3 stitches. The garter-diamond border is worked at the same time as the body of the shawl. Named after the French composer Daniel Auber and his Les diamants de la couronne, for the beautiful diamond motifs in the pattern.

The diamonds in the center panel are filled in with what I call little Estonian stars. Just a lovely bit of texture that shows off the subtle semi-sold shading of the gorgeous Ever After yarn.

And the shawlette is finished along the top with a sweet applied border – no super long row to bind off here!

And it’s now available as one of the Seven Songs. Five of the songs have been sung, with only two more songs to go.

Needles: Size 6 needles (4 mm)

Yarn: Classic Fairytale from Ever After Yarns in the “Doctor’s Tardis” Colorway

Gauge: 20 stitches and 24 rows = 4 inches in blocked stockinette

Notes: Worked from the bottom up – offered in written & charted format.

Auber Shawlette – $6.00 USD or the Seven Songs Collection – $21.95 USD

Another funny thing – I get my best pattern names from street names. Paris Mill is the name of a street. And I felt like the little diagonal columns looked neighborhoods on a map, full of little orderly cul-de-sacs and straight throughs.

I have to tell you, this shawlette practically knit itself. It *flew* off the needles. Part of that is that sideways construction just comes naturally to me. But the other part of that is that Jitterbug is my first true yarn love. It was my very first must-have yarn and it’s still my favorite. And this red color is my all time hands down most beloved ever. It took a lot for me to finally break into this skein. I’ve had it for years!

Needles: Size 6 needles (4 mm)

Yarn: Colinette Jitterbug in the amazing Vatican Pie colorway – my favorite red ever!

Size: Sample blocked to 56″ wide and 18″ deep – but like any sideways shawlette it can be made larger

Gauge: 20 stitches and 24 rows = 4 inches in blocked stockinette

Notes: Worked from side to side  – offered in written & charted format.

The Paris Mill Shawlette on Ravelry – $5.50 USD

We won’t speak of my math-impaired brain or how I frantically knit the sample for this in a 2-day coffee-powered Doctor Who haze. The shaping on this is simple and works quite nicely and makes a wide crescent shaped shawlette that is easy to wrap around around you. The small size is 60″ wide and 12″ deep. The large size is 72″ wide and 15″ deep.

This shawl is named after the March of Spring by Frederick Delius. I went to my favorite used book store – Chamblin’s Bookmine – to see if I could find any books about Frederick Delius.

I stood in front of the composers section at the book store. This is the biggest, best bookstore I have ever been in by the way – 55,000 square feet of books. Miles and miles of aisles of books. Every sort imaginable. If you want it, they have it. And they have the best employees – true bookworms – who can always help you find what you need. But I stood there trying to find something on Delius. He’s a bit obscure, so nothing jumped out at me. Until I saw the word “Samarkand” on a book spine. We listened to a great fantasy story a while back about the Amulet of Samarkand. So that was the very first book I pulled off the shelf.

Yep, Frederick Delius. I stood there in amazement, and I think I must have been talking to myself in amazement because the lady next to me gave me an odd look and scurried away. Knitting this shawlette was an adventure, and with Liberty‘s gorgeous Bluetopia yarn I loved every stitch.

Delius is the second of the Seven Songs. It’s available in the e-book for $21.95 – and there are five more patterns coming. Or you can buy it individually for $6.00

And with this song there is a special bonus. Liberty kindly sent me two skeins of the Absinthe Bluetopia, so you have an opportunity to win a skein! Comment on this entry and you will be entered to win your very own skein. I will draw the winner on Friday!

Well apparently I can. The first shawlette went live today. That one I actually bought yarn for while I was at Stitches South. But I have a beautiful stack of yarn here at the house – that you will get to see soon  – for the rest of the releases. For the rest of the year, on the first of each month, I will be releasing a new and beautiful shawlette design. I have some amazing ideas and the yarn is really breathtaking. I am so excited about this.

So here’s the first one. The Debussy Shawlette is worked up on size 7 needles (4.5 mm)  in Sanguine Gryphon‘s Bugga in the Strawberry Crab colorway. I actually got to meet Gryphon and her lovely employee Noelle at Stitches South – and Noelle helped me pick out this gorgeous yarn.

This design was first imagined for Donna, who was my swap partner in a fun shawlette swap set up by the KnitGirllls. I knit up the shawlette for her in a hurry and had no time to get the pattern or pictures together. So I had to try to work from my crazy notes and redo the whole thing. Some things are changed slightly from the original, but the motif is the same, and I’m ever so pleased with the results. The design is worked from the top down and has no center spine, but still retains a rather classical triangular shape.

For this design I went looking for a classical song to name it after. Interestingly enough I kept coming back to piano pieces by Claude Debussy. La Puerta del Vino (The Gate of Wine) was the one that I loved the best and it suits the gorgeous wine color of the yarn just perfectly. You can hear the song here on Youtube.

You can buy the pattern individually for $6.50 or you can buy the Seven Songs collection for $21.95. If you choose the collection you will get a notification each month when the new pattern in the collection is released.

Just to let you know, because of the way in which this is designed, it is very chart heavy. Like all of my designs, the instructions are provided in written and charted format, but I highly suggest you work from the charts. In fact, the last 11 pages of this pattern are all written instructions. So if you use the charts, you can only print the first 7 pages and be good to go!