Tag Archive | handknit shawls

Finished: Supernatural Kindness Shawl

This was a quick little shawl to make! That might be because so much of it is stockinette stitch which goes quickly for me, but it might also be because I loved the project so much. For someone who says they don’t like orange, I loved this yarn! There’s something about pink and orange together that just makes me happy, and the green balances it out and makes it all springy, reminding me of flowers. Then there’s the thread of sparkly stellina and I do love a good sparkle.

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I also liked the two kinds of lace. It made it fun to knit and interesting to look at too.

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I did have a couple of hiccups with this project. First, I ran out of yarn before I could do the three rows of garter stitch at the end and I should have done an edge with another yarn because even after blocking, it wants to curl. I suppose I could pick up and knit an edge if it bothers me. Second, when I blocked it, I discovered a dropped stitch in the stockinette section. Once I recovered from the initial panic, I let it dry and then picked up stitches until I got to the first lace section. I had a bit of yarn leftover so I threaded some through the stitch and wove in the ends, hiding and securing that loose stitch. Given that shawls typically get light wear and don’t get washed often, it should be fine. Today is slightly cool and the girl has a flute recital, so I might just have to debut it today!

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Pattern is Kindness KAL Shawl (and I just realized I didn’t block the scallops into my shawl! Dang it!)

Yarn is Supernatural Yarns Gryffin Sock in the color Listen, Dammit! Love their yarns.

FO Friday: Arya Shawl

Apr6

This shawl actually got done last weekend, when I got to stay home and knit all Sunday. (It was marvelous. I highly recommend it.) But I haven’t had the time, light, or energy to get good photos until last night. We got a rare 60-degree day, and I slipped outside after dinner to sneak a few shots. The light was absolutely perfect.

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This is the Arya Shawl and it was wonderful to knit. The repetition never got boring, maybe because it alternated between lace and garter, maybe because the stripes kept it interesting. I loved the way it shifted from one color to the next, too, with slipped stitches similar to the ones in the Rainbow Warrior shawl.

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I reached the end of the increase section quickly, and was concerned that the shawl would be too short. Several of the projects on Ravelry also mentioned that their shawl was a little shorter than they’d expected. Yes, I could have tried to figure out a good way to add length, but instead I measured the width, and it was as wide as it was supposed to be, so I decided to trust the pattern and just keep knitting. I’m glad I did, because it came out a perfect length.

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The yarn is Universal Yarn Bamboo Pop, a 50/50 cotton/bamboo blend, and I love it. I wore it yesterday to work and it was lightweight and very breathable. The only time I got too warm was when I was rushing around, running up and down stairs. It was soft in my hands to knit with, maybe a tiny bit splitty but not annoyingly so, and blocked wonderfully. I think this is going to be a staple in my knit wardrobe!

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The only hard part is deciding which colors to use for my next one!

FO Friday: Miso Shawl

Feb16

Okay, maybe this is cheating, since I actually finished this one a couple of weeks ago, but I hadn’t shared it yet because it took me about that long to get it blocked and then take some halfway decent photos. But today is Friday, and this is a recently Finished Object. This is my Miso shawl!

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Blocking is the key to this shawl. When I bound off, it was maybe 60 inches at most. I could wear it, but not comfortably; it kept slipping or coming undone. So I blocked this baby aggressively, pinning it out as far as the garter stitch would let me, and now it’s over six feet and I love the length!!

fullsizeoutput_f33 I also love the colors. It’s very dark at first glance but then you look closer and see the hints of red and purple and blue. This is Madtosh Euro Sock in the color Daenerys.

fullsizeoutput_f31 The lace pattern was easy to knit, but you do have to pay attention to where you are in the pattern. I set it down for a while and came back later, and at some point I messed up and it’s glaring if you’re looking for it. But oh well, I won’t wear it all open and spread out anyway. I’ll wear it more like a scarf, so I’ll be the only one to know how much I screwed up!

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This was a fun knit and I’d definitely make another one. It will be perfect for spring…if spring ever comes!

