Trish Knits.com

Tag: shawl

  • Starting is… hard.

    I don’t know what it is with me and my knitting. I am the queen of false starts. I am wanting to make another gift shawl. Since I am working on my own Color Affection, I knew this time I wanted to do something different. So, I opted for Taygete, a shawl by Romi Hill. It features garter stripes, with which I have become oh-so-familiar, but they will be running vertically, from side to side, across the body of the shawl. Then the bottom has this little bit of lace for elegance, which I think is pretty and doesn’t look too challenging. We shall see how it goes.

    Of course the first conundrum was choosing colors. I feel like I know the recipient pretty well, or as well as she lets anyone know her, but when it came to choosing colors, I had a really hard time. I actually like the sample that the designer created, but could not find those colors online. So, I started looking on Ravelry for examples, to see what others have made. There were some stunning examples, and then there were a few that just made me scratch my head and realize, of course, that color preference is in the eye of the beholder. I bought yarn colors a total of three times before finally settling on my choice.

    Originally, I thought it would be this:

    Two yarn balls, one dark green and one tan
    Cascade Heritage Silk and Dream in Color Smooshy

    This is actually a mash-up of yarns from my first two purchases. The top yarn is Cascade Heritage Silk and the bottom yarn is Dream in Color Smooshy. Originally I purchased the smooshy with an “amber” color that was actually more “mustard” than I wanted it to be, and the Cascade was purchased with a blue that was quite electric, rather than the deep blue-green I was hoping for. So, I took one color from one pile and one from the second, and it produced this:

    small striped triangle of knitted fabric.
    Green, really?

    The only thing this made me feel was “yuck.” The green is called “Spruce,” but it must be a spruce tree photographed at twilight, because the yarn looks black in all but the very brightest light. I just wasn’t feeling it and could not imagine knitting the entire thing. So, I tried again:

    two yarn balls, one medium blue and one medium brown
    Madelinetosh Tosh Sock

    This time with Madelinetosh Tosh Sock in Worn Denim and Weathered Frame. I think I am finally happy with my color choice, but it is hard to imagine that this wonky, wee little triangle is ever going to be anything beautiful at all:

    Taygete shawl beginnings
    Taygete shawl beginnings

    I was worried about the large loops along one side of the shawl, but I have re-read the pattern, and apparently they’re supposed to be there. Or, perhaps it is more correct to say that they happen, and I’m not supposed to worry. (I hear they’ll even come in handy in the lace section, when I have to pick up stitches.)

    Then my next thing to ponder is this: which color should be the lace color, and which should be the contrast color? When I read the pattern initially, it said it took all of the yardage in the one color, so I made sure to get two balls of each because I am a loose knitter, and i haven’t for sure yet decided which color should be the lace section. Right now I’m leaning toward the blue, but I’ve heard a convincing argument for the other. Oh, well, it feels like the knitting is going a bit slow for this project so I probably have a while to decide. And maybe, since I have extra yarn, I’ll make it a wee bit bigger, too. Romi has given very clear instructions for that.

    And with that, I’m putting needles down. It’s late, even for me. Goodnight!

  • Shawl Update

    Because you needed one:

    color affection shawl in progress
    color affection shawl in progress

    I’m about halfway through the second section of my new Color Affection shawl. I’m making friends with the green now, which I think I knew I would. I always have to second-guess myself about something. But, I think this one will work out fine.

    This shawl so far seems to be going a lot faster than the last one. I am glad of that; I think it would drive me crazy to spend another 7 months with this pattern. I’ve been thinking lately that it’s been a while since I’ve done any hats. How can that be, when I’m the one constantly telling people that hats are my favorite thing to knit? Have I been lying to myself on that point?

