Category Archives: laceweight

PROJECTS Hikari Collection Fibre Co Meadow

While trolling for inspiration I found this really need little capsule collection for Fibre Co. Meadow by Japanese designer michiyo. I was really impressed, the designer clearly understands the fabric and makes the most of it’s natural lightness and drape. Meadow is a gorgeous yarn, a heavy lace-weight made with a very yummy blend of baby llama, silk, linen and merino wool. It’s great for layering pieces, light sweaters, and shaws and wraps.

Photos by Tommy Martin, shown in colour Fennel

Tsumuzikaze

Besides that fact that it’s a great combination of interesting, different and beautiful, I that this top looks really good on lots of people (see the finished projects HERE)! Tsumuzikaze is a Japanese word that means whirlwind, the design inspiration for this lovely pattern with an asymmetrical ‘whirling’ hem. This pullover is worked from the top down in the round. An eyelet pattern on the shoulders are worked as increases. The sleeves are worked separately, then in the round from the armhole. The lower edge is shaped with short rows.

Photos by michiyo, shown in colour Indigo

Size

  • To Fit Actual Bust Circumference up to: S 83(32¾), M 92(36¼), L 103(40½), XL 113(44½)
  • Finished bust: 102 (110, 120, 146) cm 40 (43¼, 47¼, 57¼) in
  • Finished Length: 62 (65.5, 70.5, 74) cm 24½ (25¾, 27¾, 29¼) in
  • Finished Hem circumference: 76 (80, 88, 99) cm 30 (31½, 34¾, 39)in
Photos by CozySunny Day, shown in colour Bellflower

Materials

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is shop-online-button-turquoise-250w.jpg
Photos by Tommy Martin, shown in colour Gentian Violet
Photos by Tommy Martin, shown in colour Gentian Violet

Kagerou

When I first saw this project I didn’t realize that it was a vest! It’s like a cross between a tank and a vest … a Vank Top? A Test Top? Is it a waistcoat? Feel free to throw in your two cents! Whatever it’s called, it is worked from the bottom up; the fronts and back are worked together back and forth up to the armhole, then the yokes are worked separately.  Short rows are then worked to make the back longer than the front. The back, left front and right front of the upper body are worked separately on smaller needles in a rib pattern. Finally the shoulders are joined and the piece is finished by adding buttons and blocking gently.

Photos by Handknitlife, shown in colour Pokeweed

Size

  • To Fit Actual Bust Circumference up to : S 83cm(32¾), M 92cm(36¼), L 103cm(40½), XL 113cm(44½)
  • Finished Bust: 90 (92, 102, 113) cm or 35½ (36¼, 40, 44) in
  • Finished Length (back): 70 (71, 73.5, 77) cm or 27½ (28, 29, 30¼) in
  • Finished Shoulder width: 32 (33, 36, 38) cm or 12½ (13, 14¼, 15) in
  • Finished Hem circumference: 142 (146, 162.5, 178.5) cm or 56 (57½, 64, 70¼) in

Materials

Photos by Tommy Martin, shown in Larkspur for MC and Pennyroyal for CC

Kinomi

Kinomi is a light top designed with minimal shaping and lots of flow. The pattern is written for two lengths; the shorter version is illustrated, whilst the longer version is designed to cover the hip.  Kinomi is worked in pieces separately from the bottom up. The neck band is made in two pieces in a contrasting colour with the ends grafted and then sewn onto the body. Ribbing is added to the armholes and the piece is finishing with light steaming. 

Photos by roko, show in Bedstraw for MC and Queen Annes Lace for CC

Size

  • To Fit Actual Bust Circumference up to: S 83(32¾), M 92(36¼), L 103(40½), XL 113(44½)
  • Finished bust: 115 (124, 133, 142.5) cm 45¼ (48¾, 52¼, 56) in
  • Short length: 53.5 (54.5, 56, 57.5) cm 21 (21½, 22, 22½) in
  • Long length: 71.5 (72, 76.5, 78) cm 28 (28¼, 30, 30¾) in
  • Centre back neck to cuff: 35 (37, 39, 41.5) cm 13¾ (14½, 15¼, 16¼) in
  • Hem circumference: 152.5 (163.5, 174.5, 185) cm 60 (64¼, 68¾, 72¾) in

Materials

Photos by Tommy Martin, shown in colour Alfalfa

Mori

Light and romantic, this cardigan is the perfect topper for sunny spring days and cool summer nights. It can be worn as a cardigan or a cape/shawl. This pattern is worked from the top down seamlessly and the lace is charted.

