Deep in the Forest Shawl

I started this shawl in May 2016, right around the time I graduated, and I finished it sometime during the 2016-2017 academic year - I was pretty behind on blocking it (sometime this fall), and I'm even further behind on blogging it. 

The pattern is the Lost in the Forest shawl.  I enjoyed knitting it, especially once I got to the leaf lace pattern (the inner border).  The first long lace section wasn't very interesting.  I used some of the navy blue laceweight that I used for another shawl in 2015, and I still have enough left for another small shawl.  This shawl is joining the first navy one in the future gift pile.

Pattern:  Lost in the Forest shawl by Cath Ward
Size: one size
Yarn: Lanna Gatto Harmony 2/30 in Captain Navy, 40g of a 100g skein (29g remaining)
Needles: US3 (3.25mm)
Started/Completed: May 2016/sometime in 2017
Modifications: none

Knitting this Summer

I didn't post much this summer, but I did knit!  I've been working intermittently on my navy shawl, and I knit almost a whole sweater:

I'm excited to have another (hopefully) presentable sweater to wear to work and church.  And I'm worried about running out of yarn.  I started with eight balls of yarn, and I have just under two left.  All I have left to do is the second sleeve and the i-cord edging around the front edges and neckline.  I'm steeling myself for the possibility that I may need to unravel my (machine washed and dried) swatch to finish.  We'll see how it goes.

Madder shawlette finished

I finished this little shawlette in April, I think.  It was so long ago that I don't really remember.  After I finished it, it sat around for several weeks waiting to be blocked, and then several more weeks waiting to be photographed, and then the photos sat in my computer for another couple weeks.  I have a whole list of blog posts to write, but the combination of lots of post-graduation unstructured time, lots of moving-related stress and a to-do list a mile long makes it hard to actually sit down and write them.

This was a kit my mom put together for me for my birthday in February.  She picked out a special skein of yarn and included three patterns for me to choose from.  It was a fairly quick and easy knit.  I photographed it on a beautiful secretary-style desk made by my husband's great-grandfather.  Here's a modeled picture to show the scale.  I thought it was pretty small, but it looks almost like a full-sized shawl when I've got it on.

Pattern: Happenstance
Size: One size
Yarn: Abiquiu Dye Studio Abrash in Madder
Needles: US4 or 5 interchangeable circulars.  I don't remember.
Started/Completed: March 2016/April? 2016
Modifications: I added one extra repeat of the main chart before starting the border chart

Last week's CMS/Colloquium knitting

My birthday was at the end of February, and my mom gave me a knitting kit she assembled herself: a skein of hand-dyed yarn (naturally dyed with madder) that she got while she was travelling earlier in the month, and a choice of three fingering-weight shawl patterns.  I chose one of the patterns ("Happenstance") and cast on.  It's moving pretty quickly - this is what it looked like at the end of my seminars just over a week ago, and it's grown quite a bit since then.

The yarn is a single-ply merino-silk blend, and it has a really beautiful sheen.  I think this is going to be a really lovely shawl once it's finished and blocked out!

Hydrangea Mystery Shawl!

I finished my Hydrangea Mystery Knit-a-long Shawl last week.  I think the edging turned out beautifully!  It has an interesting construction method: a long narrow edging is knitted, then stitches are picked up along one edge and the shawl is knitted up from the bottom edge with decreases in each of two side triangles, with a lace panel in the center.

Learning to read your knitting was a big focus of the text in the pattern, and the little lace circles are pretty easy to read.  I've been doing lace knitting (and other kinds of knitting) for a long time and I'm pretty good at reading my knitting, but it's a bit more difficult to do when the background is garter, as it is with the Hydrangea shawl.  

I knitted the larger of the two sizes in the pattern, and was surprised that the shawl is pretty small.  I think it would cover my shoulders and that's about it.  Maybe this is because I used a different yarn than the one called for?

I have a ton of yarn left over!  It was a 100gm skein, and I still have 69gm left.  Enough for two more of these or a different large shawl.  In any case I'm not keeping this one.  I'll either give it as a gift sometime this year or donate it to my church's auction in the Fall.


