I blocked the Heaven Scent shawl last weekend, and the lace opened up beautifully!
I still have to sew in the ends, but it was a good day for pictures.
It blocked out to a really nice size. It’s about 20″ deep at the middle back, and that long curved edge is about 84″ long.
And one last detail shot. 🙂
There are three more shawls in this pattern bundle. One is rectangular, so less interesting to me, but I’ll have a hunt through my stash for candidates to knit the other two crescent shawls.
I told you last week that I’d cast on this shawl, Heaven Scent by BooKnits in Freia Handpaints Ombré Shawl Ball. (That post is right here.) It turned out to be a compulsive knit and I charged right through the charts. I knew it would be a close call to make it out of the one ball, and ended up playing yarn chicken.
Could I finish with the one ball of yarn? As with many crescent shawls, you increase the needle size at increments in this pattern, which opens up the lace even before blocking. Keeping an eye on my diminishing ball of yarn, I didn’t change needles for the border, but kept on with the ones I’d used for the body.
I made it to the final row and chose not to do the picot edge, hoping I’d still make it.
Nope.
The cast-off is on a wrong side row, so I made it all the way from the left edge to where you see the last 8″ of my yarn. It’s maybe 3/4 of the way around. I lost yarn chicken.
I also played bead chicken at the same time, but I won that. I added more beads to the border then realized I might run out. I have five beads left in the vial. Phew!
I went through all my stash, and my bits and ends, but couldn’t find anything to match that shade of red in a single ply wool. I couldn’t even match the colour. (The colours of this yarn have photographed to look more vivid than they are in real life. They’re bright, but not this bright.) So, I picked back the cast-off row and cast off again. I thought I’d cast off in purple, a contrasting edge that matched the centre of the shawl, and couldn’t get the shade of purple right either. So, I used two strands for the cast-off, one in Sugar Bush Drizzle in Monsoon Mauve (which is a bit light) and one of Rowan Kidsilk Haze in Black.
And here’s the result.
It’s funny that in this picture, the cast-off edge looks too dark. The purple in the middle of ths shawl appears to be the same shade as Monsoon Mauve. You’ll have to trust me that in real life, the colours are matchy-matchy.
Next up, a good soak and a blocking. I’ll show you the finished shawl when it’s done.
I’m kind of amazed that I knit this shawl in less than three weeks. I guess that’s what happens when I concentrate on one project, instead of working on a dozen things at once. (Actually, I had two on the go at the same time and finished the other one, too – it was the mittens and scarf of Patons Rumor. I’ll show you that tomorrow.) There’s a lesson there that I should take on board. 🙂
I haven’t knit a shawl in a while, lace or otherwise – well, I’m still plugging along on my Water shawl, but it’s not a very fun knit at this point. I don’t think it counts anymore. 🙂
A LYS had Freia Handpaints yarns on sale, and I simply can’t resist gradient dyed yarns. I ordered some and cast on.
I chose a pattern by BooKnits. I wanted to knit a lace shawl with some beads and I had The Close to You Collection of patterns already. (That’s a Ravelry link.) I had knit Snow Angel from this pattern collection, also in Freia Handpaints yarn, but in their Wool/Nylon Lace which is discontinued. The colourway was Autumn Rose.
Here’s my Ravelry project page for the project.
And here’s that Snow Angel shawl:
There’s a blog post for it, which is right here.
This time, I’ve chosen the pattern Heaven Scent, which is in that same collection but also available on its own. (That’s a Ravelry link.) I’m knitting the smallest size, with the stockinette stitch top.
This yarn is Freia Handpaints Ombré Shawl Ball Merino. The colourway is Vamp. Here’s the Ravelry yarn page.
Here’s my progress so far:
The camera is really emphasizing that hot pink. The colourway ends in a bright red.
Of course, it’s curled on the circular needle in the opposite direction of its shape – the shawl will be a crescent curved the other way when it’s off the needles and blocked. (Much like Snow Angel, shown above.)
The yarn is a loose single ply. It’s very soft but tougher than expected – there is the usual thick-and-thin of single ply yarns but it hasn’t been splitty to knit and it hasn’t broken.
And here’s a detail view. I’m using 6/0 purple Czech glass beads in dark purple, which match the beginning of the gradient pretty well.
I did make a slight change to the pattern. The shawl grows quickly in width because you add four stitches on every right side row and two on every wrong side row. The additions are at the beginning and the end of each row, and the pattern uses make-one (slanting left or right). I found that two M1s with just a knit stitch between them, then another M1 on the purl side pretty close by made for a tight edge. I switched out the two M1s on the purl side for YO’s, then the outer M1 on the right side rows to YO’s as well. I’m curious to see how this blocks out. It feels better to me.