    And blankets! One thing i miss about not being able to crochet anymore is making blankets. For some reason, knitted blankets seem to take so much longer and I can’t get into them the same way my crocheted afghans used to keep me entertained. I used to have delusions that every sofa and bed in this house would be covered in handmade afghans. I can’t sew, and there are no heirloom quilts in my family. And for all the crocheting that my one grandmother did, I can’t believe that somehow, there are none of her afghans in this house. I managed to get some dish towels and a few Christmas decorations, and even a baby layette that had been mine. But no afghans. In the early 90s I made a bunch of afghans and gave them as gifts to people. But I never made one for myself. So, I think I’ll search Ravelry for some quick, but interesting afghan ideas.

    I hope that me thinking so far ahead after this shawl isn’t a bad sign. It usually is. Sigh.

  • Shawl Progress

    I don’t feel like writing a whole lot tonight, but I just wanted to show off my shawl progress:

    purple shawl with green stripe
    purple shawl with green stripe

    I’ve been knitting like crazy this week and finally was able to start the second color. Now, I’m questioning the wisdom of my color choices. The green, when not in this light, looks a little boogery. And I’m not sure it goes all that well with the purple. I’ll keep going a while longer, and re-evaluate. The third color is a deep blue. The three yarn hanks looked nice next to each other, so I’m hoping there’s hope for the shawl. Time will tell, I suppose.

    Goodnight for now…

  • Whole Lotta Knitting Going On…

    Greetings, yarny people! I have been knitting a lot lately. Finishing Carolyn’s Shawl was good for my knitting mojo, and I have been busy since. I have started and restarted it, but I think I am on a roll now:

    Color Affection Shawl
    Color Affection Shawl

    Mine will be dark purple, dark lime green and dark blue. For some reason I always have trouble getting started with this pattern even though it is simple garter stitch and basic increases, but I think I am on a roll now. I had hoped to be on the second color this weekend but I am a little behind. I’m hoping that will happen before the end of the week.

    I’ve also been working on some colorful dishcloths:

    colorful dishcloths in progress
    colorful dishcloths in progress

    I have some dishcloth cotton in lots of bright, solid colors, and my intention was to make a pile of solid-colored cloths to represent the rainbow. But, when I pulled out my pink one, it was faded from the sun, so I only had enough yarn in that color to make part of a dishcoth. I used some rainbow colored yarn with it. So, now, my plan is to make each cloth with a random bit of rainbow yarn mixed in somewhere. I think it will work!

    I have made a pact with myself to knit every day. It felt SO good to actually finish a project that I really would like to do it more often! So I need to make sure I get at least some knitting done each day, so that I keep moving forward.

    So, this will be, for me at least, the summer of knitting. A lot.

  • It’s DONE!

    Yesterday I hosted the knit group and we had a blocking party for my longstanding Color Affection shawl. It’s done, it’s blocked, and ready to be given to its intended recipient. I get to do that tomorrow, which will make for a nice Monday.

    First, the “deets”:

    Color Affection Shawl while blocking
    Color Affection Shawl while blocking

    Pattern: Color Affection, by Veera Välimäki
    Yarn: Dream in Color Starry, colors Tea Party, Cloud Jungle, and Deep Sea Flower
    Needle Size: 3 (but I’d go larger on the next one)
    Date Started: Early October 2012
    Date Finished: May 19, 2013

    Notes:

    I read a lot of the comments about modifications people have done to this pattern before proceeding. In the end I chose to do a KFB increase instead of M1L and M1R, as this is garter stitch and KFB is very unobtrusive in that case.I was also concerned about the overall finished depth of the shawl from top to bottom, because the recipient is tall. Sp I added an extra repeat in the short row section. Next time I think I would add depth in the two-color section instead.

    I have to say that even though it took me forever, I really enjoyed this project. It was simple because it was garter stitch, but it held my interest because of the frequent color changes. That, and because of the (really simple) short rows, every time I showed it to someone while it was in progress, they commented about how “different” or “complex” it was. I liked feeling smart! Haha… if those people only knew how easy it really was.

