It is a known story that in the year of 1857 the 16 year old shepherd girl, Marit from Selbu (in Norway) and her sisters came to church wearing black-and-white mittens in stranded knitting - with stars (8-petal roses as we call them) and patterned all over. The mittens made a great stir! and this was the upstart of the tradition of Selbu-knitting.
I’m in great awe to Marit.
From the very beginning the mittens were worked using the natural colors of black and white wool. Occasionally red would be used as well. But as the access to dyed wool was limited and the price was high this was not common.

Today we have the great advantage and luxury of using any color we can think of! Still, I think the Selbu-patterns are so lovely in the traditonal combination of black and white. The touch of red that I put into my design is a tribute to Marit and a touch of love to her and all my knitting ancestors.

In my Touch of Red - design I combine old patterns in black and white with a lace-edging, narrow borders and a hem in bright red.

I combined the lace and Selbu-patterns (the top-border is made to measure by me, and is not a true Selbu-pattern) into a cape/cowl witch is wider at the base than at towards the neck. This means a slightly sloping shape - and when knitting it I found that it could easily be adapted as a marvellous skirt as well! Many possibilities, especially since you can adapt to almost any size, depending on the number of pattern-repeats you choose to work.

Sizes: 3 sizes. Circumference at the base: 98/110/123cm (38.5/43.5/48”). Circumference towards the neck: 86/97/108cm (34/38/42.5”). Length 35cm (13.8”). You can adapt to almost any size depending on numbers of pattern-repeats.

Wool: I used “Smart” from Sandnes Garn - a 100% merino that lends itself perfectly to stranded knitting. You will need the following amount of wool to work the 3 sizes:
MC (White): 3/3/4 balls. CC1 (red) 2/3/3 balls CC2 (black) 2/2/3 balls.

Gauge: In st st and stranded knitting 26 sts and 28 rows = 10x10cm/4x4”

Knitting skills: Since the stranded knitting is worked from RS only I would say that the cape/cowl could be knitted by an intermediate knitter. The lace-work is very basic and repetetive. Abbreviations used are k, p, yo (yfwd), k2tog, ssk

The pattern: The pattern is in English with measurements in both cm’s and inches. Whenever the number of stitches are changed there will be a stitch-count. The lace could be worked either by following a chart and/or row-by-row-instructions. There are clear charts for all the borders.