sheltie triangle

the middle of the month signals just one thing around here—time to release the next pattern from the bare naked knitspot 2012 club. last june we had a wonderful chapter that featured brooklyn tweed loft, which was fairly new to the yarn market at the time.

we shipped the yarn in a set of three colorways for a total of approximately 800 yards of yarn with which to knit a set of pieces that explored a range of colorwork techniques from simple stripes to the more involved color stranding.

fascinated by this new tangent i’d gone off on, mister knitspot even made a little film about stranding technique to show members how it’s done. and although i am not in any way and expert in the matter, i agreed to act in the film. (the apples in clover tam will have its own release in due time)

this was such a fun chapter in our club; at first, i think some members were a little flummoxed that they had to make some design decisions for themselves, but once they got over that initial nervousness and started seeing examples knit by clubbies who forged right ahead, everyone threw themselves into the fray and got busy knitting on their own creations.

it was one of our most fun and productive months ever in the club, i believe! i was especially impressed by the number of clubbies who tackled the big sheltie square throw option (also coming soon; just room for one pattern at a time!)

in 2012, we filmed each chapter in both color AND black and white. i loved the effect of using both formats in the chapters, though it did add a degree of difficulty to presenting some of the material (the beautiful variations of the animals’ colors don’t shine through as well in B&W).

anyway, it turned out to be fascinating for me to see all the variations one could achieve with the same three neutral tones.

the idea here was to recreate a modern version of the scottish hap shawl, which is a simple everyday garment knit from shetland fingering wool, often using leftover amounts of various colors to make striped effects.

many of our knitters added bits and bobs of other yarns to the mix to enhance the music and movement of the hem striping.

because the hap is traditionally worn as a workaday article while doing chores or moving about one’s errands, i named it for the scottish sheltie dogs who work at sheep herding. the striping of our hap reminded me very much of the dramatic coloring in their coats.

when our own yarns were ready for sampling, one of the first things i asked vanessa to knit for us was the gorgeous sheltie triangle above in three of our breakfast blend fingering yarn colors. i am very much looking forward to the day when all our colors are back in stock and we can feature the shawl on its product pages (hopefully by the end of the summer; we’re getting close to deciding on a new mill).

and shown below, the medium size triangle knit by karolyn in brooklyn tweed loft, a woolen spun fingering yarn which knits up light as a feather. here in colors fossil (lightest), woodsmoke (medium),  and soot(dark gray)

i knit the petite size triangle below in the same three colors, but arranged them differently

and used them rather haphazardly in my hem, in  contrast to karolyn’s more formal interpretation. see what i mean about making some design decisions? not tough at all and a lot of fun once you get going.

to purchase pattern or view complete pattern information, please click here to visit the knitspot pattern shop. or purchase the pattern in our ravelry pattern shop.

as mentioned earlier, the sheltie triangle is also included in the BNK 2012 eBook, collection—twelve terrific accessory patterns, each one multi-sized and suitable for gifting or keeping; many will have universal appeal for women, men, and children alike. purchase the eBook collection from the knitspot club website or in our ravelry pattern shop (it takes a few seconds to view).

another fun thing to do—click here to view the sheltie triangle project pages to see more examples of these shawls knit by club members and photographed on a variety of people and in alternate yarns.

and of course, please come over to our ravelry groups to join in the fun there; we have live threads for all of these projects and more that we welcome you to take part in.