Locale shawl

Everything went right with this project.

I went home to visit mom a week ago, and only packed along one knitting project, thinking I wouldn’t knit anyway and so wouldn’t finish it. Naturally, given that I was so poorly prepared, I finished my Nevermore cowl the first night there and faced a weekend of no knitting.

I was left with quite a lot of yarn, though, and Ravelry came to rescue. Doing a simple search for the amount of yarn I had and limiting it to free neckwear, I soon rediscovered a shawl I had previously favorited: locale.

I weighed my yarn and found that I had about 180 yards of Trekking Hand Art Flamé from Zitron (the black-purple variagated yarn) and 254 yards of Heritage Solids from Cascade Yarns – just perfect for the shawl that’s been designed to use up leftovers skeins. A happy coincidence! Honestly, if such things actually happened, which they don’t, this would’ve been “meant to be”. Mom loaned me a pair of circulars and I began knitting.

I discovered that I could download the pattern *.pdf on my phone and read it from there, which made it easier than ever before to keep the pattern handy. Not an original discovery, but I’ve only had my smrt phone for such a short time that I still probably don’t use it every way I could. I also found an app for counting rows and pattern repeats. Nice!

I’ve been really stressed and, at least in principle, very busy lately, so a simple stockinette shawl was just perfect for me right now. The square pattern done with slipped stitches and the short row shaping were just interesting enough to keep me going. I finished this quick knit in a few days of watching glimpses of (insane) daytime tv, and it was just the thing to offer moments of relaxation during a very long week.

The largish (4 mm) needles with fingering weight yarn produced a light-weight, airy fabric, that seems to be suitable for the warmer spring weather we’ve been enjoying lately. And since it’s spring and spring brings out the black clothes in my wardrobe (probably because my spring jacket is black), the colors suit me just fine as well.

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.

Pink in the Silk

Sometimes you just have to dive in and trust the pattern. This was my approach when I started knitting my In the Pink (Ravelry link), and couldn’t make heads or tails of the pattern the first, second or even third time I read in through. It was because of the unique construction of the shawl – none of the names for the different parts made very much sense, until I had knitted them and saw how they must fit together.

Pattern: In the Pink

Yarn: 215 g Soft Silk from BC Garn, 100 % bourette silk (sport weight, 100 g = 350 m)

Needles: 4 mm

*****

The unique construction makes for an exciting knit and amazing fit. After the challenge of getting the back swirl and two wings knitted up and connected correctly, the border (which consisted of ten easily memorized rows repeated 85 times) was a welcome relief and simple fun.

Knitty told me that I should avoid wet blocking silk as it loses its strength when wet. This was the first time I’ve blocked anything by first pinning it and then spritzing it, and I’m not a huge fan of this method. It didn’t provide as clear a result as wet blocking – maybe I should’ve spritzed more thoroughly. The bourette silk was also a little uneven which may contribute to the feeling that the blocking was less than completely successful.

All in all, the pattern is made of awesome. I’m happy I knitted this despite how intimidating the pattern seemed at first, and the shawl itself will definitely be useful and loved.

The Pink Silk Burning Test

Ever since I started knitting actively, I’ve had the knitting magazine Novita delivered to me. Because I already had this one magazine delivered four times a year, I could hardly ever justify it to myself to buy other knitting magazines, and felt I was missing out on all kinds of cool stuff. Novita is concentrated on selling Novita yarns and contains little to no articles or other interesting things apart from an (admittedly) large number of patterns.

So this year, when it came time to renew my subscription, I simply didn’t, and instead subscribed to Interweave Knits – the magazine I’ve been most disappointed I couldn’t buy. One magazine costs over 12 euros. I could be using that money on yarn. Or, you know, food. Now I get 4 issues for just under 20 euros. Yep, that’s a no-brainer.

The first issue I got contained a piece on silk yarns and suggested doing a burn test to see if your yarn really is silk. As it happens, I was working with silk at the time…

I was knitting this shawl (In the Pink, Ravelry link), which I just finished today, but will blog more about later.

The yarn I used was Soft Silk from BC Garn, a 100 % bourette silk yarn in sport weight. It was so different from what I’ve come to think of as silk that I was pretty interested to do the test. It feels and acts like cotton, really, and it was interesting to knit a shawl with such an unforgiving yarn. All the little mistakes pop out… I wasn’t skeptical of the fiber content, but I just wanted to see, and also to burn things… What?

