Tag: knitted shawl

Posted on

Lughnasadh

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.

Lughnasadh is available in both the Ravelry Granary Knits Store and the Payhip Granary Knits Store.

Posted on

Crochet Chain Cast Off

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 hook on 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.