Weekend Knitting, plus Yarn

Dec5

Thanks to my girl and her band activities, I got to spend the entire day Saturday knitting. Well, at least as much as my hands could tolerate. I had to take breaks periodically, of course. But I was focused on one goal: finish this second sock, which is a Christmas gift. I got pretty close.

Since then I’ve gotten farther, and I only have about an inch left before starting the toe. This one will be a FO before you know it!

Her competition was out of town, which meant a LYS stop for me. We went to True Blewe Yarns in Columbia, MO and I found lots of really pretty yarns. Lots of yarns I appreciated, several I picked up and carried around, but it was the strangest thing: most of them weren’t calling my name. I didn’t feel like buying yarn just to buy pretty yarn. (GASP! Am I feverish??) I want more sock yarn, but I want self-striping, and I want more colors, not just purple. I have quite a bit of purplish fingering weight, waiting to be made into shawls, so I didn’t really want to get more. I don’t know, I guess I just wasn’t really feeling it that day.

Okay, that’s not completely true, because you KNOW I didn’t walk out empty handed. I thought about the pieces I’ve wished I had to wear, and chose these accordingly.

I’ve used the super bulky Spuntaneous and LOVE it, but hadn’t seen the worsted version before. I’ve wanted another neutral gray cowl, so I’ve got enough here to make a lovely long one to double.

I don’t have a lot of blue clothes in my closet. I don’t like blue things in my house, really. So why have I been drawn to this vivid royal blue lately?? No idea, but I decided to give in. This one is already on the needles and on its way to becoming a Squishy Soft Cowl, like the dark green one I just made.

I’ve bought this Wonder Woman yarn before. I made a gorgeous cowl, put it on Etsy as a showpiece, thinking it would never sell, and it sold! So I had to send it away, and that made me sad. Now I can make something for myself to keep.

I have one more new project on my needles. This is a Be Simple Variations with my new green Classic Elite Magnolia. I’m already loving it.

Hope your weekend was as productive as mine!

Rainbow Warrior

Nov3

I have another finished shawl! This week I bound off my Rainbow Warrior shawl, all 440+ stitches in a beautiful picot edge. As tedious as a picot bind-off is, I do so love the look, and it was the perfect finish for this shawl.

I’d wanted to make this shawl for months, but I wanted to do it just like the original, which meant waiting until I could justify buying the Miss Babs yarn. And a couple of times I tried, but the Perfectly Wreckless color was sold out, and I had to wait for that yarn. I just couldn’t make it with another color, I loved the pink variegated with the gray so much. Finally, I had two skeins of Yummy 2-ply in my hands: Perfectly Wreckless and Thunderstorm.

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This was so much fun to knit. I loved balancing the garter stitch with the slipped stitch sections, how there was repetition that soothed me but also some variation to keep me interested. I loved seeing the colors pop out through the gray slipped stitches. My skein of Perfectly Wreckless had more black than I would have chosen, but overall I’m still delighted with it. I loved watching it grow each time I got to an increase row, until near the end when it was all squished together on the needles. I knew it was going to be quite large, but I couldn’t quite get a sense of how large, because I couldn’t spread it out enough.

Another thing I love about this pattern: it looks awesome on both sides. The “right” side shows off the slipped stitches and is more subtle with the colors, but the “wrong” side is just as delightful, with the colors on full display.

The pattern calls for eight slipped-stitch sections, but as I got near the end of the seventh, I realized my contrasting color was getting alarmingly low. I really didn’t want to play yarn chicken and have to frog back, and I could tell the shawl was already big enough to be wearable, so I ended with the seventh section. Since I still had plenty of gray left, I did the first two rows of the MC in section eight before starting the bind-off, to give a bigger, more defined final edge. I love this shawl. It’s exactly what I wanted it to be.

This is a pattern I’d love to make again, as soon as I decide on another color combination. The possibilities are endless! Have you made one yet?

Much Knitting!

Jul2

I knew I would have some FOs to show this weekend! I finished two pairs of socks recently, which brings my total for the year to nine. Thanks to Missy at Missy’s Crafty Mess, I’ve discovered the Boxosox KAL and I’m already close to the goal of twelve pairs for the year. Now I just need to find a good box for them! You can follow along on Ravelry or on Instagram with #boxosox2017. First I finished my Sparkle Stripe socks.

