Now Available - Shawl Collection for Machine Knitters

Whew!  My new book is finally available to purchase at www.dianaknits.com.  The DVDs arrived from the duplicator the other day, and I can finally say it's ready to go.

So - what's here?  The book contains 9 shawl patterns, a mix of skill levels, techniques, and machine gauges, and then there's a 2-DVD set.  It simply took hours and hours of footage to teach all the different shawls. I was very pleased when I tested the  new DVDs the other day - super crisp HD pictures on our big-screen TV.  The book and DVD set is $25.  US postage is $3 and international shipping is more.

Rundown on the shawls:

The Self Fringing Shawl is a super beginner project.  I wrote the pattern for the mid-gauge, and I used a number of different yarns for it.  A good starting place would be a single package of Shawl in a Ball.

If you've been unhappy with self-fringing techniques in the past, you might have run into the problem that the knitting along the self-fringe unravels into a mess.  I have a "locked" fringe technique, and that problem is totally eliminated.

The two pictured are Shawl in a Cake, and take one package.  Another favorite samples was made with an end of sport weight slubby white yarn and a pile of small balls of leftover self-striping sock yarn.  It's a super scrappy project.  Forget hiding ends for all those color changes - they're fringe.

Miters and Lace was knitted on my bulky with the ribber.  I took advantage of U-shaped knitting technique to make a matched mitered triangle shawl out of "cakes" yarn.

This has hand-tooled scalloped lace edge with a great-looking mitered point for the center point of the shawl.  Details matter!

The Peacock Shawl is done on a bulky machine, no patterning or ribber required.  This one is a semi-circle, short-rowed triangles and a hand-tooled lace.  Make your lace tooling super easy by using a 7-stitch transfer tool.

The Peacock Shawl has an interesting straight edge finish - the extra-wide I-cord edging, to provide a sturdy edge for the most-handled part of the shawl.

I tried several yarns for this one.  The blue/green colorway shown is Shawl in a Cake.  This is big - you need two packs.  The oranges colorway is Caron Latte Cakes.  That particular shawl is absolutely the comfiest, warmest shawl in my huge box of samples.  Caron had discontinued this yarn, but it's back now, and I've seen it at Michael's in new colorways.

Color-changing yarn or "cakes" yarn is fun for this shawl,,because you get a starburst effect with the colors.

Half Circle Shawl with Leaf Edging is made on the standard gauge Brother with a Stitch World lace for the outer edge.  I've taught the Stitch World method of scalloped edgings before, but if you wanted, you could use any of the "Enchanted Edgings" on this one, instead.  The edging was knitted afterwards and put on with sew-as-you-go technique for a nearly undetectable seam.  The starburst design is lace eyelets this time.



The Mirror Image Lace Triangular Shawl is a pattern I've had for years, but didn't sell, because it's a little more advanced and has very unusual techniques, particularly the mirror image lace. It's in this book, though, because I included all the video necessary to see exactly what needs done to get the effect
The lace matches in the middle of the triangle, and the shawl also featured a fancy edge.  This is made on a standard gauge Brother electronic using a Stitch World pattern.

The Bias Lace Triangle Shawlette was my approach to getting stripes that slide along the triangle without using the garter bar.  I used bias lace on the standard gauge machine with a lace carriage along with self-striping sock yarn.  Both sides are pretty; I don't know which side should be "public."

These bias lace projects are easy, and I have two in the book.  The second on is a chevron shape, Chevron Bias Lace Shawl, a nice, big shawl made of two trapezoids of bias lace.  Halfway through, change direction and make the lace bias the other direction!

The Drop Lace Stole is a bulky project that requires a ribber.  Drop Lace was a featured stitch for the Brother 260/270 machine ribbers.  It's pretty and it's easy, but I haven't used the technique all that often.  Try something fuzzy and warm for this shawl, which is a big, wrap-me-up stole. I first made it for my tall daughter-in-law, who liked it because it is generous-sized.

Finally, the book has a poncho, which is sized for adults as well as children.  People are wearing ponchos again, and these look so cute on little girls and stay on.

That's the Slider Lace Poncho, knitted on the mid-gauge with a very simple hand-tooled pattern, shown in the closeup photo.

This is just two rectangles, if you're a beginner, and it has two different but simples edgings to learn for the neckline and the bottom edge.  I also teach how to put the two seams in on the machine.  Those seams join a side edge to a top edge, and a good way to make them look great is to put them together on the machine.