There is this point in the seasons when the trees are bare (or mostly bare) and you can see deep into the wood.  The light strikes across the tress and branches, casting a dark lacey web of shadows across the forest floor and on any visitors walking the paths.  I was intrigued by these shadows and the idea of a dark, dramatic lace when I designed this scarf.

This is a pretty straight-forward pattern, with dramatic results.  You can knit it large, or you can knit it small - giving you a choice of a shawl or a scarf.

The best part:  I designed it to be knit with sock yarn!  Its a great way to take on the shape and techniques of a shawl without working with super-fine yarn.  You can use sock yarn in just about any yardage - This is size small, knit with just 315 yards of Claudia Handpainted Fingering Yarn.

I was also inspired by the abbey where my Aunt lives.  They do good works.  And make candy (to fund the good works).  The most delicious, incredible, sinful, amazing candy known to life.  But they need some help.  Building a bigger kitchen - so they can make more delicious candy.  You can read more about this here.

Anyway.  20% of the income made from this scarf will be donated to the building of this new kitchen.

The details:

Deep Forest Scarf/Shawl (Ravelry Link)
Requires:  315 (360, 395) yards of fingering weight yarn
Needle:  Something that gives you good gauge.  I used US 6.

$5.75

So.  Onward.  Bring out those mountains of sock yarn.  And knit on!  Save the candy kitchen!

I’m pleased to be able to announce one of my secret projects!

Yay!

Here we have Popsicle (Rav link), a new sock pattern that features a mirrored patterning across the foot. I designed this for Three Irish Girls yarn company and their Sock Yarnista sock club.

I’m incredibly proud of this design and the way it turned out. It’s pretty easy/simple… and the swooshing off the foot makes me hope that people will be able to avoid some second sock syndrome. Just doing my duty, you know…

One of the design challenges in this sock was that I had to figure out how to do the gusset decreases (since the instep had it’s own party going on, I didn’t want to crowd it with your typical gusset decreases). I knew that as Cat Bordhi explains, I could place the decreases where ever I wanted in the gusset section, just so long as they existed… I tried a few options and finally found a perfect solution… along the bottom of the heel. You can see a photo here that illustrates this.

Um, so yay! I love this pattern and I hope you do too!

Here are some specifics:

Popsicle, Designed by Nicole Hindes
Gauge: 30 sts over 4 inches (36 rows over 4 inches)
Yarn: Three Irish Girls Kells Sport Merin
Needles: US 2 (But use what gets YOU gauge)
Download available: at the Three Irish Girls Website ($5.95)
The inspiration: This sock is an homage to the summers of my childhood. It’s a fairly simple, top-down sock with a heel flap. The interesting element to keep you out of the heat is the way the pattern melts off the top of your foot like a popsicle during the dog days of summer.

Introducing the Strangling Vine Scarf:

• Knit with less than a single skein of Sea Silk (a skein of SS is 430 or so yards of fingering weight)
• Size US 4 needles (but it’s a scarf, so gauge is not essential - it’s about which drape you like most)
• Not reversible (it’s a pretty pattern, but there is a wrong side - sorry)

And… it’s available for free!!

In order to be worthy of the pattern you must…

Do at least ONE random act of kindness. This is something that you have to do (you can’t just join a facebook group where someone else, somewhere is going to donate money for some cause) and it can’t be something you did yesterday before you read about this. I’m not going to tell anyone that whatever they did wasn’t enough… but try to do something that will have a little bit of an impact on the “good” quotient in the world- you know, do something that makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside! PLEASE leave me a comment letting me know what you did (so I can feel warm and fuzzy too).

Why am I doing this? Well, the pattern isn’t too genius, but I do think it’s kinda pretty - and some people might want a copy of the pattern. This made the trouble of writing up the pattern “worth it.”

At a loss for what to do? Here are some suggestions:

• If you’re on Ravelry, donate! (Casey and Jess are working so hard… and now they’re doing this full time… They need some support!)
• Send a college student you know a care package
• Knit a square for a charity afghan or a scarf for the red-scarf project.
• Send a letter or postcard via snail-mail to a person who’d never expect it and may not have anyone else who’d send them something.

Click the download button to get it now!

Yay! (Don’t forget to do your RAOK!)