I read about bourette silk and think it’s awesome it’s made with “waste” silk – so that damaged cocoons don’t actually become waste. Considering that and the relatively low price of the yarn, the cottony feel and look are an acceptable trade-off.

The shawl is a gift, so we’ll just have to wait and see whether it has all the magical qualities silk is supposed to have. Again, not because I think this yarn is somehow bad but because I haven’t noticed that many differences between the qualities of different yarns. I know they’re supposed to be there, I just don’t see or feel them when I use the things I’ve knitted.

So anyway, I did the burning test, and yes, of course, the result is that the yarn is clearly silk.

Crazy Zauberball

is crazy…

This is a shawl called Mizzle, available on Ravelry, and I’m knitting it with the Schoppel-Wolle Crazy Zauberball (color way 1660 or ombre, if I’m deciphering the ball band correctly) I bought yesterday.

I started knitting it yesterday, and first the colors looked pretty nice actually. Then we watched Pirates of the  Caribbean – At the world’s end, and I kept knitting in the dark (this pattern is nice and easy, and suitable for movie knitting). When the lights came back on, I saw the crazy.

Well, I’m sure it’ll work out ok in the end. Shawls always look funky before they’re blocked anyway, and, uh. I’m sure I’ll get used to the colors. It just looked so different in the ball.

For future reference, I think the yarn would work better as stockinette stitch. I think it’s the purl rows that make the whole thing look a bit busy at the moment.

The yarn itself is simply a joy to work with.

Warm and fuzzy Northern Lights

My ball of Varpu from Novita (aka the fluffy ball of fluffyness the boyfriend gave me) is turning into a simplified version of the Revontuli/Northern Lights shawl…

What is it with me and all the Revontuli shawls lately? I guess I just like the shape better than any other, and haven’t seen a lot of other shawl patterns that aren’t triangular, rectangular or round.

I’m copying the basic shape, but I’m leaving out the decreases and increases other than the ones that make up the 8 sections of the shawl. This might create a more rounded edge, but I’m ok with that.

I’m also using yarn overs for increasing, since I’m using a fuzzy yarn in bulky weight and am not interested in struggling with it any more than I have to. The yarn does stick to itself like crazy.

This promises to be the kind of mindless knit I’ve missed lately. It’s been a while since I had a project I could knit in the dark so I haven’t been able to watch movies and knit simultaneously. This seriously and grievously cuts down either movie watching or knitting time. Also, I like the idea of just knitting along until I run out of yarn: what ever size the shawl turns out to be will be the perfect size. I’m secretly hoping for huuuuge. I think this will be the perfect warm shawl for wearing around the house on those cold winter nights ahead.

The approaching winter means two things knitting-wise. First, my hands are once again starting to get deathly cold when I knit, and two, the sun is starting to set so early I have to be home at noon to take any sort of reasonable pictures of knitted stuff.

That’s ok because yesterday morning it was snowing outside when I woke up Snow makes everything better even when it melts straight away.

Frog this stitch!

So someone asked me to knit them a shawl a while back, and my plan was to knit them a Revontuli. I started knitting it a couple of weeks ago but the project never really took off… Something was wrong.

Apparently, a slightly fuzzy alpaca yarn + subtle texture created with increases and decreases = no stitch definition whatsoever.

And it turns out I quite like some stitch definition.

I ripped back and began anew.

It’s still technically a Revontuli, but I’ve been knitting it in plain stockinette instead of the increases and decreases that I hoped don’t affect the shape.

Now I’m not so sure.

Actually, now I’m pretty sure those decreases and increases in the middle of chart 2 are, in fact, what causes the edge of the shawl to have that distinctive “northern lights” shape.

Gah, now I don’t know. I have to think about this… I may have judged the first attempt too quickly. Maybe the stitch definition would’ve gotten better once I was past chart 1 and a few more rows of chart 2, when there’s more of stockinette stitch inbetween the shaping bits.

I think I might have to frog again. Well, if it’s worth doing it’s worth over doing doing right.

39 cm x 198 cm

That’s how big my finished Clapotis turned out to be after I blocked it – even though I blocked it for width rather than length. It’s also the answer to the question of why it took me nearly three months to complete this thing.

Pattern: Clapotis

Yarn: Araucania Ranco Multy (100 g = 344 m), 2 skeins

Colorway: 335

Needles: 3,5 mm

*****

See how it stretches out to infinity. That’s 33 repeats of the straight rows before beginning the decrease rows.

And the funny thing? I was *this* close to finishing it, when I completely and utterly ran out of yarn.

At that point I just thought to myself – you know what, I don’t think I mind… at least, not enough to rip back.

