Category Archives: Shawls

Crafting In Chaos

Posted on by
4

 

This is my life. Messy basement, five year old crowding me in my knitting chair, knitting podcast on TV, and knitting in my lap. Not the most ergonomic of positions but I can’t turn down a snuggle…now matter how much he pokes me with his elbow and makes me watch PBS Curious George games.

I’ve add the fifth and final color to my Progression Shawl. It’s the purple end of the fragmented rainbow. Jellybean tells me it’s his favorite. I have a TON of stitches on the needle now so the yarn is disappearing quickly now. I’m optimistic that I can finish this maybe this weekend?

That is unless snuggles get priority. Happy knitting!!

Progressing To The Fourth Color

Posted on by
7

I found my lost knitting bag!! Some helpful little hands had put it inside an empty cardboard box in the basement. But the knitting was not disturbed in any way so I chose to let it slide this time. But momma will be watching from now on!!

Once I found it I realized I was super close to fading in the fourth color of the set of five. So I powered through the last few rows and got the next color added in. This new mini is very teal and Elsa blue. I even spied some purple speckles mixed in.

This is going to be one very electric rainbow in a deconstructed way. My mom has eyed this project several times while she was recuperating from her surgery at my house. (She is healing quite nicely by the way. She had some rough day initially but I think she has turned the corner to feeling more like herself.) So I’m torn between keeping this project or putting it in my Christmas box for presents.

Happy Knitting!!

Progressing To The Third Skein

Posted on by
3

Thanks to labor day travels I made some teeny tiny progress on my Progression Shawl.

I’m through with the second mini skein (yellow-ish one) and on to the third one (blue green-ish). My mom saw me working on this and commented “oh my that is pretty”. I may see how this knit goes and make it a gift for her….

For sure, this Mad Hatter Tea Party mini skein set is going to make a statement piece. It’s an abstract rainbow with lots of black pops throughout. But I am really finding the garter soothing and easy to work. I have made some mistakes on the eyelets rows and my stitch count got off. But this pattern is easy enough to fudge that I don’t mind. And no one, not even a knitter, will ever find my eyelet mistakes. This yarn is just too busy!

Happy Knitting!!

Progressing To The Second Color

Posted on by
6

So after showing you AAAALLLLL kinds of neutral beige looking sweaters all week I had to show you the crazy color progression on my Progression Shawl. I just added the second color.

This mini set takes me right from a berry pink color to a highlighter yellow and black color. These two mini skeins are the starkest of contrast in the set. So I hemmed and hawed and then decided to “fade” them as I added the second color. With this shawl being garter it worked out pretty well. And I guessed pretty well with yardage and only have a tiny tiny ball of pink left over.

I’m not sure how much work this will see now that I have both my sweaters either at the sleeves or separated for the sleeves. I feel like if I can give them some good love that I could have two finished sweaters really soon. Not to mention the Pigskin Party 2019 is coming right around the corner and WIPs don’t count for those imaginary point…

Happy Knitting!!

Self Care Renewed

Posted on by
3

It’s hot and my kids are extra special kinds of wound up because of the heat and limited hours outside. So this week’s self care is brought to you by….

Leftover cake I found in the freezer from PB’s 1st birthday in May, vanilla ice cream, my Progression Shawl, my worsted boxy as a back up knitting project, and knitting podcasts on the TV.

I mean, whats the worst that can happen? I drip a little cake or melted ice cream on my shawl. I think I’ll risk it. Fall shall be here soon!!

Happy knitting!!

Cast On: Progression Shawl

Posted on by
7

I have found my zen again. As I wrote yesterday, I frogged my everyday shawl in my Cheshire Cat mini set yarn. Yet another dive down the Ravelry pattern search rabbit hole led me to the Progression Shawl by Carin Risinger.

This pattern is a garter stitch shawl which makes me happy because I was not in the mood to purl after my issues with the everyday shawl. And it’s also incorporated some easy eyelets to add some interest. The Progression Shawl is also asymmetrical and should made a nice long shawl to wrap up cozy in next winter. Not to mention I feel like the garter and eyelets are suited to the heavy variegation in this yarn.

The added bonus to this pattern is the fact that I can adjust the instructions to easily use up all my yarn. Those kinds of details just make my OCD tendencies SUPER happy. I might decide to save out 8-10 grams total of this set to add to my memory blanket. I’ll have to see how the yarn stacks out in this shawl.

Happy Friday and Happy Knitting!!

