Ranco Solid Swallowtail

It wasn’t that long ago when I swore I’ll never knit another shawlette again because they’re so small.

Well oops, I did it again. But not to worry! This time it’s totally different.

Pattern: Swallowtail Shawl

Yarn: 1 skein of Ranco Solid from Araucania (fingering weight, 100 g = 344 m)

Colorway: 128

Needles: 4 mm

*****

This time the triangle shape of the shawl allows me to tie it wrapped twice around my neck – the upper edge is just wide and stretchy enough for that without it being uncomfortable. Also, the fingering weight yarn created a warm but open and airy fabric that just feels amazing. It also blocked out beautifully.

I’ve knitted this pattern before - actually I think the first ever lace shawl I knitted was this one. It was fun to see how much easier knitting lace has become for me in the last two years.

Hard to believe it’s been that long. I checked it on Ravelry, and it’s been two years almost to the day. That’s another reason I love Ravelry. There’s no way I could remember my old projects without it.

Ranco Solid is a semisolid yarn, and the different colors in it show up beautifully in the shawl (though not necessarily in a picture as small as this, clickety to make way bigger). I was happy the color changes were so subtle they didn’t obscure the pattern. I have more of this yarn in another colorway, and I want to knit a shawl for a wedding with it. Now I know my troubles won’t be in vain.

I Can Cancan

I made myself proud and used some left over yarn for this pair of mitts. I have some real problems using left over yarn – not because for a lack of suitable patterns, but because I get bored with yarn oh so very easily. I also always buy way too much yarn for any given project. I’m hoping that trend is now ending so that I won’t end up with stash beyond life expectancy…

Pattern: CanCans

Yarn: Ranco Solid from Araucania

Colorway: 107

I needed a quick gift, so I made the short cuffed version of the pattern. The pattern was one of those great ones: everything fits together, there’s nothing missing and nothing extra.

Once I comprehended the instructions for the left twist, I vowed never to do crossed stitches in any other way again. (The pattern says  “Knit 2nd stitch through the back loop, leave on the left needle. Knit 1st stitch and slip both stitches off the left needle.” and I kept reading “K2tog through the back loop, …” and that didn’t work at all.) This way of crossing stitches was so simple, so fast, so much better than switching the positions of the stitches before knitting them.