Tag Archives: shawl

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!!

Cast On: Sherwood Forest Wrap

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I might be getting close to the number of time I can mention my birthday trip to Portland before you guys quit this blog so I’m just going to talk about one last thing. I honestly spent more time pre-planning my yarn and travel projects than I did the rest of my suitcase. Which led to some interesting outfit choices during the trip, but I have no regrets!

I was SURE I had settled on casting on a new Sockhead Slouch in some lovely rainbow and grey sock yarn from the Wichita Woolery I got last Winter Woolfest. I had caked it up and pulled the needles and pattern all into a project bag ready to hit the airport. And then literally at the 11th hour I changed my mind. At 10 pm the night before my 4:30 am wake up call I decided to cast on a whole different project, a huge rectangular wrap.

I pulled the skein of Trampoline from KnitCircus in the Sherwood Forest colorway off my shelf where it had been staring at me and I cast on the Pride Wrap by Nicole Tavares. Its a rectangle wrap designed for a 150 gram gradient, which is what my skein was. I literally got the 200 stitches cast on and I worked one row before closing up my suitcase.


I knit on the airplane a little but A LOT just lounging around my friends house. She got me some amazing socks as a birthday present and I thought they paired nicely with my knitting. And I decided to call my wrap the “Sherwood Forest Wrap” after my yarn color instead of the pattern name. I think it has a nice ring to it.

I managed to work the first garter section and start the stockinette section. It takes me awhile to work across a row and back with the large number of stitches so I didn’t make what looks like a big chunk of work. But it was several hours worth for sure!

I was also a little disappointed because the pattern is a paid for pattern (and not an inexpensive amount either) and it has a pretty big booboo in one section of the directions. I am guessing this was not tech edited and I emailed the designer to politely point out my issue. I love this project and I’m not going to give it up. But I’ll see what kind of response I get from the designer before I pass any judgement.

Happy Knitting!!

FO Friday: Progression Shawl

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I finished a beautiful thing and I’m just busting at the seams to share it. The yarn did most of the work but the pattern and yarn just went together so well. Jellybean helped me style some FO photos of my Progression Shawl.

Pattern: Progression Shawl by Carin Risinger

Yarn: Frabjous Fiber and Wonderland yarns Cheshire Cat in the Mad Tea Party color

Needles: US 5s

Mods: I faded in the color changes between my five mini skeins

This shawl/scarf is MASSIVE. I took out an actual tape measure and the blocked dimensions are 90 inches by 13 inches deep. It fills our king size bed from corner to corner. I was really pleased with this pattern. It was straightforward and easy to hack to fit my yardage. Not to mention it is just plain lovely because garter has a special place in my heart.

I have decided that this will be going in the gift pile. This beauty will be wrapped up under the Christmas tree for my mom. Meanwhile, I am wishful knitting and stash diving for my next shawl cast on.  I can’t have empty shawl needles!!

Happy knitting!

Blocking My Progression

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I not only finished the knitting of the Progression shawl but I also got Jellybean to help me block it over the weekend! This thing turned out massively long. It barely fits on our guest bed. We affectionately call it “the Star Wars” bed after the quilt my mom made for my husband.

The eyelets opened up so nicely that I didn’t even pin it out. It was so massive to begin with that I just kind of pulled and patted it into shape. I am going to have to get a real tape measure to measure this object because none of my knitting tape measures a not long enough!!

If the kids let me I’m going to try to get FO pictures this week…fingers crossed.

 

Crafting In Chaos

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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

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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!!