norahsknits

This Thistle Leaf pattern is from the Barbara Walker Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns. It's very botanical and I think it's beautiful. I finished a cream-colored silk scarf using the pattern (Purl Soho Cattail Silk, 1 skein), pictured here, after doing a swatch (dark green) which I turned into a doily-type item with several rows of crochet added around the edge. Now I am working on a bigger rectangular shawl using the same lace pattern, out of Purl Soho's Sweetgrass (undyed organic cotton and alpaca) in a light beige-tinged gray. I love the pattern but at 28 rows (14 right-side pattern rows), I'm finding it to be too complicated to memorize. So I have to work with the pattern right in front of me. 

Universal brand yarn - all cotton  Berroco Fuji brand yarn - crocheted - silk, cotton, rayon, nylon Berroco Folio yarn - Ostrich plume pattern - alpaca and rayon Some recent items I've been working on. The denimy-blue item is a scarf for my sister. The crocheted item in the windowpane pattern is a fairly large wrap. The rose-colored item is also a wrap. All of these were completed recently, but my intentions for posting kept falling through. By the way, in reading the Portuguese Knitting book, I realized why I have a preference for doing garter stitch in purl instead of knit - several of the patterns in this book are done in purl garter. My mother and grandmother both knitted in this style (Portuguese style). My usual method of working garter stitch side borders in purl garter (instead of knit stitch) means that the back (non-stockinette) side can be purled all the way across, instead of knitting the border stitches and purling the center on the back. When my gr