Tag Archives: shawl

Arya Shawl Update

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My Arya shawl has been seeing progress in fits and spurts. I am through the third slip stitch color change. And if memory serves this is where the shawl starts getting smaller? I am going to challenge myself to keep working on this so I can have a new shawl before spring gets here!

This fabric I’m creating has a lot of stretch to it so I can see where I might end up with a lovely and huge squishy shawl. I’m going to have more than enough yarn in each color to finish. But I don’t think I have enough leftover to do much of a second project. I just love how these yarns are playing together. I am really hoping this becomes a wardrobe staple for me.

Happy Knitting!!

Arya Colors

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As promised, here is the second color section of my Arya Shawl. I have found this to be my “reward” knitting of late. It is busy season for this accountant at work so I come home pretty much wiped out. And so in the quiet of the evening I have been reaching for this project to work on. I may only have time for a few rows before I fall asleep but with DK weight yarn it shows the progress quickly. The shawl looks less thong like now.

I’m super late the party with the grellow color combination. But I’m really loving the grey and yellow contrast. But with this Chubbs and Squeak yarn also being a tweed yarn there is a consistent element flowing throughout. I’m still not 100% proficient on my CCD or centered double decreases and I have to fudge them sometimes to keep my stitch counts correct. But hey, this is garter stitch so it’s very forgiving!

My favorite of favorite parts so far? The mosaic slipped stitch color work portion that transitions between the two colors. it just makes my heart happy!

Happy knitting!!

Wool and Waves Progress

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Since re-configuring the order of my Cornbread and Honey mini skeins I have been encouraged to pick up my Wool and Waves more. I have now added in the second mini skein. I did make the executive decision to not finish the first full mini and to add the second mini at a strategic place in the pattern. I might save a little from each mini to add to my memory blanket…who knows! I also chose to fade in the color ala Andrea Mowry so that this first color change wouldn’t be so stark.

I did make one sobering realization after adding the second mini. Since I was adapting the pattern to fit my needs I hadn’t really read the pattern in detail. I am pretty sure after a more careful examination that this pattern calls for yarn held double. And I’m only using one strand so the yardage the pattern calls for might be wildly different from how I’m using it. Meaning, I possibly wont’ get through all my colors.

The shawl is still very pretty and I have decided to roll with it. I’m already adapting the pattern anyway I will just see where my yardage takes me and I will figure it out when I get there!

Happy Knitting!!

Cast On: Arya Shawl

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I have been knitting for at least two weeks now and I haven’t even shown you my Arya Shawl that was my self indulgent cast on for Christmas Eve! Christmas was a lot of work this year and so I found myself in my childhood home at 10 pm on Christmas Eve having just played Santa.

The fire was roaring and The Woolslayers had just dropped a new episode on YouTube. In hindsight knowing how Christmas morning turned out…I should have been sleeping. But I pulled out my project and poured myself a glass of wine. I knit for a full hour and fifteen minutes and enjoyed the hell out of every minute.

I managed to get the first chart done in one sitting. I’m using my Chubbs and Squeak DK from my visit to Twisted in Portland. It really is a joy to work with so far. And I honestly had to sit down and really learn the centered double decrease. I have never truly worked it correctly until now. The pattern is amazingly detailed and while it took me a few tries I managed to get on board.

I couldn’t help but take one last photo before bed in front of the tree. It was the calm before the storm and I am continually glad I have knitting. I’m pretty sure I would be a basket case by now without it. I’ll try to get my act in gear and take updated photos of this project. I have worked through several charts and have added the second color in by now.

Happy Knitting!!

Advent Reconfigured

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I kind of hit stopping point on my Wool and Waves shawl. I just found myself staring at the minis as they dyer had ordered them. Something was niggling away at the back of my brain that made me not want to pick up this project. I will also note that my knitting mojo has kind of taken a hit post-holidays. I think between festivities and three rounds of the stomach virus through my house….this girl is just tired.

But I digress, pictured below is the order the dyer intended. I just don’t like the brown speckled skein in 8th position. And I think the two blue/teal skeins before it should be reversed. It was at this point that I realized I’m the boss of my own knitting and I can do as I darn well please.

So I reorganized like this…..

