My eldest granddaughter, who is now 11 years old has expressed an interest in selecting many of her clothing and jewellery pieces.  She is very old fashioned and traditional and loves beautiful things. So it wasn't surprising when on selecting an item for me to knit for her, she jumped at the idea of a lace shawl. Joyce Fassbender is a knitting designer I admire very much for her lovely feminine lace designs, particularly for shawls and wraps. The Ostreo Shawlette I found in a compilation called "Little Luxuries". It is published by Knit Picks and I can thoroughly recommend this for small projects such as hats, gloves, scarves and shawls.

Ostreo requires a fingering weight yarn. I used Bendigo Woollen Mills Transitioning sock yarn. This comes in 100g balls and I used approximately 120g of yarn as I enlarged the shawl slightly by knitting Chart 2 three times. This made a useful shawl suitable for wearing a couple of different ways and the size also looked good for an adult as well, without being too large. 

​The transitioning sock yarn works particularly well with this design as the colour change, although gradual, create a distinctive stripe and look very beautiful with this shape. The "Little Luxuries" book features the shawlette in a plain grey yarn. 

The photo shows the shawl after blocking. 
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Bendigo Woollen mills have some lovely children's patterns. This beautiful rib design knit jumper, PT 8486 is a pleasure to knit. It uses a 4 ply yarn and a pair of 2.75mm and 3.25 mm needles. It is worked on a tension of 42 stitches and and 38 rows to 10cm over the rib pattern.

The rib pattern is a K2 P2 rib worked over 8 rows and incorporating a left leading twist on one row and a right leaning twist on another row to create the interesting effect. 

The pattern works up into a snug stretchy knit with a nice round neck with buttons on one shoulder seam making it easy to pull on over a child's head. the colour I used was Luxury Koala. for a visual break I incorporated 3 cream stripes on the lower back and front.

In this lovely little jumper worked in 8 ply luxury wool yarn fro Bendigo Woollen Mills I have followed a traditional Patons pattern from their book Totem book No 952, Jumper no 2. This is illustrated with a polo neck but I changed this to a round neck to update it. 
The designs from this era are very classic, but polo necks somewhat date them. When following any of these designs it is important to be aware that they are very fitted. Most modern knitwear allows for greater fullness, so you may need to go up a size to get an acceptable fit by current standards. 

I have transformed this little raglan sleeved jumper pattern by using a decorative band on the front and back. The divided triangles design is worked over 18 rows. Multiple of 14 +1. 
Row 1: Knit
Row 2: Knit
Row 3: K1 *p13, k1* to end
Row 4:K1 *p1, k11, p1, k1* to end
Row 5: P1, *k2, p9, k2, p1* to end
Row 6: k1, *p3, k7, p3, k1* to end
Row 7: p1, *k4, p5, k4, p1* to end
Row 8: k1, *p5, k3, p5, k1* to end
Row 9: P1, * (k6, p1) twice* to end
Row 10: purl
Row 11: purl
Row 12:K7, p1, *k13, p1* to last 7 stitches, k7
Row 13: P6, k1, p1, k1, *p11, k1, p1, k1* to last 6 stitches, p6
Row 14: K5, p2, k1, p2*k9, p2, k1, p2* to last 5 stitches, k5
Row 15: P4, k3, p1, k3, *p7, k3, p1, k3* to last 4 stitches, p4
Row 16: K3, p4, k1, p4, * k5, p4, k1, p4* to last 3 stitches, k3
Row 17: P2, k5, p1, k5, *p3, k5. p1, k5,* to last 2 stitches, p2
Row 18: K1, *p6, k1* to end

Rather than using the traditional k1 P1 rib for the bands I have used an uneven or mistake stitch rib which gives a more textural finish. 

There is a lovely old Paton's pattern that is available online for a girl's lace cardigan. There is also a matching cardigan for mother. The pattern can be found here
I knitted this one in Bendigo Woollen Mills Luxury 8 ply yarn in the colour Coastal Blue. 

i found this pattern for a vest in an old Patons Book - No 952. This has a number of children's patterns for ages 2 - 10 years. I chose pattern no 6 and used an 8 ply wool which was a lovely blend of Bamboo and pure wool from Bendigo Woollen Mill's Stellar range in the colour smokey Quartz. I used a little navy blue to create the stripe on the neckline and ribbands.  The central cables make this a lovely design. I am told that Emeric is really enjoying wearing it.  

I always love the look of fisherman's rib or brioche knits. It does take extra time though to knit as it takes two rows of knitting to gain one row in height. 
Patons Dreamtime 4 ply Book 1271 has some lovely knits for children up to 18 months of age. It has a lovely vest on the back cover. I knitted this one in Bendigo Woollen Mills 4 ply yarn in Mint.
The pattern is a simple two row repeat:
Row 1: Sl1, *K1B, P1 * to end
Row 2: Sl1, *P1, K1B* to last 2 stitches , P1, K1

I had just one 50 g ball of an unlabelled mystery wool yarn in a lovely shade of blue. Using a cast on of 120 stitches this little cowl was worked in the round. The finished cowl is 62 cm around and 14 cm deep, making it perfect as a neck warmer for the colder days. 

Two different wavy stitches are used in this project, each one uses a 12 stitch repeat.  The first produces the lovely scalloped edge effect and uses lots of purl stitches. I then switched to a wave crest pattern that has more eyelets and some defining rows of garter stitch which make the lovely waves. 

Knitting patterns with diagonal designs can be very attractive. In this scarf I have designed I used a solid diagonal pattern and a more open diagonal stitch to allow the inclusion of some beads. The scarf is 25cm wide and 190 cm in length, so long enough for a couple of wraps if desired.

I threaded the beads onto the yarn before commencing the knitting. Each lace panel used 40 beads and as there were 12 such panels it was quite a few beads! The beads were size 6 Japanese seed beads and were purchased online from Over The Rainbow: https://polymerclay.com.au/

The 8 ply knitting yarn used is called Milky Way. It is 84% wool and 16% milk fibre. It has a luxury feel and drapes beautifully. Bendigo Woollen Mills produce this yarn. The colour is called Jupiter.

I like knitting cowls and this little lacey one was a relatively quick one to knit. Done in the round with a 144 stitch cast on, it uses a simple ribbed edging with 3 lace panels defined by a row of garter stitch. I have used a nice variegated 8 ply yarn called Bloom from Bendigo Woollen Mills. It measures 86cm in circumference.