I’m almost halfway through the second repeat of the main chart, then have the border chart to knit. I’m thinking I might run out of yarn (the pattern notes that 400m is close) so if I do, I’ll have to find something matchy to finish.
Another project off the needles. The Which Way Shawl is done and here it is:
Here’s the pattern on Ravelry again.
Do I love this shawl? Mmmmm, I dunno. The design is interesting – I’d probably go down a needle size if I ever made it again, though it is nice and squishy. That contrast colour is a different choice for me – while it’s a good idea to try new things, I think I would have loved the result more if I’d gone with my original impulse of using a navy or black for the main colour. Maybe it will be just the right bright thing on a winter’s day. I do like the colours better at the ends than in the middle.
The shape of the shawl is unusual, but it makes a manageable cowl when wrapped around the neck. I expect I’ll wear it that way when I do wear it. I added tassels to the points that I’ll probably tie together.
Now to choose another project. It would be best to finish up something already started. There’s a little summer cardigan that would be a good choice to finish right now, and I love the colour of it. It’s a Martin Storey pattern called Peridot, which I’ve been knitting in Patons Silk Bamboo for half of forever. (Lots and lots of stockinette stitch.) That’s a Ravelry link, btw. Also my chunky No. 9 pullover in Blackstone Tweed still needs sleeves – funny that it’s almost the same shade of blue as the little cardigan. More blue on the needles with my Water shawl that needs finishing. That’s a blog post link. And of course, there’s my Wild Grass pullover which is at the point of needing acres of stockinette knit.
While considering all of these options, I cast on the purple version of the Quintessential cardigan. I’d bought two kits, one in green and one in purple, so will knit the second one with a few changes. It also requires miles of stockinette, but it’s purple and I need a purple cardigan. 🙂
I have been making progress on the Which Way shawl. I first told you about it in this post than updated you in this post. This is a whole lot of knitting.
Today’s milestone is that I’ve run out of yarn. 
Both bundles of gradient-dyed yarn are used up and the shawl isn’t done. This is likely because I’ve somehow mucked up the decreases. I want the lower edge to be decreased to nothing before binding off, as I think it might look odd otherwise. This requires a lot more repeats than specified in the pattern.
I have a persistent feeling that I’ve made a mistake, so took the shawl off the needles to have a look.
Here we are. It’s a dingy day and raining too hard to take the shawl outside for a pic. Also, it’s huge, and I couldn’t get it all in the shot.
It’s that bottom wedge that I’m diminishing until it vanishes. At this point, there are 18 stitches there so I’ll need another 9 contrast stripes to finish that out. The pooling is from the main colour, which is hand-dyed, but it seems to have worked out pretty evenly. I don’t mind it. And I don’t mind the size of the shawl. I’m just wondering where I went wrong…
You can just barely see the orange marker in the middle when the decreases were started. The shawl from this point should (I think) be rectangular, and it looks like it will block out that way. I pulled that right tip out longer when I was laying out the shawl.
The pattern specifies 22 contrast stripe repeats after the decreases begin (where the orange marker is). I’m currently at 43. Following the directions, the decreases would have stopped around the point that the contrast yarn (the gradient) started to get darker. (Eyeball a halfway point between the orange marker and the live stitches at the right.) I think the shawl would have been too small then, and an odd shape. There are some finished project pictures on Ravelry that are shaped the way my shawl is now, which does nothing to explain the 21 contrast stripe difference.
Here’s the pattern on Ravelry again. It calls for 4 oz of the main colour, a sport weight yarn, (that’s 113g) and 5 oz of the gradient skeins (let’s call it 150g), knit on US 6 needles (4.0mm). My yarn is fingering weight so I used 3.75mm needles. (I could actually have gone down another size as it’s a loose garter stitch, but it is nice and drapey this way.) I had 144g of the gradients, and 2 skeins of the main colour for 220g total (732m). I’m into the second skein of the main colour and I guess it was predictable that I’d run out of the contrast.
Fortunately, I have another skein of sock yarn in a mulberry shade that is pretty close to the gradient colourways – probably more like the fifth shade than the sixth (maybe even the fourth. You can see it on the right.) I’ll go with it anyway. The fiber content is the same.
I’ll keep knitting and will show you better pix once it’s completed. I still have no clue what I did wrong, but the end result looks okay, so it will be what it will be.
Things have been quiet here at the blog, because real life hasn’t been very quiet of late. Add spring cleaning and my annual bout of reorganization and it’s been busy around here.
