New Year, New Pattern

Please note – the pattern PDFs have now been deleted and the full pattern will soon be released for sale.

Happy New Year!!

To start off the New Year I’m hosting a knitalong via this blog for a hooded scarf design I have been working on recently. So far approximately 30 of you have joined the knitalong since I advertised it in my Ravelry group, including many old and new friends. I intend for this to be a fun experience, and knowing the mischievious spirit of many of my friends I am sure it will be! Please visit the group and participate in the fun. I am especially looking forwards to seeing progress pics posted there!

The scarf is a Tolkien-themed project named ‘Lanthir Lamath’ after a waterfall in Tolkien’s wonderful world. ‘Lanthir Lamath’ means ‘waterfall of echoing voices’ in the elvish language. You can read more about the name here.

The scarf is distinctly celtic, a look I know many of you really love as much as I do. I particularly enjoy exploring the celtic past of my native land. You may not know that Yorkshire is the proud location of Whitby Abbey, last bastion of the Celtic Christian church in England. :0)

Techniques:

The first element of the pattern utilises an increase I developed some time ago when I designed a blanket square for a Macmillan charity appeal. It is a double increase (creates two new stitches) and although a little fiddly to work produces great results compared to other double increases I have tried. You can view a video tutorial for the increase here (produced with the kind assistance of my wonderful twin-sister, Marie). All the other increases and decreases in the pattern are standard techniques that may be learned from the glossary section at the Knitting Help website. The website is a fantastic resource all knitters should be aware of that includes many short video tutorials.

I’ve given all the cable instructions for cabling with a cable needle. By all means cable without one if you prefer, just remember that the raised cable stitches are all knitted through the back loop on the right side of the work, and purled through the back loop on the wrong side of the work. If you’re a mirror knitter please accept that your cables will cross the opposite way to those shown when following the instructions. This works perfectly and is indeed how the sample I knitted looks in real life (I’ve flipped the images for the pattern). My right-handed twin-sister has her cables crossing the opposite way to mine.

Many of the techniques in this pattern only work as given for standard western style knitting (with the front legs of all stitches ‘leading’, i.e. closer to the needle point than the back legs, as they sit on the needle waiting to be worked). If you knit in the eastern style or combination method and need an explanation of how to undertake the techniques for your knitting style then please ask. I am very happy to help. :0)

Without further ado here’s the first image, showing this week’s portion of the scarf for you to enjoy:

Lanthir Lamath cascade