Pattern: Hydrangea Mystery Knit-a-long Shawl by Courtney Kelley for the Fibre Company
Size: larger 
Yarn: Lanna Gatto Harmony 2/30 in Captain Navy, 31g of a 100g skein
Needles: I already forgot
Started/Completed: June 2015/July 2015
Modifications: none

Hydrangea MKAL Shawl

I have a loose intention to make lace shawls to give as gifts to the women in my family.I've seen several mystery knit-a-long patterns over the past year or so, and they looked like to much fun! At the beginning of the summer, I looked up several mystery shawls on Ravelry that were about to start, and chose the Hydrangea MKAL.

I started off almost a week behind because I was waiting for the yarn I ordered to arrive (and then it took forever to wind). After the third clue I caught up, but then I got behind again. As of this morning, all six clues are out but I'm only halfway through clue 4.

 I'm really enjoying knitting the shawl, even (especially!) because it's so different from the lace shawls I've knit before. l don't know yet who I'll give it to, but I can't wait to see the finished shawl!

Finished!

I cast off my gradient Multnomah shawl week before last.  Then we moved, and last weekend we were settled in enough to wash and block it (on our new guest bed in our new guest bedroom!).  It turned out beautifully.  I love the color shifts, and I think it's a good size (although to be honest I haven't tried it on).  Here's a picture of it all pinned out.  Please ignore the drying socks:

And here's a detail of the feather and fan lace:

Pattern: enlarged Multnomah shawl by Kate Ray
yarn: Freia Handpaints Ombre Lace in color 710 Pixie
needles: US size 6
modifications: enlarged it to use the whole skein
Started January 2015, finished March 2015

CMS/Colloquium knitting

I keep working away at my Gradient Multnomah, and I'm getting close to the end!  I did almost two repeats of the lace in my two hours of seminars this past Thursday (last week I did just over two).  I added two more repeats on each side of the shawl, so the rows are taking longer.  I now have more repeats than the pattern calls for, but I'm going to keep going until I run out of yarn.

Last night I was reading an Interweave Knits magazine, and drooling over all the lovely patterns.  I can't wait to finish at least one of my embroidered pillowcase projects so I can start knitting a sweater!

Two weeks of CMS/Colloquium knitting

This picture is from last week, but I didn't manage to get one between my seminars on Thursday afternoon and church this morning.  It looks pretty much the same, just with three-ish more repeats of the feather and fan lace.  I'm getting to the next color change!  I'm really happy with how it's turning out, and from now I'm just chugging along until I run out of yarn.

Tatted pillowcase-edging

I started this tatted edging in college.  (The year on my UFO page is 2010 with a question mark, but I think it's older than that.  2010 is the year I finished college and moved for grad school, and I remember working on it that fall, but looking back I think it was already a long-term UFO.)

When I started grad school, I set the pillowcase aside, measured the lace, and joined the ends together in a loop, and then let the whole thing go into long-term UFO storage. I pulled it out last week because it seemed like the best candidate for a quick finish before starting a Christmas present project. I hid several thread ends and then stitched the lace to the hem of the pillowcase. I like this edging . I found the vintage pattern online when I was first learning to tat, and it was pretty easy. I would definitely use this pattern again.

Ginkgo Crescent Shawl

I finished knitting the Ginkgo Crescent Shawl last week and blocked it this morning. It came out really well!

I didn't think the increase scheme in the original pattern made sense (I'm pretty sure it would have given a triangular shawl, and people on ravelry were complaining about how difficult it was to block it into a crescent shape), so I looked at another crescent shawl pattern and pretty much just winged it.  I worried that I had overdone it, because it seemed really long on the needles and I ended up with a LOT more stitches than the Ginkgo pattern called for.

But I needn't have worried, because when I bound it off it was perfect! Not too long and skinny, just right for wrapping around your shoulders.  I think the recipient will like it a lot.

The finished dimensions are about 20" deep by 56" wide at the top edge, and I didn't use as much yarn as I expected.  The shawl weighs 50g dry, and I still have 43g of yarn left.  According to the yarn label, that means about 313yds.  I'm thinking I'll make another little shawl to give away!  The next one will probably be rectangular, maybe more like a lace scarf than a shawl.

Vacation knitting!