Photos by LilyLilyLily, shown in colour Prairie

Size

  • To Fit Actual Bust Circumference up to: S 83(32¾), M 92(36¼), L 103(40½), XL 113(44½)
  • Finished bust: 99 (105, 116, 128) cm 39 (41¼, 45¾, 50½) in
  • Finished Length: 44.5 (45.5, 47.5, 50) cm 17½ (18, 18¾, 19¾) in
  • Finished Centre back neck to cuff: 70 (72, 74.5, 77) cm 27½ (28¼, 29¼, 30¼) in
  • Finished Hem circumference: 155.5 (166, 182.5, 204) cm 61¼ (65¼, 71¾, 80¼) in

Materials

Photos by Tommy Martin, shown in colour Ladyslipper

Rourou

Rourou is a Japanese word that means hazy light, the kind that filters through the leaves of trees on a sunny summer day. The front and back of Rourou are worked in pieces separately from the bottom up creating the sleeves at the same time with side increases.

Photo by cosysunnyday, show in colour Queen Anne’s Lace

Size

  • To Fit Actual Bust Circumference up to: S 83(32¾), M 92(36¼), L 103(40½), XL 113(44½)
  • Finished bust: 110 (120, 130, 140) cm 43¼ (47¼, 51¼, 55) in
  • Length: 58.5 (60, 61.5, 62.5) cm 23 (23¾, 24¼, 24½) in
  • Centre back neck to cuff: 38.5 (41, 43, 46) cm 15¼ (16¼, 17, 18¼) in

Materials

KNIT HACK Nuvem Needles

Nuvem

We’ve made a Nuvem for the store before (see our last Nuvem), and I thought it would be a good travel project for my holiday in California. After I wound up the skein I looked down and thought: “Oh crud, what have I done?! That is a dump-truck sized ball of skinny yarn, how am I ever going to get through it?” Well, I’m happy to report that my moment of project panic abated once I started knitting, I got used to working with the skinny yarn fairly quickly, and it was a good travel project. I’m not a laceweight kind of person, but the Wollmeise Lace has a lot of body to it and is easy to hold on to and work with. The colour is beautiful too, I choose a saturated teal blue (Neptun).

Materials

Notes

If you want to you can make a Nuvem with fingering weight yarn. To make a smaller, thicker version of the wrap, you can use about 800m of fingering weight yarn and 4mm/US6 needles.

 

Blog Nuvem 1.jpg

Nuvem Hack

Nuvem is a fairly simple project, there are just a few obstacles to getting it set up. The first is the cast-on, which is unusual, but not hard once you watch a video or follow a tutorial (which are included in the pattern, so not to worry, no hack needed). The second is the needle situation. The project is worked from the center out, but it’s knit in an oval, so you need to use TWO circular needles to do this. It’s the “two circulars at the same time” technique, which some people use instead of the magic loop technique. Don’t worry, it isn’t scary, when you use this method you only need to work with one needle at a time, the second is just hangin’ out, on hold. Normally people use the two circulars method to knit things with a small circumference, like a sock or a hat, and it’s easy to distinguish the two needles from each other. With a larger project like the Nuvem, it’s a bit harder to see what you are doing.

Normally people use the two circulars method to knit things with a small circumference, like a sock or a hat, and it’s easy to distinguish the two needles from each other. With a larger project like the Nuvem, it’s a bit harder to see what you are doing, and which needle is which. The pattern suggests you use two different types of needles (ie. one wood, one metal), but I don’t love this solution because I find that my tension is different on different types of needles. Additionally, you can’t take the exact size of you needles for granted, the manufacturing of each company is different. My solution was to use two sets of the same needle (Addi Click interchangeable bamboo – always great for flying) and I colour coded the needle tips. How does one colour code Knitting needle tips? Our method has to be bright, customizable, easy to see, sturdy, resilient, and also removable – I used Nail Polish.

Blog Nuvem 5.jpg

Life Hack: I keep a cheap collection of bright, distinct colours of nail polish around the house and/or office. Mine came from the dollar store and cost $3. They don’t have to be good polishes, you’ll never use them on your nails, and you don’t have to take special care of them, but they are extremely useful for labeling and organizing things. I am especially fond of colour coding my keys with them, and you can also write on white polish.It’s removable with nail polish remover, which can also be obtained cheaply at the dollar store or drug store. 

Blog Nuvem 3

Painting Your Needles

  • Paint your needles FIRST. Do not cast on until after you paint.
  • Use bright colours that are easy for you to distinguish from each other. I used Pink & Orange, but you might be better with a higher contrast like Green & Red, or Blue & Orange.
  • I painted on the METAL portion of the needles, not the wood (you won’t be able to remove polish from the wood without ruining the finish on the needles). If you don’t have a metal portion on your needles you can paint the plastic cord.
  • Paint on BOTH sides of the needles for maximum visibility.
  • Make sure your paint is dry before starting to cast on. Tap it and check t make sure there is no paint on your finger. If there is, wait longer.

 

Blog Nuvem 2

Ta-Da! The pink goes with the pink, and the orange goes with the orange. I have to say I’m extremely pleased with this hack; I was constantly looking to reorient myself (especially when taking my project out of the bag) and finding the other end of the needle was using was a SNAP!

