Today I am publishing a new “old” pattern. Solstice was originally published in June 2023 as part of the Knit Picks pattern book, Botanical Knits. Solstice Revisited is a reworking of the original pattern, giving more options for yarn weights and neck sizing whilst retaining the essential airiness of Solstice. The original Solstice was a lovely floaty shawl, with a wide neck that made it easy to slip over your head on cooler summer evenings. It was knit in laceweight yarn for a light and airy take-anywhere accessory. The very wide boat-shaped neck, however, was not practical for an all-seasons pattern. So I have revisited the design, and tweaked it to appeal to both hemispheres and all seasons. This new version can be knit in a variety of yarn weights, from lace to DK, and features three neck circumferences.
size
neck circumference
lace
light fingering/ sock
4ply/fingering
DK
1
60 cm / 24”
1,060 m / 1,160 yds
1,085 m / 1,187 yds
1,000 m / 1,094 yds
776 m / 849 yds
2
65 cm / 26”
1,090 m / 1,193 yds
1,120 m / 1,226 yds
1,035 m/ 1,133 yds
880 m / 963 yds
3
75 cm / 30”
1,117 m / 1,222 yds
1,150 m / 1,259 yds
1,056 m / 1,156 yds
880 m / 963 yds
Eden Cottage Milburn DK in ThymeHolst Garn Tides light fingering in OrchidScheepjes Woolly Whirl 4ply in Melting Mint Centre
Solstice looks lovely in a gradient, as seen in the 4ply/fingering version in Scheepjes Woolly Whirl, colourway Melting Mint Centre.
Snaeldan Lace in dark grey
Solstice Revisited is available in the Granary Knits store on both Ravelry and Payhip.
Whatever your craft, specialist tools and materials are essential. Quilters need thread, fabric, cutting tools; card makers need paper, scissors, knives, adhesives; and knitters need yarn and needles. Some knitters are focussed on each pattern or project, buy just the yarn required for the project and use it all up, leaving no “waste”. Others, like me, buy yarn without a thought as to its purpose, other than “ooh that would look lovely as a shawl”. Consequently, I have a lot of yarn – and I do mean a lot – sitting in storage boxes and chests of drawers, just waiting for the perfect project to come along.
For the last couple of years I have been making a conscious effort to use only stash yarn for anything I want to make. I have a queue of patterns waiting to be made and I promised myself I would make only those I could find yarn for in my stash. The results so far are mixed! Some patterns, like Ranunculus, instantly lent themselves to being made in a couple of balls of yarn from the depths of my stash. Others, such as The Weekender, I eventually had to buy yarn for.
But all is not lost, because making these patterns in the yarns I chose gave me a renewed interest in the yarns themselves, leading to ideas for using yarn from stash to make meaningful knitted objects. These cowls represent some of the ideas generated by the deepest of stash, yarns I have been hoarding for well over ten years, waiting for the chance to make them shine.
I love Debbie Bliss Donegal Tweeds yarns, in both Aran weight and 4ply. With its rich colours and fabulous flecks, a lot of it has found its way into my stash over the years. I have used both weights in these cowl designs, but you don’t have to – anything you have in your stash of the appropriate weight can be used.
Similarly, for the laceweight fluffy yarn, I have used several types to illustrate their value to these designs. I very much like the Silk-Alpaca laceweight by Kremke Soul Wool; it feels so soft and doesn’t shed all over your clothes as you work with it! Modern day silk-mohair yarns similarly are easy and pleasant to work with. I used both Rowan Kidsilk Haze and Debbie Bliss Angel in the designs below. A little of these yarns goes a very long way when working at a large gauge, making the cowls economical and quick to knit.
All four patterns feature resizeable options and ideas for adapting to your yarn quantities. All four are available individually and as a collection on both Ravelry and Payhip.
Airy
The first of my experiments in stashbusting designs is Airy, a cowl that uses both a standard 4ply/fingering weight yarn for strength and a fluffy laceweight silk mohair yarn for warmth and texture. Airy is very simple, can be made in any 4ply/sock/fingering/light fingering yarn, with the addition of a little silk-mohair or other fluffy laceweight. The effect is stylish, light and airy (as the name implies), great for spring or autumn days to give a little extra warmth, and knits up to any size you want quickly.
Toasty is another great stashbusting cowl, warm and cosy, and is even quicker to knit than Airy. It is a funnel-neck cowl, knit in Aran weight/worsted weight yarn held double with the silk mohair laceweight. I used silk-alpaca laceweight for one of my samples and it is dreamily soft. Two sizes are given in the pattern, depending on whether you like your funnel-neck to be close or more relaxed.
