Photos

Finally got around to taking some photos and uploading them. Also, I finished the purple shawl except for weaving in all the ends. The shawl is lovely, fairly heavy, too, as it is mostly cotton and just about worsted weight. It will be nice for fall.

This is half of the pair of socks I am knitting for my son. Using Knitpicks sock yarn. Did not think he was ready for self-striping or self-patterned yarn! I like to knit socks toe-up using the mitered toe and heel. I tried grafting toes and that was not in my skill set; I also disliked the heel gusset or whatever. When I finally learned how to do the mitered method, I fell in love with sock knitting.




Here is another pair of socks I knitted for myself out of Tofutsie yarn. I did a "fake cable" pattern that is very easy and very effective that I got out of my stitch dictionary.


And, finally, the beginning of another purple shawl. This one is wool (remember the free yarn?) and am adding beads to the edge..it will be triangular. I'm not sure about liking a triangular shawl, since I am 5' tall, but am getting bored with rectangulars, and the pattern included in the yarn package was triangular.

Free Yarn

I am a complete sucker for free yarn. I am a member of Charlotte Knitting Guild and at the last meeting, a member had done a stash clean-out and brough a box of yarn to give away. I decided to take a peak, and right on top was a kit with three skeins of purple merino laceweight wool with a simple shawl pattern. You know I love purple, and this was not quite the same shade as the purple cotton shawl I am working on, so I grabbed it.

Since I also love to start a new project immediately, no matter how many UFO's I have in my knitting bag, I started the shawl that same night. It is a standard triangle shawl done in garter stitch, but this one is knit from corner to corner. After a few dozen rows I got bored and decided I had to do SOMETHING. Hmmmmm....so I found some pretty purplish gray size 8 beads, by teeny tiny crochet hook used for attaching beads to the yarn, and am adding a bead to the final stitch of the increase row, giving me a subtle beaded border for the bottom of the shawl. (Every other row is an increase row to get the shape for the shawl). And no, I did not frog the whole thing so the first 12 inches would have the border...figure I'll thread yarn with the beads when I am done and sew or crochet beads to that section.

I still have the purple cotton shawl on the needles, one wool sock to go for my son, and am working on a khaki cotton shrug for fall (it is in the 90's right now and hard to conceive of wearing that thing). But this way, I have lots of things to knit to keep from getting bored!!!

On the Needles

First, thanks to everybody who checks my blog frequently. And apologies that I am one of those bloggers who rarely updates. Whenever I get the Sitemeter report I am surprised that so many of you continue to check on me.

The purple shawl is coming along. It is knitted from purple Callista from Elann.com and I love the way it feels in my hands. It knits up a bit heavy, as compared to my "famous" pink shawl, but that means it will be nice in the Fall. I think it is going to come out in a slight curve, which is nice. As I said in the previous post, a month ago, I started with three stitches and increased every row until it was the width I wanted, then just knit back and forth in the pattern I chose. I was supposed to decrease and one end and increase at the other every other row to make it straight: Slant Shawl Pattern.. Since I had a pattern stitch I liked and was not sure how to keep adjusting it for the increase/decrease, I chose to just knit back and forth and have been surprised at the shaping; perhaps when it is done and blocked it will be straight. Stay tuned.