shawl knitting Archives - Penny Baker Knits

August 9, 2023August 9, 2023

5 Fun Knitting Patterns for the Summer Holiday Juggle

What are you knitting on while your kids are off school?

You see, right now I am sitting on my sofa, with my laptop on my knee. My six year old son is next to me playing Minecraft. Periodically he asks “What does that say?” or “Can you look up how to make a water elevator?”

I’ll be honest, this is not my favourite way to work, but like a lot of parents during school holidays, we are juggling. Some days my husband has to work. Some days I have to work. And of course, some days we both have to work. And every day our son needs parenting. You know the drill!

So, I am approaching everything strategically. What has to happen in the school holidays? Can this wait until September? What can I work on while providing a Minecraft Helpline? What has to keep for the times I can work quietly?

And of course, the same is true of my knitting, whether it is design knitting or “fun” knitting.

I’m finding that I am working exclusively on simple and/or intuitive knitting patterns. Vanilla socks. A design with a repetitive stitch pattern. A stocking stitch shawl that only requires thought on the border.

In case you’re in the same boat as I am, and you need some pattern ideas that let you knit during the holidays without losing your patience with both knitting and children, here are 5 of my knitting patterns that would work brilliantly for you! Have a look at these photos and the info below them – which is your first choice?

A single sock on a background of fabric and stones. — Warm Milk Socks

A woman faces away from the camera. She is wearing a pale blue shawl with a delicate texture pattern. — Warm Milk Socks

Warm Milk Socks: Not quite vanilla, but intuitive and simple.

Fée Marraine: This shawl is ridiculously simple but takes one skein of sock yarn and makes it a beautiful and wearable addition to your wardrobe!

Oberon Socks: Super more-ish cabled socks, a brilliant pattern to step up your sock knitting game, but still really intuitive and fun to work!

Goodnight Sweetheart: A deliberately soothing shawl pattern. Simple techniques and a beautiful yarn make for a meditative and relaxing knit.

Carabosse: An unusual shawl that is actually easy and fun to make.

September 13, 2022

How the Glorious Lotus Lace Came to Be…

One of the most interesting parts of designing the Lantern Walk shawl was how we got to that Lotus lace motif.

A woman stands outside wearing a shawl. She holds one wing of the shawl out, showing the stitch patterns on it.

Once Ellen (from Mrs Lam Yarns, if you’ve read the previous post you will already know this!) and I decided that the shawl should include a lotus flower in some form, I started to hunt for a stitch pattern I could use. And there were quite a few out there. But none of them were really what I wanted.

And this left me with two options. I could move on to another idea, or I could do the brave thing. Something I had done before, but not on this scale. Designing my own stitch pattern. And since I didn’t want to abandon this part of our idea, I did indeed design my own stitch pattern. Which makes it seem like a quick task, but it isn’t particularly.

It’s one thing to decide what shape you want to make, it’s a whole other thing to get the decreases and the yarn overs to behave in such a way to make the picture you’re trying to “draw”. And then it needed swatching repeatedly to make sure it worked in yarn the way it did in my head. And then to change bits that didn’t work or didn’t look right.

This motif was probably the part of this shawl design that took the most time because so much work and time went into it.

But honestly, I do think it was worth every minute. And now I even have plans for a follow up design that will also use the motif, so watch this space!

September 12, 2022September 13, 2022

Introducing the Stunning Lantern Walk Shawl

If you follow me on Instagram lately you will have seen me talking a lot about my most recent project, the Lantern Walk shawl. As usual, the pattern can be bought on Ravelry or Payhip.

This was a collaboration with Ellen of Mrs Lam Yarns, and the idea was to create a shawl inspired by the Mid Autumn festival that is celebrated in Chinese and other east Asian cultures. Ellen came up with the inspiration and the beautiful yarn, and I created the shawl.

It has honestly been so much fun working together on this and the end result is so beautiful!

The Lantern Walk shawl has a lovely cable down the spine of the shawl alongside eyelets. This is the section that is all about the lanterns that people go out with at night. Sparkling lights and beautiful shapes.

The second part of the shawl is inspired by the moon cakes that are exchanged and eaten. These are filled with lotus paste and that is why we chose a lotus flower motif.

Ellen has been at Perth Festival of Yarn this weekend, but soon you will be able to get lovely yarn bundles on her website, so go and check her out. She also has the most beautiful project bags.

May 19, 2020July 31, 2020

New Pattern Release: 4 June 2020

Hello everyone!

How are you? We have been having a bit of a stressful time lately, I’m sure most of you can relate. Even for those of us lucky enough to be having a comfortable lockdown, there are hard days. But, I think we’re moving into a more positive place at the moment, which is a good feeling. The sunshine is helping!

With that in mind, I thought it might be a good time to start talking about my next pattern which will be released on 4 June 2020. You may have seen it on social media, especially Instagram, as I have shared a couple of projects from my excellent test knitters. It is called the Goodnight Sweetheart Shawl.

A photo of the back of a woman standing by some trees. She is wearing a triangular shawl in shades of red.

The inspiration behind it was the whispered conversations (whispered so as not to wake the 3 year old in the next room) I have in bed, late at night, when it is just my husband and I and we are trying to calm our brains and hoping for sleep. We often talk nonsense, or try to be intentionally boring. Do other people do this with their partners? I don’t know. However, the shawl has tried to combine the familiar and comforting. It is a top down triangular shawl, so if you’re a shawl knitter, you’ve probably made one. The stitch pattern is mainly stocking stitch with some purl ridges thrown in to keep us on our toes. And although the edging uses the knitted on edging technique, new to some, I’m sure, the edging itself is ribbing, something the majority of knitters are very familiar with.

I can’t wait to share the pattern in a couple of weeks time! And in the meantime, if you’re interested, you might want to sign up for my newsletter – there will be a discount code on the pattern for subscribers! There is a link at the top of the page, or go directly to the pattern on Lovecrafts.com.