Rosemary crescent shawl

This is actually my first time knitting a crescent shawl, and I must admit, I’m not super impressed with the garter tab cast on. This was another project for the local yarn store, and on the whole, I would not recommend this pattern. Once I get through my current list of projects I’ll work on designing a crescent shawl that doesn’t have a weird lump at the nape of the neck. Given, however, that this seems to be a fairly typical start to a crescent shawl, that is not my only reason for not recommending this pattern. As written it has one major mistake, a medium level mistake, a relatively minor mistake, and some lack of clarity. Looking back on the finished shawl, it looks like a very simple, easy project, but for some reason it took a lot of effort and deciphering to figure out. That said, the end result is nice, even though I’m not convinced it was worth it. White sheep did enjoy trying it on as well, though Grumpy sheep was highly unimpressed and much more interested in taking a nap.

Arcade shawl

I knit this shawl for the yarn store, so they picked out the pattern and the yarn for me. I really enjoyed both-I’ve used the yarn before, so no big surprise there (it’s Kim Dyes, in the colorways Glass Jewels and String Theory, on the Sugarcookies Sock base), and I was pleasantly surprised at how easy to follow the pattern was (Arcade). It’s a big shawl-it took almost three entire skeins, but it knit up pretty quickly, and wasn’t bad travel knitting.

White sheep wasn’t quite sure how to wear such a big shawl, so she decided to model a few different looks.

Shawl time, part two!

This is the follow up shawl to my last one-I was playing around with the idea some more, trying to get it to sit on the shoulders even better. This one lays really nicely, and stays put even with arm flapping, due to it’s overall shape. It’s too big for white sheep to really be able to model it well though, so I had to borrow a mannequin at the local yarn store.

The two yarns are very different-the main aqua color yarn is a 50/50 merino silk yarn in the color ‘Mariana by Anzula, while the lighter yarn is 100% milk protein fiber from Bellatrista. When I ran out of the first yarn I was worried about trying to match it, so I decided to go with something entirely different, and I think it worked well. People at the yarn store liked it so much they asked me to write down the pattern, and gave me assurances that they would knit it if I did write it up!

This is the fifth shawl I’ve finished this year, though one of those I did start last year.

Shawl time!

There I was, minding my own business, sleeping, when a shawl pattern decided it wanted to be knit, now. It announced that it was a lace shawl, with a certain shape, but unspecified lace pattern. I managed to convince it that we could start out without the lace, to check that I could get the shape right, and, well, this is the result. Since I wasn’t doing lace, I went to my shawl yarn stash (as opposed to the sock, hat, or weaving yarn one) and found this-it’s Pearl from Lorna’s Laces, a 51% silk and 49% bamboo blend in the color Blue Tulle. I’m very happy with this use for it!

I do actually have a rough draft of the pattern written up, so if anyone is interested in knitting it, let me know!

Rainbow leaf shawl

I wanted to try the leaf shawl again, in a very different yarn, and see what happened if I just continued the pattern for longer. Turns out that it works just fine, though eventually you get to the point where each row is around 800 or 900 stitches and takes forever. Added to that, I was alternating between three different skeins for most of this shawl to try and extend the length of each color stripe. In the last few rows of seed stitch I was getting a color change in each row-each row was about 1.5 colors.

The yarn is knipicks chroma, So this project saves me from making mosaic socks out of some of my stash. I think I used around 300g, but I still have about three skeins left of this that will turn into socks eventually. I found I didn’t mind the occasional thick or thin spots as much for the shawl, nor was the yarn splitting quite as much as normal.

Between this shawl and the knee high socks, my sock output has really slowed! I just bought more yarn at a yarn tasting for Once upon a corgi, so I better get knitting!

Leaf shawl

This shawl was originally inspired by a lace pattern called ‘fountain lace’. I started the original shawl (the blue one) without being sure what shape it would turn out to be, and when I blocked it I wished I’d done it in green because it reminded me of a leaf. I happened to show someone at the local yarn store a picture, and they asked if I’d written down the pattern. I did, but I had to touch it up a bit before it was ready to hand out, so I decided to go ahead and knit it again it green The yarn is knitpicks Diadem-an alpaca silk blend, and very soft. These pictures are from blocking it.

I’m having some people from the local yarn store test knit the pattern for me!

Pink shawl

With the shutdown ended, I was reunited with my stash, allowing me to finish this shawl. I’d gotten it mostly done over the break, but I ran out of yarn. Luckily I had more in my stash, so all was good. The yarn is Corrie Sock from Flying Goat Farm, in the color Valentine Blush. This shawl is the second thing to be inspired by the bobble scarf pattern, with the first being the rainbow scarf. I was playing around with short rows, and used them to do all the shaping. It ended up being much bigger than I’d planned when I started it, but I also didn’t have a very firm plan when starting.

Rainbow scarf/shawl

I was at the local yarn store, and someone was casting on a bobble cowl out of a yarn I had in my stash. I woke up the next morning with this project in my head, and had to cast on right away. As I was knitting it, I kept coming up with modifications, but in the end the finished product is exactly as I envisioned it that morning, complete with yellow stripe. The pattern is similar to the bobble cowl in that it alternates rows of garter stitch with a row of simple yarn overs, but instead of putting them at various angles (using short rows) I did them diagonally. The biggest design choice was whether I was going to change my mind and have the purple as a triangle in the center, instead of as a really wide stripe. I consulted, and was informed that the stripe would be better, so stripe it is.

The yarn is Wonderland yarns, Cheshire Cat base, color ‘Land of Wonders’, for all but the yellow. It was a rainbow mix that didn’t come with yellow! Online it looks like some of the orange skeins may be more yellow than mine was, so maybe I was just unlucky. In any case, I scrounged around at the local yarn store, and came up with two yellows that I mixed for the color you see here: copper corgi’s savannah sock in the colorway ‘Wearing and Tearing’, and jilly - dream in color in ‘pure sunshine’. The yellow is a bit thicker than the other colors, but not enough that it seems to have affected my gauge. I think the fact that the colors are along the diagonal helps make the whole feel like it uses the same weight yarn.