Let's talk about my latest pattern, shall we?

This is the Star House Cowl in the latest issue of Interweave Knits.

It's a lace cowl with tiers of picot edges. When the call to submit came out last year, I knew immediately what I wanted to do. I had used this particular lace pattern before in a swatch, and I felt the lace and picots were meant to be together. However, that swatch didn't work for a number of reasons. When worked flat, the lace pattern creates a biased fabric and makes the edges of the piece asymmetrical, but when worked in the round, the lace creates a great geometric, but still very feminine, fabric. I combined this lace pattern with a technique found in a German stitch dictionary which alternates lace with picot tiers. Creating a mash up of these two stitch patterns resulted in the cowl seen above.

The project calls for Sweet Georgia Merino Silk Aran, which was the yarn I used for the swatch I sent to Interweave for the submision. It's a worsted weight yarn with great sheen and drape. If you're looking to substitute yarns, I would suggest staying away from a single ply yarn. The technique to create the picot tiers has you pick up stitches from several rounds below, and I think using a single ply yarn would make this more difficult than it needs to be.

I love the technique for the picot tiers, and I can pretty confidently say it won't be the last you see this from me.

 

Pattern: Star House Cowl

Yarn: 4 skeins Sweet Georgia Merino Silk Aran (740 yards worsted weight yarn)

Needles: US 8 (5 mm) 32" circular needle

Gauge: 14 sts and 20 rnds in lace pattern

Finished Size: 50" circumference and 13" wide

Pattern available in Interweave Knits, Spring 2014.

*All pictures ©Interweave Knits.