I have, however, been making progress on the Which Way shawl. I first told you about it in this post. Here’s what it looks like now:
Still on the needles, so it’s not laid flat, but you can see the orange marker on the decrease stitch in the middle. That’s the point where the pattern changed, from increasing at both edges to decreasing on the right edge and increasing on the left. I have to believe the result of this is that middle stitch takes a bend to the right when the shawl is laid flat. After 22 garter stitch rows, the pattern will change one more time to decrease down to a point again.
The colour combination is unusual for me. I’m not sure I love it. I might have been happier pairing the gradient dyed skeins with kettle-dyed black or plum, but that would have been a predictable choice. I’m also wondering if I should have done the progression in the opposite direction, having the darkest hue in the middle, but I’m not frogging it back now. I’ve just started into the second bundle of skeins, so the contrast will get steadily darker now.
It’s interesting how the whole shawl looks paler as the gradient skeins get lighter, even though the main colour is consistently the same. The main colour is pooling a bit, but it seems to be small pools evenly spaced which is fine.
Here’s a detail picture:
I’m hoping it works out that I use the full bundle of gradient yarns, and the contrast gets all the way back to the darkest plum. We’ll see!
On Wednesday, I’ll show you something else I’ve been working on, for the girls.
The Water shawl by Sylvia McFadden has been in my queue for a long time, even though the stitch pattern in the inserts is one that always gives me trouble. (That’s a Ravelry link.)
I made her Waiting for Rain shawl in 2017 in two colours of MadTosh Dandelion. It looks like this:
It’s a very long and skinny shawl, and better if I can wrap it around my neck twice.
Here’s one of the official images for Water:
It’s so pretty!
I decided to knit mine in Fleece Artist Anni, a mohair and merino blend. (That’s a Ravelry link.) I’m using the colourway Frozen Ocean, the perfect mix of blues. Here it is in the skein:
I also bought a colourway called Plum. It’s a light fingering weight which makes it a little bit skinny for the pattern’s specifications. As a result, I dropped down to a 3mm needle (instead of the specified 3.75mm) to get a fabric I like. My shawl, of course, is coming out smaller, so I’m thinking I’ll need to do more repeats.
Here it is so far:
The lead edge is at the top and it’s pretty tight at this point. I hope it relaxes when the shawl is blocked.
I think I’m still having trouble with that pattern stitch. It doesn’t look like the photo from the pattern:
But I like it enough to keep going. It’s all twisted stitches so reknitting it isn’t an appealing option. I’ll just continue and be consistent. 🙂
Overall, I’m pleased. It has a wavey watery look to it that I like a lot. Onward!
Citron is a free pattern for a semi-circular shawlette Hilary Smith Callis. It’s available from Knitty.com and has been around for a while. (Ha. It’s in the Winter 2009 edition, so that is a while!) Here’s a link to the pattern at Knitty.com.
Here’s the Ravelry page for the pattern.
I’ve made a couple of these in the past. First, I made one for my MIL in Noro Kureyon Sock. (This yarn is discontinued, which is a sad truth. Here’s its page on Ravelry.) She wanted something cheerful and bright.
There are a couple of variations in this version from the original pattern. The original has stockinette bands alternating with gathered sections for a ripple effect. I added some eyelets and beads to this version. Here’s the blog post about it (which has now reminded me of the Gaia Shawl, also a nice one skein knit and a free pattern. That’s a Ravelry link. Hmm.)
One of the things that still irks me about this shawl (I have it now, since my MIL passed) is the lack of a second band of pinky-purple. Knots in yarn are frustrating, but in self-striping yarns, a knot may also mean that part of the colourway is missing. This was made from one skein of Noro Kureyon Sock, but it had a knot. Instead of a second repeat of the pink and purple part at the outer edge, I got a third repeat of the green. It looks to me as if the pink and purple part shouldn’t be there at all.
The second version I knit of this shawl was in one colour, a kettle-dyed laceweight yarn from an indie dyer.
I added beads to this one, as well, gradually increasing the number of them toward the hem. It’s edged in black Malabrigo Lace. There’s a blog post about this one here.
And now on to the new version. This is knit of Noro Silk Garden Sock in the colourway 211.
It’s had a gentle block to make it rounder, but not a hard one to stretch it out. I wanted to preserve the ripple (which was lost in the first one for my MIL, because of a very hard block.) I could – and maybe should – have knit it on larger needles. The fabric is quite sturdy on the 4.0mm needles but I do like the colourway. Here’s the yarn on Ravelry, and here it is on the Diamond Yarns website, which is Noro’s distributor in Canada.
