Mythos Collection + a giveaway!
Winner announced! Congrats HeavensJoy!
My designer friend Erica Jackofsky has graciously sent me her Mythos Collection (Ravelry link) for reviewing.
The collection consists of seven shawlettes each using only one skein of fingering weight. They are all based on Greek and Roman myths and each pattern has a little blurb at the beginning giving a bit of background on how the myth inspired the shawl. Both written and charted directions are given and the collection does say that the skill level needed is intermediate. There’s a nice mix of bottom up, top down and even sideways knits.
One thing I have noticed about all of the patterns that offer both written and charted directions, it isn’t indicated when to start the chart. I assume it’ll be clearer when you’re actually about to start knitting the patterns and can match up the charts with the directions, but just reading through nothing jumps out at me saying “Do x, then start chart.”
Onto the patterns!
Harvest is the first shawlette and is based on Demeter and Ceres. The cast on is massive (over 800 sts!), so be prepared to do a lot of stitch counting before working the first row. I know I wouldn’t want to rip that beast out because I mis-counted the cast on.
Bacchus/Dionysus is the inspiration for the second shawlette Merriment and has beads. The beads are optional (as they pretty much always are) and this one is worked from the top down. I also thought it was a cute idea to give the section of the pattern their own name: Cluster of Grape, Merriment and Madness.
The next shawlette (Underworld) also has beads, but it also has dropped stitches! The beads rest on the bottom edge of the shawlette where the dropped stitches are. It looks really interesting and is definitely going in my queue. Just note that this pattern doesn’t have a chart, it’s all written directions.
Allure, knit sideways, is the fourth pattern. The lace pattern looks interesting but simple enough to be TV knitting for me. It is patterned on both sides though, so be careful if you’re new to lace knitting. I’ll say it right up front, this one is my favourite. I haven’t knit it yet, but I was planning on knitting it even before I received the collection for reviewing. I think it also helps that the sample is knit in a shade of pink/purple. I’m always drawn to patterns in those colours (and red). That and it’s lace. Lace is my thing.
Next up is Wrought. Directions are provided for two sizes, and it’s worked from the bottom up. The nice thing about bottom up patterns is that the rows get shorter as you go. The shawlette isn’t a triangle, it’s got a nice curve but it’s not really a semi-circle either (as far as I can tell from the photos). And no pointy ends.
Then again, if you want pointy ends and a semi-circle, there’s Solar Flare! It’s top down with eyelet rows and looks like rays of sunshine. If I were to knit this, I might add beads down the centre of the eyelet columns. Because I like bling apparently. (My last two shawls/neck things have been beaded.)
Last, but not least, is Wandering Waves. This is knit sideways on the bias and you decrease as you go. As the lace pattern isn’t too complicated, I think a slightly more variegated yarn might work for this one, but don’t go overboard. Subtle and/or light coloured yarn would be the way to go. Oh and this one is offered as a free Ravelry download.
You can either buy patterns individually (most are 6.00 USD each, but I think one or two may be 5.00 USD) or get the whole collection for 20.00 USD.
You can find Erica on Plurk, Ravelry and Twitter as FiddleKnits and she blogs at fiddleknits.blogspot.com. She sells her patterns on Ravelry and on her website Fiddleknits.com. I’m sure there’s a Facebook page/group/whatever too, but I’m not really on Facebook myself, so I haven’t looked for it.
And now the giveaway! Since I was going to knit Allure most likely anyway, I’m going to gift one pattern from this collection to someone through Ravelry. Just leave a comment saying which pattern you’d like (and why would be nice, but not mandatory) and your Ravelry name. I’ll do the drawing on November 4th (Sunday) at about 9pm my time (London time! GMT.) with the help of the random number generator.
Happy knitting and good luck!