Just let it be.

The yarn was a delight to work with, but I could’ve done without the bright turquoise bits. For some reason I didn’t realize there was any turquoise in the yarn when I saw it as a skein. That’s variegated yarns for you, always full of surprises.

Next up: another Revontuli

Last summer (so a couple of months ago – not a year ago) an aunt of mine asked me to knit her a shawl. She saw the Revontuli I knitted for mom (picture below) and liked it.

I was given free hands; the only specifications were that it shouldn’t itch. So there went the first idea I had, which was to knit as exact a replica of mom’s shawl as I could (except, you know, for the colors). The yarn in mom’s shawl is pure wool and while it feels nice and soft to me, that’s not the case for everyone.

The least itchy, softest yarn in my stash was Baby alpaca from BC Garn. The skein was so soft, it’s hard to believe it. After getting the go from the recipient, I decided to use this yarn.

Then came the time to choose a pattern, and that’s when I hit a wall (which is why it’s been months since my aunt asked for this and I haven’t made any headway yet).

First I was set on knitting another Revontuli. I’ve previously made two, so it should be easy to make a third. Since I was given free hands with everything, it would be the easiest choise to just knit something similar to what sparked an interest in a shawl in the first place.

But I wasn’t big on the solid Revontuli shawls I saw, mainly because of the solid Revontuli pictured on the pattern’s page over at Ulla. That’s probably a gorgeous shawl, but in that particular picture it just looks a little limp in comparison to the other shawls on that page.

I spent a long while looking at shawl patterns on Ravelry, but nothing felt appropriate.

Often the shawls I saw had a plain triangle in the middle and some lace as borders, which is fine, but not what I want now. Some have one lace pattern that repeats all the way through, and for some reason these are the shawls I identify with grannies the most. Again, nothing wrong with them (the shawls… or grannies, for that matter), and I would knit and wear one with joy, but I don’t want to knit something I associate with a stereotypical image of elderly people for my aunt. And since I was given free hands, I’m using specifications that are important to me. Maybe it doesn’t make much sense, but it is what it is.

I always came back to the Revontuli. I started thinking maybe the Revontuli I made for mom is so lovely not because of the colors, but because of the sheer size of the thing. It’s the biggest, softest shawl I ever knitted, and it feels like a soft, warm hug. The round shape helps too, as in my experience, round(ish) shawls stay put better than triangle-shaped shawls.

Besides, I already had permission to knit with just one color, so maybe it wouldn’t be a problem if the shawl was a little bit plain. And then I started seeing all these beautiful solid Revontuli shawls on Ravelry. I particularly loved this solid Revontuli (Ravelry link). It’s classy and beautiful and everything I want this shawl to be.

Finally I bought another skein of the Baby alpaca for a total of 200 grams (and I found another skein from the same dye patch as the first one despite buying them months apart… I couldn’t believe my luck). While winding it to a ball, I realized just how luxurious the yarn feels. It’s amazing. That sealed the deal. A shawl doesn’t have to be complicated or intricate to be fabulous. The Revontuli might just be the perfect thing for this yarn.

Besides, if it’s too dull or doesn’t work out, I can always rip back.

Multnomah

Look! It’s another one of the projects I made during my blogging hiatus.

Multnomah

Pattern: Multnomah

Published in Hello Knitty

Yarn: Evilla Artyarn 8/2, colorway A-86

Yarn: Some unidentified Estonian wool

Needles: 4 mm

* * * * *

I knitted it at a time when I had decided I have too much yarn and that I need to knit at least some of it before I buy any more (this has since passed despite my complete failure to stick to my yarn diet).

I went for the stripes because I thought I might not have enough of either one of the yarns to knit this shawl with one color. This turned out to be completely false, which led me to still having a little bit of these two yarns in my stash despite trying my very best to use them all up. I also liked the contrast between the two yarns. I’m a big fan of dark greens and browns and these are very prominent in my wardrobe, so I figured what the heck.

Pretty

The neat thing about knitting the feather and fan border in Multnomah with two yarns is that one yarn will form the ridges and the other the stockinette in between the ridges. I had no idea this would happen, but I’m happy it did.

Unfortunately, though, knitting with two yarns also makes for a non-stretchy edges, which feel uncomfortable when the shawl is worn around the neck like a scarf. One day I will learn to carry the yarns in striped knitting so that this doesn’t happen.

The pattern was wonderful, though. I love how the garter stitch starts to undulate a little even before the feather and fan border is begun. The little wing tips are also cute.