Another 4ply/fingering cowl, this time using a simple mosaic pattern to create a bubbly texture of silk mohair lace framed by the 4ply yarn. Another cowl that is easy to resize and make in any length, from short neck covering to long snood.
I love the Old Shale pattern (known in the US as Feather and Fan), and very much wanted to use it in a cowl. Wavy is the result. It can be made in any weight yarn, although 4ply + laceweight looks and feels most appealing to me.
The Wheel of the Year encompasses the eight festivals of the Celtic and Pagan year. It begins with Samhain, the celebration of the ancestors in October/November, and ends with Mabon, the Autumnal Equinox or Harvest Home in the Northern Hemisphere. The year is a circle and also an infinite loop, and so for this my last celebratory pattern I have chosen the Möbius loop as a vehicle for a contemplative design and an adaptable accessory.
This design lends itself to three separate items of the same basic pattern: a headband, a cowl (either single- or double-wrap), and a shoulder-warming wrap in three sizes. To determine tension, I recommend making the headband in your desired yarn as your gauge swatch, before making the cowl or wrap; I found the Möbius shape to be stretchy and accommodating to many sizes, so the medium size headband actually fits a large adult head (snugly) as well as a child/teen, and uses surprisingly little yarn.
The pattern is a memorable sequence of stitches, rhythmic and contemplative. It can be knit in any weight of yarn; this pattern gives calculations for light fingering/sock, 4ply/fingering, DK, worsted, aran, and chunky weights. It uses Cat Bordhi’s Möbius cast on as its basis, and I strongly recommend watching her video for the technique.
Mabon is the eighth and final festival in the Wheel of the Year. This year, it falls on 22nd September, and is also known as the Autumnal Equinox or Harvest Home in the Northern Hemisphere, Spring Equinox in the Southern Hemisphere. The year has almost come full circle, the second harvest has finished: apples have been picked and stored, bread baked, enjoyed and shared. The year is winding down towards winter, but there are still fine days to be celebrated. Mabon is a time of contemplation, of looking back over the year that has passed and forward to the winter that is to come.
Worsted weightDK weight4ply weight
Mabon the shawl is a semicircle of texture. The pattern is a memorable sequence of stitches, rhythmic and contemplative. It can be knit in any weight of yarn; the pattern gives calculations for 4ply/fingering, DK and worsted weights. It uses short row techniques to achieve the semicircular shape and, since the shawl is worked in wedges, these can be knit in multiple colours. The samples show parti-colour (one half in teal, one in turquoise), alternating colours (one wedge in light grey, the next in darker grey), and all wedges the same colour. A page of blank schematics is provided at the end of the pattern for you to print out and experiment with choosing and placing colours.
Closer look at the texture
Four different treatments for the final unifying top edge are described.
I-cord edge in two coloursGarter edgetop: Sequence Continuation Edge bottom: Moss Stitch edge
For details of the pattern requirements, see the pattern page at either Payhip or Ravelry.
Lughnasadh is the seventh and penultimate festival in the Wheel of the Year. It falls on 1st August, and is also know as Lammas. The first harvests have been gathered in: the flax crop, the early grains, soft fruits like blackcurrants and raspberries. Time to celebrate the bounty. The year is beginning to wane, we are halfway between Litha/midsummer and Mabon/equinox. The days are still warm but shorter, evenings a little cooler.
The light fingering sample in green and gold long colour-change yarn took one 100g ball of Schoppel Wolle Zauberball, colourway Zauberwald.
Lughnasadh the shawl is an asymmetrical triangle with a memorable all-over lace pattern, knit on the bias from the pointy end, gradually increasing in width. It can be knit in any lightweight yarn, to any size, with a choice of two grounds, garter or stocking stitch/stockinette; and two cast offs, standard stretchy or crochet chain cast off.
The golden yellow sample below was knit in Eden Cottage Milburn 4ply in colourway Harvest Gold. It took 146 g / 584 m / 639 yds or just under balls of yarn.
This shawl can be made to any size. Finished sizes of the samples shown are: Light Fingering: 226 cm/90 ½” length along longest edge x 95 cm / 38” deep at its widest point. 4ply/fingering: 248 cm/99 ¼” length along longest edge x 117 cm / 46 ¾” deep at its widest point.
This pattern has both charts and written instructions. It has been thoroughly professionally tech edited, but has not been test knit except by me. Full pattern support is available by email.
Crochet chain cast off is a versatile and attractive scooped edging to finish a lacy knitted shawl. You do not need to be able to crochet to work it, although familiarity in handling a crochet hook will come in handy.