 I've been working away at my toadstool socks, and I finished the first one while Robert and I were on vacation the last ten days.  I did an afterthought heel over almost 60% of the stitches.  I'm pretty happy with it.  I started the second sock, and I'm already counting down the toadstool repeats left to go!

 The white crescent shawl was my airplane knitting project, and it's almost done.  I have fewer than ten rows of lace left to do.  This thing got really wide - I'm pretty sure it's longer than my long circular needle.  I guess I'll just block it for depth as much as I can and hope it's not too long and unwieldy.  I still have a lot of yarn left - probably enough to make another small or crescent-shaped shawl.

CMS/Colloquium knitting

I'm making good progress on the new iteration of the white lace shawl.  I'm mostly using the Ginkgo Crescent pattern, but modifying the increases at the beginning, since the reviews (and even the pattern itself) say that the beginning as written creates a "hump" that has to be blocked out aggressively - basically, it's not actually crescent shaped.  I'm using some of the increase scheme from the Seaflower Shawl pattern, but mostly just winging it. 

I worked on it in CMS and Colloquium on Thursday - next Thursday is the last one of the semester, so I'll see how far I get!

The white lace shawl: frogged and restarted

This is what the lilac leaf shawl looked like on Saturday morning.  I ran out of yarn the day before, having knitted (8.5 - half a row) pattern repeats, of the 15 called for in the pattern.  I think 12 repeats (or even 10) would have made a nice shawl, but 8 was just too short.  It pained me, but I frogged it.  Here is what it looked like on Sunday morning:

I used my kitchen scale to estimate that I had about 684 yards.  I started a new crescent shaped shawl on Sunday evening - here's what it looked like on Monday morning:

Three Weeks of CMS/colloquium knitting

 I think I'm up to 8 or so pattern repeats, out of the 15 called for in the Lilac Leaf shawl pattern. I have not yet run out of yarn.I am certain that I do not have enough yarn to do the full 15 repeats, and if it is too short, I will have to frog and choose a triangular shawl pattern instead.

CMS/Colloquium knitting

 I knitted another 24 rows on the Lilac Lace Shawl in CMS and colloquium last Thursday.  I'm beginning to worry about running out of yarn - I don't have much left, and it's not anywhere close to shawl length. I'm wondering if it was a mistake to add an extra pattern repeat. I guess it won't be the end of the world if I have to frog and start over.

CMS/Colloquium knitting

 I knitted another twenty-odd rows in CMS and colloquium today.  I've got about 10 pattern repeats (at 20 rows each) left before I graft the two ends together!

CMS/ colloquium knitting

I finished the second edge of the lilac leaf shawl in colloquium on Thursday and started back on the body.  It's a bit hard to see in the photo, but I think the gauges of the two ends are wildly different. I hope that it will block out (and that it's not as bad as it looks), because I'm not about to reknit it!

 I finished two other projects on Thursday night, so according to my finish two-start one rule I can start my Lofoten pullover kit, but then I realized that it calls for size 5 needles, and both my fixed and interchangeable size 5's are in the lilac leaf shawl. Now I need to decide whether I'm going to wait until I finish the shawl before I start the sweater or pull the interchangeable out so I can use them and start it now!

Not-wedding shrug finished!

I finally finished my not wedding shrug!  According to my master UFO list (in which this project is no longer listed) I started it in February, 2013.  It's been sitting waiting to be blocked for a few months - I even actually wore it to the symphony unblocked over Thanksgiving weekend.  It's a lot easier to get on and off now that it's blocked open.

I used my new lace blocking wires (they were a Christmas gift from Robert). 

I originally intended to wear this over my wedding dress at our wedding reception, but I didn't finish it in time and the weather was so perfect that I didn't need it anyway.  Also, my wedding dress had a high lace back with buttons all the way up to my neck, so it wouldn't have shown off either the dress or the shrug to full advantage.  I think the lace shrug looks really great over the black t-shirt.  Now I need to make a high-backed solid color dress or two to wear it over!

The pattern is the Lady Grey Lace Shrug.
The yarn is Jade Sapphire Silk Cashmere in Ivory.

CMS/Colloquium knitting: more Lilac Leaf Shawl

I knitted 23 rows today - not bad!  Next week I expect to finish the second edging and back working on the body of the shawl!