This Lacy Knit Kerchief Honors the New President of Iceland

I’ll admit to not knowing a lot about global politics and national elections in other countries, so I was happy to read the back story on this pattern, Hölluklútur by Maja Siska.

This little lacy kerchief was inspired by a candidate for president in Iceland, Halla Tómasdóttir, who wore a silk neck scarf during the first televised debate of the election season. She said she wore it because she felt a cold coming on, but whatever the reason, it became a bit of a symbol among her supporters, with others wearing them at campaign events and rallies. She ultimately won the election and is now the president, having been inaugurated on August 1.

This mesh lace scarf is an asymmetrical diamond, worked by increasing on one side and decreasing on the other. It’s finished with a crocheted picot edge, but you can use a different edging if you don’t know how to crochet.

It uses lace weight yarn, but if you wanted to make a more substantial scarf or shawl in the same style you could use heavier weight yarn. As it is, this is a quick and easy project that’s a good introduction to mesh lace knitting if you’ve never done it before.

It only uses about 130 yards, or 120 meters, of yarn, so this might be a good project for using a bit of leftover yarn from another project, or a small single skein you’re not sure what to do with.

The pattern was developed for South Iceland Wool Week and is available as a free download on Ravelry. The pattern is offered in English and Icelandic.

If you’re looking for more easy lace knitting patterns to try, check out this collection of easy lace scarves, or this one with easy lace knitting patterns including other projects aside from scarves.

[Photo: Maja Siska]

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I can’t resist a pattern that’s both useful and a little silly, and that’s exactly how I feel about the Rybka pouch pattern from the delightfully named Rat and Sea Witch.

I know you’re going to ask, because I did, too. Rybka means little fish in Polish. (And because you’re also probably going to ask, Rat and Sea Witch comes from people’s attempts to say the designer’s name, Ratasiewicz, which if you say it fast kind of sounds like rat and sea witch.)

It’s easy to make a little fish bag in different sizes to suit your needs. The pattern has specific instructions for an Airpods Pro case and a pencil case, but you could change the length easily to hold more stuff, and change the size in general by working with a different weight of yarn.

The pattern calls for sock yarn and mohair held together to make a fingering weight gauge, but you could try it with heavier yarn and see what size bag you end up with.

Whatever size you make it, this looks like a fun project for holding trinkets or everyday items. The mouth of the fish is the mouth of the bag, and it closes with a drawstring that is also the strap. I wonder, too, if you could make one of these with a small clasp frame that could be the fish’s mouth and then you could just work I cord straps that would attach to the sides of the fish.

I could also see stripes, or fish of different colors to use up your yarn leftovers. How about a sunglasses case with a little loop to attach to your bag? Once you start thinking about all the ways you could use a fish-shaped bag in your life, I think you’ll see that you probably need more than one.

If you make one of these I would love to know how it went!

You can grab a copy of the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Rat and Sea Witch]

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