After starting the year knitting lots of cowls, I moved onto shawls .... the one currently on my needles is my third so far. It might be about time for something else!
This Meteor Shower Shawl is the perfect size to wrap up in - and I used Northbound Knitting's Merino/Silk Fingering and Tosh Merino Light so it's super cozy, too. I'd never knitted a pattern like this before - there are several changes to the pattern that keep it interesting and it's easy enough to be a good traveling project.
I worked the next one up with Madelinetosh unicorn tails in the Bonfire color collection - enough similar they all work together and enough different to be interesting. The pattern is Francoise Danoy's Simply Familiar - another perfect traveling knit. This shawl is lighter than the first, so I've actually be able to use it on chilly evenings.
After my current shawl project (photos coming soon if I can get it finished!), I think I'll switch to something from a more summery yarn - maybe a tee. I just got some Nerd Girl Winning in Windu that's been calling to me!
Happy Creating! Deborah
Wow - I really did not mean to be away for so long! I totally underestimated how topsy-turvy the last couple of months would be. In a good way, though! After three years of living with one foot in the desert and the other on our Northwest Oregon farm, we've made the decision to move full time to the farm. So this spring has been spent getting the house ready to sell .... sorting through 16 years of accumulation, deep cleaning, and finally finishing all those "gonna do someday" projects. And after one day on the market, our house sold!!
Add into this the wedding of my niece Carly, known to readers of this blog in the early days as "Big C!" I volunteered to make Charlie's flower girl dress - if you've sewn lace over taffeta you know how gorgeous this is and how time consuming to cover all the seams and attach everything just right. It turned out great and the wedding was gorgeous (and exciting with the entrance of a pre-monsoon thunderstorm).
Meanwhile, back at the farm .... the flowers are blooming, the studio is nearing the finishing stages, and the cats are, well - their usual sleepy selves!
I'm getting ready to return to Phoenix for the final packing, cleaning, and moving process so I imagine that posting will be sporadic for awhile more! However, having moved on from cowls to shawls, I do have some knitting to show you next week!
Happy Creating! Deborah
At the Rose City Yarn Crawl this year, I was lucky enough to discover Thoroughly Thwacked yarns! (Edit: This company's name has been changed to Fierce Fibers. The above link will still take you there.)Stacey is the Oregon artist behind this indie line and what a palette of colors!! If you haven't run across her yarn before, you have to take a look on her website at the gorgeous colorways and the hilariously entertaining names. Like Pastry Bandit, Poison Apple, and Bruised Fairy. Every name has a backstory - I got to visit with her for a short while and hear about the man on an overpass throwing chocolate frosted/rainbow sprinkled pastries onto the cars below and inspiring Pastry Bandit. Seriously I could've listened to how they all were named - she needs to publish these! It was hard to decide which one to buy, but since St. Patrick's Day is coming up and I seem to be short of green to wear, I chose Paddy Cake.
I designed this simple cowl using it. It's long enough to be looped twice or you can just let it hang around your neck as an accent. Mine is about 5 inches wide when blocked and used about 300 yards - if you'd like to make yours wider, there is plenty of yarn to do that with. And if you'd rather make yours a shorter cowl, just make sure you cast on a multiple of three plus one.
Materials:
1 skein fingering weight yarn. I used Thoroughly Thwacked's Vixen, a super soft merino/silk blend.
Size 5 circular needles
Stitch marker
Cast on 301 300. Edit: Cast on should be 300 not 301 stitches - let me know if this still does not work. Join to form a circle, being careful not to twist into a moebius. Or if that happens anyway, decide you wanted a moebius cowl afterall! Place stitch marker and begin.
Set up rows:
Row 1: knit all the way around
Row 2: purl all the way around
Row 3: knit
Row 4: purl
Mesh section:
Row 1: Knit (k) 2, *yarn over (yo), slip 1, k2, pass slip stitch over both knit stitches.* Repeat instructions between *'s until you have 1 stitch left - knit this stitch.
Row 2: Purl
Row 3: K1, *slip 1, k2, pass slip stitch over both knit stitches, yo*. Repeat instructions between *'s until you have 2 stitches left - knit these stitches.
Row 4: Purl
Repeat rows 1 - 4 of the mesh section until cowl is the desired width. End by repeating the set up rows and then bind off. Give the cowl a fairly aggressive blocking to open up the mesh.
Happy Creating! Deborah
