Faith: another first.

Faith is a reversible leaf-lace wrap with scalloped edges that is knit from tip to tip. The tweedy summer yarn is Cricket and and the design is from the booklet with the same name. My first cover!

In general I'm happy to knit a piece and pass it on for someone else to name. However this time I had a special request. While I was designing Faith, a friend from high school was killed in Iraq while serving with the US Army. Her name was also Faith, and this one is for her.

I have a thing for reversible patterns – unless the piece has a definite right/public side, then I prefer it to look just as good on both sides. Lacy leaves are one of my favorite textures and with this wrap I took up the challenge of writing a stitch pattern with leaves on both sides.

Of course this sounded a heck of a lot easier than it actually was (aren't most things?). However, once I had the stitch pattern down, increasing and decreasing one leaf at a time was intuitive and made a lovely scalloped border. With knit leaves flanked by purl leaves (and purl leaves flanked by knit leaves on the other side), the wrap has the bit of ribbed boing one would expect from anything with knit/purl columns.

As with all designs, the yarn pairing was very important. It was not until I swatched a ball of Cricket that I knew it was time to translate the sketches from my mind into a tangible pattern. The crispness of the linen makes the stitch pattern pop while the cotton tones down the pattern's tendency to pull in too much.

I could not be more proud of this wrap making the cover of the Cricket. Have a look at the other designs and you'll see why, they're all great.