Store Project: Soft Spring Ombre Cowl

Some people are skinny yarn knitters and some are not. I don’t know about you, but I am not – working with gossamer yarns hurts my arms. It also takes a long time to knit, and I’m not a particularly speedy knitter. Enter my friend who has a big, beautiful stash of yarn (seriously, I spend every day surrounded by yarn and I find her collection moving).  I’ve been thinking a lot about how she can put some of her gorgeous but neglected fine filaments to use. 

My solution is plies. Lace weight yarns, like Malabrigo Silkpaca Lace, knit extremely well with two or 3 strands held together. It also offers an opportunity to play around with colour without requiring and any technical skill – Yay! 


FREE Pattern via Ravelry
3 skeins Malabrigo Silkpaca Lace (1 in each of 3 colours, we used: 27 bobby blue, 98 tuareg, 150 azul profundo)
3.5mm/US4-16″ circular needles 


Our Silkaca Ombre Cowl turned out FABULOUS! It’s soft, light, and just warm enough for spring. There was also lots of yarn left over, enough to make your cowl larger, a second cowl (in a different colour order), or a matching hat (you can see the yardage amounts in our Ravelry Notes).

The yarn is super-duper lovely (70% baby alpaca, 30% silk). It has all the softness of baby alpaca and a little bit of sheen from the silk content. 


Colour Combination Suggestions
Below are some ideas for colour combinations. Because Malabrigo’s dye lots tend to vary all of our suggestions are based on the actual yarn in the store (yup, I spent an afternoon playing Malabrigo mix-n’match. 

New Shades of Freia Ombre Lace

We’ve received a shipment of Freia Ombre Lace new colours! 

‘Miserable’ Wrap



I love, love, love this wrap!  It is knit up on very reasonably sized needles (5.5mm) and then felted by hand. Gorgeous! And it’s a freebie!



As always, you can find us at knitomatic.com!



NEW Malabrigo Lace

Many of the links posted here are from Ravelry.com, a free website for knitters and crocheters. If you don’t have your own account you can use ours: login: knitomatic2, password: knitomatic. But you should get your own account fast, ’cause you’re going to LOVE it!


Malabrigo’s Lace is a soft, sumptuous feeling singly ply yarn – a very skinny version of their worsted weight yarn. It comes in 50g skeins, with an abundant 428m. Because of it’s unique single ply texture, this skinny yarn is also great for making garments. The yardage also goes a long way, requiring between 2 and 4 skeins, making for very cost effective knitting. 

Ishabel (1 to 2 skeins)

Geodesic Cardigan (2 to 4 skeins)

Adrift Cardie (2 to 5 skeins)

FREE Crazy Lace Top (1 to 2 skeins)

FREE Citron (1 skein)

Featherweight Cardigan (2to 4 skeins)

Whisper Cardigan (2 to 3 skeins)

As always, you can find us at knitomatic.com!



NEW – Dream in Color Baby!

Dream in Color Baby – $28.50
All of the yarns from Dream in Color have been so yummy that I thought, despite the early onset of Summer in our nook of the world, I really must forge forward and order their skinniest yarn, 
Baby. As always, the colours are stunning in their depth and subtlety, and the way the yarn is dyed gives you a rare opportunity to use a variegated yarn that won’t fight with or upstage detailed lace work (or cables, etc).
  • Between Laceweight and Light Fingering (like a really thin sock yarn)
  • 2ply, 100% Machine Washable Merino Wool
  • 4 oz (approx 125g)
  • 700 yards/638m
  • 9 to 10 sts/inch
  • 2.25mm to 2.75mm needles (US 1 to 2) or larger 
  • See Baby on Ravelry
Now, if you are already a lace knitter, you know what to do with it, or at least what you can do with it, and what you’d like to do with it (and if you are of a certain mind about your yarns you know what you’d like to do to it.)  But a lot of people find skinny yarns daunting, so here is a list of things you may not have known about skinny yarns:
  1. Skinny yarns can not make you skinnier (unless you find a way to knit while on a recumbent bike) but they are extremely flattering. The thinner a textile is, the less bulk it will put on you. People who are all angles may prefer something thicker to fill them out, but for those with curves or all types skinny yarn can be beneficial.
  2. Thin yarns are great for crochet, which can work up much faster that knitting!
  3. Hold a stand of thin yarn along with another yarn to bulk it up just a bit and add more dimension to the colour (choose a colour that is close or complementary with your main yarn). Mohairs and fuzzy yarns work especially well with a carrier yarn. 
  4. Thin yarns go a looooong way!  The skinnier a yarn, the more distance  you’ll get out of it, which means that a project will cost you less than if you used a thicker yarn.
Our Favourite Project Ideas for Baby