    Of course I did have some 11th-hour drama. I was planning to have the gang over on Saturday for knit group and blocking, and of course I waited until Friday night to bind off. Let me tell you, there’s nothing like binding off 400-and-something stitches late, late at night, and feeling like you’re cooking along, only to glance back about 200 stitches to find that you DROPPED one. Yeah, I did. And of course, pulling out the bind off yanked on the stitches pretty severely, even though it was loose, so I had to re-knit that last row, one stitch at a time as I undid the bind-off. Crap! Well, ok, I said more than that to myself at about 2 in the morning, that, and I may have cried a little. But it got done, and I took a wee nap at about 4:30 a.m. (I mean nap, too, because i had to be up at 6 on Saturday morning because of kid commitments.)

    After all that, here’s what it looked like before blocking:

    shawl before blocking
    shawl before blocking

    So as I was saying, yesterday I held knit group at my house so I could have help with the blocking. Tammy and Jessica helped with this and I am grateful to them! It was Jessica’s first time coming to our little group, and she just dove right in! I hope she comes back again so we don’t put her to work next time.

    The shawl was out drying and blocking on my dining room table for most of yesterday and today. This afternoon my husband passed by the table and spied this:

    Clyde the Cat laying on the shawl
    Clyde the Cat laying on the shawl

    Apparently Clyde thinks this luscious new shawl is for him! Of course we informed him otherwise.

    I loved the shawl but it is not for me so it is not my colors. So, before I lose my mojo for this project, I cast on for another one right away:

    Cast on for new Color Affection Shawl
    Cast on for new Color Affection Shawl

    Apparently, I am a glutton for punishment.

    The new one is purple (of course!) with green and blue. I hope it is as much fun as the first one.

    I’m hoping I’ll be able to get photos someday soon of a happy recipient in her new shawl. She doesn’t mind the camera, luckily, so watch this space for some fashionista photos very soon.

    Ciao for now!

  • Stretching Exercises

    Today I got it in my head that I wanted some idea of the size of my Color Affection shawl. I don’t know if I’m gutsy, or stupid, or what. but it’s been looking so wonky to me and I have been wanting to know what it would look like stretched out. And, I have it on three pairs of circular needles, so it’s pretty secure. That’s the good news.

    First, my before and after shots.

    This is what the shawl looks like with no stretching at all:

    Color affection, unstretched
    Color affection, unstretched

    You can tell that it is very narrow from top to bottom, and really long from side to side. Luckily the yarn has a lot of stretch in it, so I hope to gain some depth in the blocking. Sp my friend Rachel and I pinned it out, sort of, just to see what it might do at blocking time:

    Color Affection, stretched
    Color Affection, stretched

    I’ve done some more studying of the shape of the thing since this afternoon so we can improve on our shaping technique when it comes to actual blocking. Plus I’m betting the fabric will cooperate a lot better when it’s not actually still on the needles, and wet. But after worrying about the size of the thing for some time now it appears that I don’t need to be too concerned, that is, if it blocks to something approximating the size shown here. In the second photo, it’s about 20 inches from top to bottom so far, and I’m not done with the border yet.

    But, like I said, that’s the good news. In stretching it out we found a dropped stitch, early in the grey and brown section. That is, many rows down and quite near the beginning. It apparently happened some time ago, such that there was only a visible hole for a few rows, and then it sort of closed up on itself. I took the chicken’s way out and laddered it up a few rows and then pushed the errant stitch to the back and tacked it down with some yarn and wove it in. l learned tonight that I need to practice fixing garter stitch. I can handle 3 or 4 rows dropped by re-knitting, but a long ladder and changing direction back and forth with the crochet hook is tedious. I don’t have a smooth motion down for doing this and probably need to learn, probably before I start the shawl that is going to be for me.

    Maybe I should have made my own shawl first, so that I could get the mistakes out of the way, but I was so anxious to knit for a friend that I didn’t think about it. Oh, well…. I learned some things today.

    Clyde the Cat also had a good day:

    Clyde the Cat, lovin' life
    Clyde the Cat, lovin’ life

    “Man, that catnip’s some seriously GOOD stuff!”