Stitch of the Week: Feather and Fan

March 21, 2013 by Sarah White 4 Comments

A few days of warmer weather (followed rapidly by cooler, rainy days) has me in the mood for spring, and for some reason spring knitting means lace to me.

I’m not the kind of girl who’s going to spend months of my life and tons of concentration on an intricate lace shawl, but I do like the look of eyelets and openwork from time to time.

If you’re new to lace knitting or just want to try a stitch that is quick, relatively easy and not too fussy to knit or to wear, check out Feather and Fan, also known as Old Shale.

This pattern uses increases and decreases that are bunched together in the row rather than having an increase right next to its decrease. This causes the edge of the work to ripple in a pretty way (but that rippling means if you’re knitting something like a scarf you need to knit it in halves so that both ends of the scarf match).

I’ve used Feather and Fan in my Feather and Fan stole, which is really just a wide scarf worked in three colors, and on a washcloth.

This is such a popular pattern that just searching for free patterns with a photo on Ravelry you get just over 200 results, so I can’t possibly highlight them all, but here are couple of pretties you might want to check out:

I adore this Feather and Fan hat designed by Betty P. Balcomb for Cascade Yarns and their Baby Alpaca Chunky Yarn (scroll down the page to find the PDF download link).
Jean Miller’s Feather and Fan cowl, available for free download on Ravelry, is a great one-skein beginning lace project.
This short scarf by Kelly Faller is another beauty that would make a great gift. It’s kind of wide as written, but if you know that the stitch pattern is a multiple of 18 stitches, you can make a narrower and thus longer scarf with no problem.
Wendy D. Johnson used Feather and Fan to great effect on the leg of a pair of toe-up socks (search for feather and fan socks on this page to find the download link).
And then there’s the giant stash-busting Feather and Fan comfort shawl, worked from the tip out as wide as you want it to be. There are some really lovely examples in the pattern’s Flickr group.

Have you ever used Feather and Fan? I’d love to hear how you used it.

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Comments

Jenny says
March 10, 2016 at 6:38 am
I have tried to knit the green hat shown above but the decrease rows don’t decrease Any stitches. I just end up with the same amount of sts. Help me please

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Christmas Stocking Knitting Patterns for Your Pets

I’ve shared a lot of Christmas stocking knitting patterns over the years (see posts 1, 2, 3 for example) but what if you want to knit a stocking for a non-human member of your family. If you’re looking for Christmas stocking knitting patterns for your cats or dogs, this is the post for you.

These large paw print stockings are perfect for either dogs or cats, so they’re great to knit if you have both. They are worked in the round using DK weight yarn, and the stocking measures about 17 inches/43 cm from the top to the heel. You can get the pattern from nicolaluke.

The K4 Project has a super cute Kitty Christmas stocking pattern, which is worked in worsted weight yarn. They also have a dog version, or you can buy both and get a discount if you have both dogs and cats to knit for. Both projects have two patterns, showing how to work the stockings flat or in the round.

Put your dog into a Christmas scene with this stocking pattern from ifanhourChild. It shows a dog in a dog house in the snow, and has room for the dog’s name at the top. It’s worked flat using worsted weight yarn and the pattern includes charts for many small and medium dog breeds (there’s a separate listing for bigger dogs) so you can stitch a dog that looks like yours.

Annie’s Woolens has both dog and cat stocking knitting patterns that are worked in worsted weight yarn in the round. You can change up the colors to suit your pet if you want, and they come with an alphabet chart for personalization. Or you can stick with holiday colors and buy a kit to make the dog or cat stocking.

Waiting for Santa Paws is a pattern from Kate Agner on Ravelry that would be cute for a dog or a cat. It looks like a leg with a paw print on the bottom part of the foot and more paw prints running around the top of the leg. This is a great option if you don’t want to mess with a heel turn because it doesn’t have a heel, because dogs and cats don’t have heels so why would their stockings?

Book Review – 20 to Knit: Tiny Christmas Toys to Knit

Book Review – Knit Christmas Stockings

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