Friday, June 15, 2012

Cone of a Banksia

The Western Australian knitters recently had their annual retreat and I was asked to design a project for a KAL during the retreat.

I came up with a cowl which will be a quick project and I wanted it to be light and soft, so I chose lace weight to knit with.

When I showed a friend the stitch pattern that I decided on, she said that it reminded her of the cones of a banksia.

Banksia is an Australian wildflower, with flower spikes and a fruiting cone. The follicles on aged Banksia cones resemble “eyes”. The elongated eyelets combine with a moss stitch pattern on the cowl resembles the "eyes" on a Banksia cone. In addition, the retreat is held in Toodyay, a country town where Banksia trees are widely grown and so I named the cowl, Cone of a Banksia. 

I love the look and the lightness of the cowl ......
...... and knitting it with Knitpicks lace weight is a dream. This pattern is now available on ravelry.
I also knitted a 2nd one in Rowan Fine Lace and it's just as lovely .....
...... this cowl is about 4" longer as I added another 20 stitches.

I was not able to attend the retreat but I heard it went well and I hope everyone had fun knitting the cowl.

5 comments:

Sasha said...

A lovely pattern Ann - very delicate and elegant. What a shame you couldn't make it to the retreat, but you were there in spirit as evidenced by your pattern :) Sending you warm fuzzies xo

Rose Red said...

The pattern does look like a banksia! Very clever!

2paw said...

It's gorgeous, it does look so much lie the banksia. I like the neutral one best!!

Michelle Lee said...

That's such a gorgeous cowl Ann!!! I'm never a fan of cowl but looks like I might make this for myself!!!!!!

Roseann said...

Another gorgeous design! You are so prolific with turning your inspiration into delightful projects that are lovely to knit and look beautiful! I know they truly enjoyed knitting your clever cowl, a shame you were not there to see everyone's projects.