entwined cowl

Have you noticed that i-Cord is quickly becoming a fashion rage? I’m not talking about the use of it as binding or ordornment on a knitted object. As we’ve been out and about on our visits to yarn shops, we have been seeing interesting accessories knit from i-Cord. Perusing our knitting magazines and Ravelry more ideas pop-up.

Vogue Knitting Winter 2010/11 Nickey Epstein’s Tie One on! Learning the Ropes.

Entwined Cowl pattern by Tanis Gray on sale at Ravelry

Knitter’s Magazine K105 Winter Erica Patberg’s Woven cowl.

If you’ve been to a local yarn shop (LYS) lately, I’m sure you’ve noticed that some companies are selling pre-knit i-Cord. You can purchase pre-knit i-Cord, but it’s a bit expensive. I was so enthralled by it that I purchased Berroco Link. They have free patterns for this yarn at their website This is quite a large i-Cord. I knitted one of their scarf patterns found at their site.

We have seen quite a few necklaces made with i-Cord, tie 18 or more strands together and then place jeweled loops around them. Imagine the scarf below, bedecked in jeweled rings. This is a “no knitting” pattern.

Kathie’s Cowl knitted with Berroco link, free pattern.

Barb bought two different colorways of Odisea by Fil Katia to make our hats on the Northwest Journey. It is a much smaller i-Cord.

There are four ways I can think of to make i-cord: 1. knit using double pointed needles, 2. finger knitting, you can have your children do this for you!, 3. spool knitting, again get the kids to do it for you, and 4. the fastest is machine knitting. 😎 So, knit up some i-Cord or have the kids make some and do something wonderful!

Q – Two women had a strong influence in my upbringing; my mom and my grandmother. Both highly creative women in different media. One habit we have because of them; always carry a notepad in your purse because you never know what you’ll see when out-and-about that desperately needs to be written down. I have a couple of my grandmothers old, beat-up notepads. Ugly brown, but when I open them up and see my grandmother’s notes they are priceless. I’m brought back to my childhood, I can see her jotting down notes as we are out. She had notes about recipes, sketches about beading ideas, creations with yarn ideas, etc. Her hand were always busy creating something! I wish I had one of mom’s notepads. She designed such wonderful clothes for my sisters and me. Her notepad was filled with sewing ideas; such wonderful little dresses filled the pages. I was quite envious when one of the dresses was for a sister and not me!

There is nothing more wonderful than walking into a yarn, quilt or fabric store and seeing all the models on display. Fingers itching to do something new. We especially love it when the yarn stores have a tag hanging from the display identifying the pattern and it’s free! These are the notes for Curls and my trip to the Northwest, collected from various yarn stores, the majority of the free ones came from Yellow House Yarns in Puyallup:

Free Downloads:

Ravelry
Mara shawl – Amy Hendrix
Moon River Scarf – Susanna IC
Annis shawl – Susanna IC
Gaia Shoulder Hug – Anne Carroll Gilmour
Madrid laced wristlets – Alexandra Brinck (any one up by Puyallup, this was a class at Yellow House Yarns)
Ginkgo Shoulderette Shawl – Maggie Magalie – If you love ginkgo leaves you must visit Marjorie Moser’s blog she silkscreens and dyes the most fabulous items.
Urchin hat – Ysolda Teague
Advent-Calender-Scarf 2011 with beads – Kristin Benecken
Matilde Shawl – Chiara Chiavacci

Knitty
Bitterroot shawl with beads – Rosemary (Romi) Hill – I love her patterns!

Crystal Palace Yarns
Jasmine Lace Fingerless Mitts – Adrienne Fong

Not free, but wonderful:
Snapdragon Tam – Ysolda Teague
Monica scarf – Trudy Van Stralen
Traveling Woman – Liz Abinante
Entwined Cowl – Taniis Gray – stay tuned, we’re not going to buy the pattern but we’ve got a “BIG” idea
Trousseau shawl – Carol Feller

This was free in February, but looks as if it is not now.
Berry Tam – Lijuan Jing

Also jotted down were titles of books and patterns that we liked. One was “Scandinavian Slippers and Socks” which Curls bought. We are knitting the Norwegian Star slipper pattern.

I found I spent the most money for yarns in Yellow House Yarns since they had so many models and the patterns were free. I figured free patterns = more yarn! I like that math! Very smart marketing on their part! This is just a sampling of the notes we took on our trip. Doesn’t include the sewing ideas which will be a different post. So, what’s in your notepad?