Today I am publishing my new pattern, Rosana Shawl.  Rosana is a crescent shawl with a beaded lace border of stylized leaves and rosebuds. It is worked from the bottom up beginning with a picot cast on, then continuing into a lace border, and ending with a Stockinette stitch body worked in short rows. Seed beads are incorporated into the border using a small crochet hook. The glistening beads are complimented by the sheen of the wool/silk blend laceweight yarn. Rosana is a perfect lightweight shawl to be wrapped over spring dresses. Stitch pattern is charted. Instructions for two picot cast ons are included.

I spent a lot of time creating the lace border.  I started off with three separate lace patterns and tried to blend them together into one cohesive pattern.  It took quite a few hours at the computer, and three full knitted swatches, before I got the pattern to look just how I wanted it.  

This was my first time using Juniper Moon Findley, a merino/silk laceweight yarn.  It was an absolute dream to work with!  I just love the sheen from the silk.  I actually bought two skeins of this yarn because I couldn't decide in the yarn shop which color would look best.  The other choice is a lovely plum color, so now I will have to design another shawl to use that up (oh darn!).  

The photoshoot for this shawl was an adventure.  I wanted to take advantage of the 'golden hour' light, so about half an hour after sunrise my husband and I ended up down at the lake to take photos.  Of course the weather decided not to cooperate and instead of being warm it was 38 degrees.  If you look closely you can see steam rising off the surface of the lake.  I was determined to wear my pretty dress in the photos so I wore my long underwear underneath and just had to tough it out.  I was surprised to find that the only part of me that got really cold was my hands.  My shawl was surprisingly warm for being so lightweight!  I suppose that is the magic of silk and wool at work.  

If you are interested in purchasing Rosana Shawl: $5.00 

It seems these days that when I'm not knitting I'm either out in my garden or cooking with vegetables and herbs picked from my garden.  The greenness of North Carolina is still quite shocking to me, since I grew up in a desert.  A couple days ago I spent the afternoon sitting in a lawn chair, reading my library books and enjoying the view of all the trees with their new green leaves.  I took more photos of my garden, which has grown substantially over the week since I last took photos.  I think I have the pouring rain to thank for that!

This is my first time growing strawberries, so I am completely ecstatic to see all the flowers and little green strawberries on my plants.  I don't know how many strawberries I'll get from 4 plants, but if I can keep a few for myself from the birds I'll be happy.  The tomato plants are just starting to bloom, so I'm looking forward to the future bombardment of tomatoes.  Hopefully I'll have lots of salsa and caprese salad in my future.  

Already every night I am making salad from my romaine and looseleaf lettuce blends.  It is funny to think about all the ingredients that go into a salad and how they are typically from different growing seasons.  Lettuce and carrots are cool weather vegetables, while tomatoes and cucumbers are warm weather vegetables.  Hopefully there will be some overlap before my lettuce bolts that I can enjoy a salad of all homegrown vegetables.

Homemade ranch dressing is my new favorite thing to make since I'm growing so many herbs.  My very rudimentary recipe:  half sour cream, half mayonnaise, a dash of milk (until these three ingredients are the consistency you want- thick for a dip or runny for salad dressing), a dash of lemon juice for acidity, ground pepper, salt, a clove of crushed garlic, then whatever fresh herbs you have on hand.  I use larger portions of dill and chives, then medium portions of mint, cilantro, and parsley, and small bits of thyme and tarragon.  I roll up the herbs like a cigar and use my kitchen shears to cut them.  I like this better than chopping because you don't lose any of the juices on your chopping board and you can make the slices pretty darn thin.

This morning seems to be about two G words:  guarding and gardening, both being assisted by my dog, Che.  Che is very sweet little dog and does all he can to help me and make me happy.  Earlier today I was out in the yarn potting some plants, and Che did his duty to scare the birds away.  He trotted laps around the yard, doing a security check I think, to make sure nobody would come in to bother me.  There are rabbits in my area, and they are frequent visitors to my yard.  So far they haven't bothered my plants at all.  A few bouts of rain have really made my garden come alive.  My romaine lettuce is almost ready for picking, and two of my tomato plants have flower buds.

After the gardening was finished, I came into my office to add in some yarns I bought last night to my Ravelry stash.  While the photos were loading, I looked down and saw Che on the floor guarding my stash.  He looked so cute I got out my camera to snap a photo and suddenly he turned into a big ham.  He always manages to stick his tongue out when I take photos.  

No unauthorized knitters are getting near this stash!  Nope.  Nobody.

I love vests for springtime!  Cool mornings and warm afternoons make it difficult to pick out an outfit in the morning.  Vests are the perfect layering piece; just warm enough and they look so great over jeans!  For this design I wanted a sporty vest in an interesting stitch pattern.  

Afraid of zippers?  I know I am.  It seems like every time I have sewn in a zipper (even just regular sewing on a sewing machine) has ended with me in tears.  I was determined to have a zipper in this vest and I scoured all my knitting books for advice on sewing them.  I found next to nothing!  All the patterns I could find with zippers had rather vague instructions that I found disappointing.  But, I have found the answer!  I found an awesome blog post by Caro Sheridan (teacher of the awesome Craftsy class Shoot It!) about sewing zippers into hand-knits and I have now overcome my fear!  

Lancero Vest is a zip front vest worked in textured stitch patterns of diagonal lines and broken rib. It is worked in a worsted weight yarn in one piece from the bottom up. The stitch patterns are easy to work; the pattern rows become intuitive after a few rows, and all the wrong side rows are purled.  Pattern includes full instructions for installing the zipper. Vest is modeled with 1” negative ease in the chest.

FINISHED MEASUREMENTS
Chest: 32 (34, 37, 39, 42)[44, 47, 49, 52]”
Length: 21 (21.25, 21.5, 22.25, 22.5)[22.75, 23.25, 23.5, 24]”

MATERIALS
Queensland Collection Super Aussie (100% merino; 109 yds/100m per 50 g ball); color 108; balls 5 (6, 6, 7, 7)[8, 8, 9, 10].  Approximate yardage needed: 540 (575, 630, 690, 750)[800, 870, 920, 990] yards

NEEDLES
US #8/5 mm 16” and 24” circular needles, plus extra needle for three needle bind off

NOTIONS REQUIRED
7 stitch markers
3 stitch holders
22” separating zipper
Sewing thread to match yarn
Sewing needle
Tapestry needle to weave in ends
2 blocking wires
Pins

GAUGE
16 sts and 26 rows = 4” in Left Diagonal stitch

SKILLS NEEDED 
long tail cast on 
three needle bind off 
short rows 
working in the round 
picking up stitches 
k2tog 
ssk 
p2tog 
ssp 
hand sewing (for zipper)

$6.00