Thursday, February 4, 2010

Next!

Traveling Woman Shawl
I'm on a shawl knitting kick right now. I found quite a few free patterns for small, one-skein shawls on Ravelry and I couldn't choose just one so I'm knitting them all!

This one is "Traveling Woman" designed by Liz Abinante of Feministy.com.

It is knitting up either really quickly or I am just obsessed and working on it way too much. I cast it on over the weekend with some frogged Dream in Color "Smooshy". But I used the end of the yarn that was freshly frogged and it was still really crinkly which gave the finished knitting a weird look. I figured it would all come out with blocking so I continued on. But about half way through the stockinette part I realized I'd missed a few edge increases somewhere along the way and decided to frog it and start over. I also dampened it and rewound it to take out the kinks and started from the other end of the yarn. I'm much happier with the result now and think in the long run it will look more even after blocking.

I didn't really like this yarn for socks. I cast on and knit almost one entire sock out of it TWICE! But frogged both attempts because I just wasn't happy with them. The first attempt was one from Cat Bordhi's book in the Riverbed architecture. I don't remember exactly what my problem with it was but I think I just kept messing up the pattern and gave up. The second attempt I don't even know what pattern it was which was the main reason I frogged it. I couldn't knit the second sock if I didn't know what pattern I used now could I? Plus it was too tight and it felt stiff and scratchy. This yarn is perfect for this project though. The looser gauge gives it room to breath and it is much softer and drapier than I ever imagined it would be after my earlier unsuccessful sock attempts with it.
Traveling Woman Shawl
I've also added two repeats of the main lace pattern and still have a good amount of yarn left over so I'm hoping I'll end up just right. Leave it to me to just wing in and hope for the best instead of putting in a life-line after one of the repeats in case I run out and have to rip back. I like living on the edge!

I'm also not sure if this is a keeper for me or if it will end up being a gift. Mother's Day and Mom's birthday are coming up in May. Shhhhh, don't tell her! Maybe she won't read this post and it will be a surprise. I think this color will be really pretty on her and I haven't knit her anything in a while.

This is probably going to be my next project. Knit Picks lace Made out of this yarn. Just some Knit Picks Shadows lace I picked up on sale last fall. At this rate my stash should be shrinking pretty fast and my stock of finished projects just keeps growing.

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AND THE WINNER IS!

I almost forgot to post the winner of the T-shirt give away. It was Emily!!! Quite fitting since she inspired the entire thing anyway. Emily I will send you an email to let you know you won and find out which style and size you'd like. (I can bring it to you tomorrow at knitting!)