I think the colors achieve the fade much more like I really want. Each mini has an aspect of the skein before and after it. And I feel like I’m reengaged with this project and ready to knit more. Time will tell…..I’m also addicted to my Christmas Eve cast on. There’s only so many minutes this working momma has to knit in a given day so it’s hard choices all around.

Happy Knitting!!

Cast On: Wool and Waves

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I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t keep knitting the Annapurna Scarf. It was just too much purling and too many times of getting off my stitch count and not lining up with the pattern. I ripped that baby out before I even got to the first color change. Life is too short to force yourself to knit something!

I did another Ravelry dive. I think now I have like 10 or 12 advent mini patterns floating around in my favorites. I settled on Wool and Waves by Casapinka.  It’s garter stitch and some eyelets and so much more satisfying to work on.

Now mine will not look like the pattern. I am not fussing around with striping my colors. I am just working my quasi-fade and using the stitch patterns. So I will hopefully end up with the same shape but a very different color effect. I have worked mostly through the first mini skein. And for some reason I can’t explain the whole shebang is still living in the large cardboard box it came in…I just can’t be bothered I guess.

PS. I’m still in LOVE with the project bag it came with!

Happy Knitting

Snow Knitting

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I am still plowing through my Sherwood Forest Wrap. And also the roads in Kansas could use a plow as well. It wasn’t that bad according to my husband but I was glad to have my knitting to focus on.

I never heard back from the designer about the pattern error. So I’m just kind of using the pattern as a loose suggestion and making up my own thing to maximize yarn usage. All my sections are equal sized where the pattern has them staggered in a fashion. This might come back to haunt me later.

I am just so addicted to how this gradient is coming out. This is one of those projects I just can’t put down! I should start weighing my yarn to see when I need to start the end but for now I’ll just keep knitting…

Happy Knitting!!

Mammograms and Knitting

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My Sherwood Forest Wrap recently traveled with me to my annual mammogram (Side note: ladies, make sure you go get yours squished…it saves lives.) I got a clean bill of health and some Lorna Doone cookies to boot. And I was pleasantly surprised at the conversations I had while waiting.

Not only was the receptionist intrigued by my knitting but so a woman in queue to check out.  The siren call of beautiful yarn is strong! Turned out she was a crocheter, recently retired and expressed interest about learning to kni. So I chatted about the LYS just a stone’s throw from the clinic and the classes I had seen in their newsletter.

I’m finished with the first stockinette and lace sections. Now I’m set to repeat those two over and over until I get near to the end of my yarn. I love watching the colors develop. Based on my yarn consumption per repeat section I am going to have to do some math and add some rows to modify the pattern. If I don’t I won’t get through all the colors and have a ton of yarn leftover. I want to use as much of the gradient by KnitCircus as possible. I might be risking yarn chicken but it will be worth it!!

Happy Knitting!!

Preparing For Christmas Eve

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Christmas is almost upon us and I am once again preparing my family’s Christmas eve boxes! Mostly I get everyone in the family a new set of pajamas and special treat for Christmas eve. I like being able to open an early present. So I wanted to give you a sneak peak inside mine. (My box includes a special Christmas Eve cast on!)

I have a brand spanking new pair of Christmas pajamas, a bottle of wine, and brand new knitting project to start. This year I chose the Arya Shawl by Ambah O’Brien. It’s a two color shawl worked up in DK weight. And I just so happen to have those two coordinating skeins of Chubbs and Squeak in tweed DK from my Portland trip. It seemed just like kismet. Now I just have to wait for Santa to get here!!

Happy Knitting!!

WIP Wednesday: Sherwood Forest Wrap

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My Sherwood Forest Wrap has come to live in my purse. It’s kind of an odd purse project as it takes a very long time to work a single row but yet here I am. After an initial thrust of travel knitting progress this project is only getting a repeat or two every now and then.

But I guess that all adds up, I did manage to complete the first garter and stockinette sections. And I’m establishing the first lace section. With so much work bunched up on the needles I have to be careful to mind all the yarn overs and to remember the garter edges. But so far so good!

P.S. I have not heard back from the designer about the error on her paid for pattern. So that is less than encouraging but I will try to contact her again.

Happy Knitting!!