I enjoy traveling and often pick up the work of local artisans. After doing a fair amount of lace knitting earlier in the year, I wanted to knit a scarf/shawl/wrap based on a painted cloth I found in South Africa several years ago.
Tribal Traces African Sampler Scarf/Shawl was my first design incorporating eyelet lace stitches, and has so far been the most popular.

I have knitted the pattern in both laceweight (2-ply) and fingering weight (4-ply) wool. The scarf pictured was done with 2-ply yarn on 3.25mm needles and measures 25x160cm (10×63 inches).
This one, which I think is a better representation of the actual painted cloth, was knit with 4-ply wool on 3.5mm needles, and measures 35x230cm (14×90 inches).

I used 1 80-gram skein of 2-ply superwash wool for the lace-weight wrap, with a fair amount left over. For the fingering weight shawl I used 2 100-gram skeins, with just a bit left over.

Two identical panels are knit and then grafted together using the Kitchener stitch. There are 6 sections to each panel.

I’d enjoy seeing your results if you decide to knit Tribal Traces, perhaps with a different type of yarn.

MikeH

Guests coming for the holidays? Want to add a fresh new touch to the guest bath? Here’s a free pattern for my Seed Stitch Chevron Reversible Guest Towel.

I decided that I wanted to knit a guest towel and wanted it to be reversible but couldn’t find a pattern I liked, so I designed this one.

This reversible knit towel measures 28x43cm (11x17in) and is soft with a nice nubby texture from the seed or moss stitch. The chevron pattern looks great on both sides.

I knit this on US 5 (3.75mm) needles using a DK weight yarn – King Cole Cottonsoft in Coral. It used around 2/3 of the 100g skein. (I’ve also seen this knit in a worsted-weight yarn, which I liked as well, as the heavier yarn gave the towel additional body and increased the size.)

There’s a mate to this pattern: Seed Stitch Chevron Cotton Knit Towel – Reversible.

(Note that this pattern is available for USD 0.99)

This one has some lace eyelet features in the edging and internal borders and is the perfect mate for the free pattern.

This reversible knit towel measures 28x43cm (11x17in) and is soft with a nice nubby texture from the seed or moss stitch. The chevron pattern looks great on both sides.

I knit this on US 5 (3.75mm) needles using a DK weight yarn – King Cole Cottonsoft in Coral. It used around 2/3 of the 100g skein.

Enjoy!
MikeH

If you’re looking for an easy pattern for a scarf as a Christmas gift, look no further!

I had 100 grams of Colinette Hand Dyed Mohair sitting around for a while and decided I’d make a simple scarf, so I did a reversible garter zigzag design and thought I’d post the 2-row pattern for the scarf:

What you’ll need:
100 grams (193 yards/175 meters) Colinette Hand Dyed Mohair (78% mohair, 13% wool, 9% nylon)
Weight: Aran
Color: Tapis (this colorway has been discontinued by the supplier, but it’s often available at online stores and eBay)
6mm (US size 10)

Note: You can use any yarn you like, but your final dimensions may differ from my result.

CO 33 stitches
Row 1: (K4, YO, K1, YO, K4, SK2P) twice; K4, YO, K1, YO, K4 (35 stitches on needle)
Row 2: K2togTBL, K31, K2tog (33 stitches on needle)

Repeat Rows 1 and 2 until you’ve nearly run out of yarn.
BO loosely
If you’d prefer a pattern that you can download, it’s available for free in my Ravelry shop.

Abbreviations:
CO (cast on)
K (knit)
K2tog (knit 2 stitches together from the left needle – to decrease 1 stitch)
SK2P (slip 1 stitch as if to knit, knit the next 2 stitches together, and pass the slipped stitch over the 2 stitches that were knit together – to decrease 2 stitches)
K2togTBL (TBL means through the back loop, so when you knit these 2 stitches together, instead of going in from the front side to knit 2 together, you go in from the back of the needle (through the back loop of both at the same time) and then knit – to decrease 1 stitch)
YO (yarn over – to increase 1 stitch)
BO (bind off)

The finished size is around 7-1/2×60 inches (19×153 cm). I’m sure you could add several more inches with blocking.

If you like the scarf and don’t have time to knit, you can buy it from my Etsy shop.

Happy knitting,
Mike H