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Pattern is my current favorite, Vanilla Latte socks, and the yarn is Plymouth Yarn Stiletto. I loved the sparkle in it, but it wasn’t quite as soft as I’m used to. Still, I think they’ll be nice and warm when cool temps return.

Most recently I finished my Sylphrena Socks. Yarn is Frolicking Feet by Done Roving in the color Dancing Leprechaun and I loved this yarn! It’s soft and so squishy! And the colors are stunning, albeit hard to photograph well.

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And after that, I looked at my stash and was so sad, because I had no sock yarn left!! I mean, yes, I have four skeins of sock yarn, but three are so beautiful I want to make shawl/scarf type things out of them instead of socks. The fourth is my Zauberball, and after reading all the comments on Ravelry that talk about the fuzzing and felting and delicacy, I’m hesitant to use it for socks. I did wind it into a cake and though I didn’t find any knots in my skein, it was a pain to wind, lots of tangling and the yarn sticking together. I set it aside and it might become a shawl as well.

So two pairs of socks done left me with only three WIPs, and no new socks to start. I worked a bit on my sweater sleeve (stockinette. YAWN.) and a bit on Miss Winkle (little loops: cute but fiddly and kind of annoying) but I needed something new. I whipped up a preemie sized Yoda hat for a baby in need, bought yarn on KnitPicks’ summer sale for two baby blankets, and perused my stash in hopes of being inspired. And last night it hit me: I DID have more sock yarn! Sock yarn perfect for socks!

So that’s what I’ll be casting on today when I take the mother to get her hair cut. I’m so pleased I remembered it, and relieved too, to be honest. Being without sock yarn made me feel a bit like an addict wondering when I’ll get my next fix!

Finally, before I go, let me share the beauty shots of my newly blocked Chevrione shawl. I love this one so much, can’t wait to wear it. It’s super long and the colors are rich and vivid. The length made it a bit hard to photograph but I think you get the idea.

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Wishing my American friends a safe and happy holiday weekend! Happy knitting!

Not much knitting

Jun25

What do I write about when I have nothing concrete to share? I have finished no socks this week, though I have one that is close and will be done either today or tomorrow. I have a beautiful finished shawl, but it’s currently blocking and is not ready for its close-up. I can show you progress photos; they do hint at what a stunner this one will be.

The pattern is the Chevrione Shawl and I enjoyed the knit, once I got used to the lace pattern. It was still a pattern I had to focus on, so if the TV was on, I could only pay half-attention to it. I used as much of my Done Roving Frolicking Feet Mini Gradients as I could and got through the pattern as written. I think it will be gorgeous!

Oh, I know why I’m lacking in FOs: we had to rebuild part of our fence! Remember we had that huge limb come down? Well, it took two sections of fence with it, and with that large gap we had to go back to putting the dogs on chains. If you’ve done that before, you know what a hassle it is. They get tangled in each other and around things, they forget they have it and run too far and get yanked back, and I don’t trust them out there by themselves for very long, lest they somehow pull the anchors out of the dirt. So the husband and I worked quickly and had the fence repaired with two nights’ work. We felt very ~~tired~~ clever afterward. And the dogs (Grace especially) were delighted.

Strangely enough, I’ve been reading a lot this week, which also might account for the lack of FOs. I finished The Secret Place by Tana French, which is a gripping, tense thriller that I couldn’t put down, and I’m in the middle of The Mermaid’s Daughter by Ann Claycomb which I don’t want to put down, but is so good I don’t want to finish it, so I’m trying to ration myself. It’s got folklore, intrigue, mermaids (of course), opera, and Ireland, and so far it’s both dark and beautiful.

One more fun little thing: my knitter friend at work is a new pen addict, so I took her to The Pen Place over lunch break last week. I can’t go to the pen store without buying something of course. Look at my new pretty purple Parker pen!

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Here’s hoping I have more fun knitting to show you next time!