Tools required are just a crochet hook of an appropriate size, i.e. the same size in millimetres as the knitting needles used for the project (or as directed by the pattern). I used this cast off for my Lughnasadh shawl; the knitting needles used were 4 mm and so I used a 4 mm crochet hook for the edging.
The shawl ready to be cast off, crochet hook at the ready
For this particular pattern I work an ssk on the first two stitches
I place the resulting stitch of the ssk onto the crochet hook
For this pattern I begin with chain 4; all chains hereafter will be chain 3
Put the crochet hook through the next two stitches on the LH needle, as if to knit 2 together, wrap the yarn around the hook and pull through the two stitches
I now have 2 stitches on my crochet hook
Pull the stitch nearest the hook end through the first stitch, leaving one stitch on the crochet hook
Chain 3
Repeat the knit 2 together using the crochet hookon the next 2 stitches
Pull the stitch nearest the hook end through the first stitch on the crochet hook, as before
The two completed loops; in total 4 stitches have been cast off, not including the first 2 stitches of the row which were processed by ssk
The completed edge, showing loops positioned at the end of the columns of yarnovers.
The pattern for Lughnasadh will be available on 1st August 2025.
For the Solstice Weekend, Friday 20th to Sunday 22nd June 2025, this pattern will be half-price, no code needed.
Litha (pronounced “LEE-tha” or “lith-ah”) is a pagan festival and the sixth celebration in the Wheel of the Year.
Litha the shawl is a three-quarters Pi circular shawl, knit in laceweight yarn for a light and airy layer. Despite their size the samples only weigh 136 g and 182 g (less than 5 ounces and less than 7 ounces).
Elbow length in John Arbon Appledore Lace
Two sizes are described, approximately elbow length and wrist length on an adult. In accordance with the principles of pi shawls (as the diameter doubles, so does the circumference) this shawl has bands of pattern interspersed at set intervals with rows of increases. The increasingly wide bands of patterning include plain stocking stitch/stockinette, daisy stitch, and a field of tiny winged insects formed by simple cables. The lace edging along both sides is initially knit with the centre pattern, then curved around the front and formed into a knitted-on edge along the hem. There is a small amount of grafting to join the two edges. The shawl begins with a tab cast on, the tab being the first repeat of the lace edge; it can be knit either from the charts or from written instructions provided in a separate file.
Wrist length in Malabrigo Lace
The two samples show the two sizes described:
John Arbon Appledore Lace, elbow length: 67 cm/26 ¾” centre back neck to rounded hem x 73 cm / 29 ¼” deep at centre back. Malabrigo Lace, wrist length: 77 cm/30 ¾” centre back neck to rounded hem x 85 cm / 34” deep at centre back.
Links to video and photo tutorials for the daisy stitch, provisional cast on and grafting are given in the pattern.
This pattern has been thoroughly professionally tech edited, but has not been test knit except by me.
This pattern is available from the Granary Knits Payhip Store and from Ravelry.
Grafting lace is not as scary as it sounds, but it does take a bit of concentration. This photo tutorial is related to the Litha Shawl pattern, and grafts only 15 stitches, so may provide a brief useful view of the process. The knitted piece being grafted here is on a garter ground, which simplifies the graft to a large extent. This tutorial is not intended as a tutorial for all lace grafting, only as it relates to this particular shawl.
Grafting is adding in a row of stitches in order to join two sets of stitches seamlessly. Here, I am adding the wrong side row between two right side rows; since the wrong side in this pattern is knitted (the ground for this lace is garter stitch) with just two purled stitches, it is mostly a Ridge-High Garter graft. See Woolly Wormhead’s tutorial for a fuller explanation of this technique.
I find a lifeline on both sets of stitches most helpful, and here is no exception. I used very fine linen yarn in a contrasting colour, but sewing thread would do just as well.
I first arrange my two sets of stitches on two needles, in this case DPNs. The red needle holds the 15 Left Hand Edge stitches, and the gold needle the 14 Lower Edge stitches. The yarn is coming from the back needle. Keep your stitches relaxed, don’t overtighten.
I have cut the yarn, leaving at least 4 times the amount of yarn required for the graft. The two sets of stitches are aligned, and the white lifeline is visible along the red needle. I am working from the outer edge towards the shawl.
The stitches are held wrong sides together, right sides facing out. The red needle holds 15 stitches, the gold holds 14, so we begin by securing the 15th stitch and removing it from the red needle.
Setup
Begin with the Front stitch, take the tapestry needle through the stitch from front to back knitwise and leave the stitch on the needle. Back stitch, take the yarn through the stitch purlwise, and drop the stitch from the needle. You now have 14 pairs of stitches on the needles. Back stitch, take the yarn through the stitch knitwise and leave on the needle.