The put-up for this yarn is less because it’s thicker – it’s a sport weight (while Kureyon Sock was a fingering weight) and has 300m per skein (while Kureyon Sock had 420m). So, having two balls didn’t make a huge shawl.
I also added some eyelets and beads but not as many as the first one.
For the cast-off edge, I did a simple crochet edging to keep it frilly. A single crochet in each stitch, then chain 2 before repeating. I ran out of yarn when the cast-off was almost done so substituted in a piece of leftover Silk Garden Sock from another colourway (in my stash for sock yarn squares). I picked out the turquoise section so it would match a bit.
The first skein had no knots at all, which made me happy. The second one, however, had three knots in rapid succession. I can see what that did to the colour progression (grr) but still I like this shawl a lot. It’s 22″ deep and 44″ across the long edge, just enough to hang over my shoulders to the elbows.
What do you think?
Things have been quiet here because I’ve been busily knitting away. The sad fact is that I know too many people right now who are battling cancer. I’ve been trying to knit a bit of comfort.
Here’s one project, now complete, for a friend. The pattern is Charlotte’s Web and it’s knit in Koigu KPPPM. The recipient asked for something red and I had four skeins of this colourway. This shawl is usually knit in multiple colours, but I quite like how it came out in just one:
Bonus! You get to see the left toe of my kitchen clogs. 🙂 It’s a crappy day for pictures – we’re having wet snow and rain, and the skies are overcast – but I need to get this on its way. I took this quickly so the shawl wouldn’t get wet, thus my left toe. The colour isn’t quite right despite the dull skies – the shawl is more red than pink.
You can see that the last skein was a bit darker. Even though all four skeins were the same colourway and dye lot, I sorted them from light to dark as there was obviously some variation. This way, the changes are subtle. I only did a graduated change for the transition from the third skein to the fourth.
Here’s a detail shot:
I love how airy this lace pattern is, plus it’s pretty easy to memorize. The pictures really don’t do justice to this yarn, which has so many flicks and gradations, as well as rich saturated colour. I hope Koigu has their tent sale this year, as I’m due to stock up on more pretty yarn.
I had thought the shawl might end up too small with just the four skeins, but it’s 70″ across the long edge and 35″ deep. That’s plenty big enough!
Here’s the first shawl I knit of this pattern, also in Koigu KPPPM:
This one was knit in five different colourways, as the pattern specifies. I shaded them from light to dark. This photo was taken in the snow on a dull day.
Here’s a detail of the lace on that first version – it shows up better against the snow:
It seems more open on the purple one. Maybe I used a larger needle, or maybe I blocked it harder. Hmm.
Now for some links. I have the book, Wrapped in Colour, which includes the pattern for Charlotte’s Web. (Those are Ravelry links. This pattern has also appeared in some other publications.) As designed, it takes five skeins of Koigu KPPPM and has a fringe. I’m not much for fringes, which means I can knit it bigger.
Here’s my project page for the red one on Ravelry, here’s my blog post about the purple one, and here’s the Koigu website in case you need some of this yarn.
Now I need to work out these chemo caps. I’m deeply unhappy with the pattern and yarn combinations I’ve tried so far, but am hoping to sort it out soon. I’ll show you when I do.
I finished my shawl, knit from the Rowan subscribers’ kit! I told you about this in December when I cast it on. Here it is on the blocking needles:
It’s BIG! It blocked out to 18″ by 83″, with ten repeats. I used up all but 10g of the wool.
Here’s a detail image on the blocking needles:
The colour of the yarn is a greyed blue, quite pretty. It looks more grey here and more blue in the first post. In reality, it’s in between.
The shawl is supposed to be knit in a circle, with the ends grafted together, but I knew I’d wrestle with wearing that. Instead, I knit 6 rows of garter stitch at the beginning and at the end. I also increased the selvedge stitches from two stitches to three. I would have liked to have done another repeat of the first motif at the end – this second picture actually shows the cast-off end – to make it more symmetrical but there wasn’t enough yarn. I could have added a repeat of the second motif at the beginning if I’d thought of it then, but we’re going to go with asymmetry at this point.
My Ravelry project page is here.
I found this a nice knit, although it got to be quite a pile in my lap by the end. The lace stitches were easy although I didn’t quite memorize them, and the wool showed them off well.
It’s interesting that the shadow in the snow makes the picture look blurred. The colour is more true in this shot. I’m hoping this will be the last chance for a while to toss a project in the snow for pictures.
On to the next project waiting to be finished!
Alive & Knitting 