Cast On: Everyday Shawl

Posted on by
5

I have been sitting on a pack of Wonderland Yarns Cheshire Cat mini and tried to make then into a Vamping Shawl. That turned out to not be a great match of pattern and yarn. So after frogging I did some Ravelry searches and came up with Everyday Sahwl by Jenny Faifel. It was a little challenging to find a shawl that fit my yardage that wasn’t all over complicated lace and will suit this variegated yarn. My mom brain has NO space for lace nonsense right now. This shawl looks amazing! It’s alternating sections of stockinette and reverse stockinette so really soothing and easy on my grey matter.

img_1728

This is an asymmetrical triangle shawl that will make a nice large shawl that should be very wearable. And I think the pattern should be able to handle the variegated nature of the yarn. It will be interesting to see how the yarn transitions as I add the other minis.

I may or may not have cast this project on at 9 pm at night. Which soothed my soul, but I had to cast this on, rip it back and re-cast on to feel like I was understanding what I should be doing. My stitch counts were all off on the first go round. I’m 100% sure it was (tired) user error. But the good new is the 2-ply yarn structure didn’t seem to suffer from the ripping and re-knitting!

Happy Knitting!!

Cast On: Vamping

Posted on by
4

I have had this pack of mini skeins in my stash for awhile now and it keeps popping up in my mind. It’s some Frabjous Fibers and Wonderland yarns Cheshire Cat in the Mad Tea Party colorway. There are five mini skeins in a rainbow-ish kind of fade. I picked this pack up at a yarn store closing and I have been hoarding it. Well, last week I got a yarn newsletter that highlighted the Vamping pattern from Jennifer Dassau. And I rushed to my stash to grab my yarn and needles..

I was so lost in the wool fumes that I hand wound the first mini and cast on right then and there. It was like 9:45 pm and my brain was a little foggy so the cast on took three attempts. But I think I’m on track now….I hope….

Happy Knitting!!

FO Friday: MOA Shawl

Posted on by
3

Drum roll please, my MOA shawl is blocked and ready for her close up!

Pattern: MOA (Mother-of-All) Shawl by Nick Davis

Yarn: MJ Yarns Simple Sock in the Mice and Men color

Needles: US 7

Mods: Had to alter the bind off to avoid yarn chicken. I worked rows 5, 6, 11, 12, 13, 19 and 20. And I made it with less than 3 yards!

This yarn base is made with 75% Corriedale Yarn and 25% nylon. It’s definitely not a merino like soft yarn. It has some tooth to it and I wouldn’t necessarily want a full sweater of this next to my skin…personally. But this yarn is a light fingering and just blocks and drapes BEAUTIFULLY.

Above is a close up of my modified bind off to account for that fact that I didn’t have the full 440 yards of yarn the pattern requests. Based on weight I had about 350 yards of yarn and I put all but 3 yard of that into this shawl. But I think modifications work and it really blends with the overall aesthetic of the shawl.

This really did block out bigger like I had hoped. As I talked about earlier I’m finding the one skein shawls, especially those triangle shaped, to be harder to style, wear and keep on all day long.  I’m finding my taste shifting to toward two and three skein projects these days. But I started this in 2017 before I made that pivot so I’m going to give myself a little grace here.

I’m glad to finish a long languishing WIP and get a new shawl for my drawer. The pattern was easy and intuitive and I may well consider making it again but next time with two skeins worth of yarn instead of one and really go big with it. Now on to my next knitting adventure!

Happy Knitting

Blocking MOA

Posted on by
5

My MOA shawl is finished and drying nicely on my alphabet blocking mats. Note: These were a good idea pre-kids. But it’s becoming increasingly difficult to keep their mitts off of the pieces when they are holding knitwear. But I digress!

As predicted I ended up playing yarn chicken and had to drastically alter the bind off section. I need to move my notes from the paper in my project bag and get them up on Ravelry. Theoretically it could help someone else…and make it less likely I will remember months or years down the road. And when I blocked it I used my blocking wires and really stretched this as much as possible to make the shawl as big as possible. I’m finding that one skein shawlettes, while beautiful, are just too small to style and keep on during the day.

I did find a SINGLE dropped stitch in my work AGAIN. That happened on my Kindness KAL 2019 shawl, grr. But I laddered it back to a good place and then use some waste yarn to secure it in place. It’s somewhere in the photo above but even I can’t see it anymore when I look at the right side of the work. I can’t wait for this to be dry and get some FO photos!

Happy Knitting!!