Begin with the Front stitch, take the tapestry needle through the stitch from front to back knitwise and leave the stitch on needleBack stitch, take the yarn through the stitch purlwise, and drop the stitch from the needle
Garter Grafting
Having evened up the number of stitches on the two needles, work the rest of the garter stitches as follows:
Front purlwise off
Front knitwise on
Back purlwise off
Back knitwise on
Work these four steps until you have 4 pairs of stitches remaining.
Front purlwise off
Front knitwise on
Back purlwise off
Back knitwise on
In this pattern the last four stitches we are trying to replicate are: knit 1 purl2, knit 1. Therefore we have to work a hybrid garter-stocking stitch graft. The steps are:
Front purlwise off
Front purlwise on
Back purlwise off
Back knitwise on
Front knitwise off
Front purlwise on
Back purlwise off
Back knitwise on
Front knitwise off
Front purlwise on
Back purlwise off
Back knitwise on
Front purlwise off
Back purlwise off
The graft is complete, the row of stitches created can be seen between the two white lifelines
The lifeline has been removed
The finished grafted point, third point from the left in this photograph
Beltane is the fifth festival in the Wheel of the Year and the anglicised form of Bealtaine, the Gaelic Mayday. The days are growing longer, the Earth has warmed, it is the beginning of Summer.
When I was a child in the South of England, our village, as well as many others in the region, held a festival with decorated floats and the Queen of the May riding around the village, culminating in a party in the central small park. There were Morris Dancers, bonfires, maidens dancing around a maypole – everything you would associate with MayDay. Even in the 1980s in Kent, Morris Dancers greeted us at the train station on MayDay morning. Morris Dancing is still a common activity here in the North of England, but it takes place all year round, at various festivals, and is not restricted to just one celebration.
As well as dancing and May Queens, Beltane ceremonies centre on the lighting of special bonfires, with all household fires doused and then re-lit from the Beltane bonfire. Fire plays an important part in the inspiration for this design, from the bonfire motif of the centre to the flickering flames of the knitted-on edges.
Beltane the shawl is an Ascot or Stole, knit in 4ply/fingering yarn for a light and airy layer. It can be knit as a short narrow Ascot/neck-warmer, or a large elegant wrap; two sizes are given for narrow Ascot or wide Stole, but any width or length could be achieved. The pattern is worked from a provisional cast on, either from the charts or written instructions. Beltane has a fixed width border on either side of an adjustable central panel; the centre panel can be repeated as many times as you wish to alter the width. The shawl can be lengthened or shortened by increasing or decreasing the number of vertical repeats of the main chart.
The pattern can be worked from charts or from written instructions and is customisable.
The Beltane pattern is available from the Granary Knits pattern stores on Ravelry and Payhip.
This photo tutorial demonstrates how to cast on additional stitches at the beginning of a knitted-on lace edge, where you want a neat continuation of stitches along the side.
This technique is used in the Beltane Stole, a shawl with a slipped-stitch edge running its length on both long edges. By using the crochet cast on method, this slipped-stitch edge is maintained into the knitted-on end details.
For this cast on you will need a crochet hook the same size as your knitting needle, or a size larger, depending upon the pattern requirements. You will cast on one less than the number specified in the pattern, using the loop on the crochet hook as the last stitch.
Step 1
The shawl is ready for a knit-on edge
Step 2
Place the crochet hook through the slipped edge stitch as if to knit the stitch.
Step 3
Loop the yarn over the crochet hook and pull through, leaving the edge stitch on the knitting needle.
Step 4
Hold the crochet hook in front of the knitting needle, with the yarn behind the knitting needle, loop the yarn over the crochet hook.
Step 5
Pull the yarn through the loop on the crochet hook, forming a new chain loop on the crochet hook and one extra stitch on the knitting needle.
Step 6
Reposition the crochet hook in front of the knitting needle, and the yarn at the back of the knitting needle. Loop the yarn over the crochet hook.
Step 7
Pull through the loop on the crochet hook, forming a new crochet chain loop and a second cast on stitch on the knitting needle.
Work steps 6 and 7 until you have cast on one less than the total required.
Step 8
When you have cast on the required number of stitches, less one, place the chain loop on the crochet hook onto the knitting needle without twisting. This forms the final cast on stitch.
The three stitches cast on.
The cast on from the under side, showing the loops carrying on seamlessly from the slipped-stitch edge.
Edge view of the cast on after completing the knitted-on edge
Front view of the knitted-on edge, the cast on stitches blend seamlessly with the slipped-stitch edge.
