I’m so excited to tell you this news!  One of the reasons I was so absent from the blog last November was because I was busy knitting something I couldn’t share.  It has since been published, and now I get to share it with you!

photo by Veronik Avery

My Lullaby Blanket has been published in the Spring/Summer issue of St-Denis Magazine (issue #2)!

photo by Veronik Avery

I LOVE this project.  I had the idea a year or so ago, but it really only came together at the end of last year.  

My original sketch (above) shows the blanket almost as it turned out, except my plan for the center was to work feather and fan just like the outside.  (To be honest, I was afraid of charting the center as lace and having to deal with not only designing the middle from lesser to more sts while keeping a pattern, but also how to physically chart the design).  Luckily, I had 2 things in my corner:  Time, and Maaike.

By the time this project was accepted for publication, a bit of time had passed from my sketch.  In that time I had knit a bunch of projects, including Kayla’s Lace Cardigan (Ravelry).  I was really enamored by the eyelets in the cardigan, and knew that, if only I could figure out how to chart it, I could make use of eyelets in the center of my blanket.  My eyelets wouldn’t be the same as those in the cardigan, but by incorporating them it would tie in the yarn overs that make up the text section, as well as the garter/eyelet borders.  That’s where Maaike came in.  I can’t count how many times I called her up after throwing my swatch across the room and every single time she talked me out of going back to plain stockinette stitch and pushed me to make the lace breakthrough.  She also pushed me to work out some kinks in the text, and the result is clear, legible and much better than my first swatch!

The border isn’t your typical feather and fan design- there are broken garter ridges giving a slight outline and depth to the eyelet section, and the design is carried through into the border so it doesn’t flip or flare.

I hope you enjoy knitting it as much as I did!

 

The Lullaby Blanket’s Ravelry page is here, and the page for my project is here.

I’ll be able to sell the pattern in a few months.  In the meantime, if you want to check it out (or any of the 15 other gorgeous designs in the issue)  you can pick up the latest St-Denis Magazine, and the Nordique yarn.  If you’re in Montreal you can find them at Robyn’s Nest, Ariadne or Effiloche, and there is a list of other Canadian retailers here.  Outside of Canada you can visit Classic Elite Yarns’ site here and view a list of retailers.