There's Just Something About Lace...

Shawls have become my knitting of choice. I'm not sure why they appeal to me so much, other than all the lovely lace. I like knitting lace. I like knitting sweaters and socks, too, but there's just something about lace.

The shawl shown at right is the Farm Shawl by Michelle Miller. I test knit this pattern, but apparently didn't block my gauge swatch aggressively enough because my shawl turned out to be a lot larger than expected, even though I didn't block the shawl aggressively at all. (As always, click on any photo to enlarge.)

I knit the shawl using Dream in Color Wisp, a lace-weight yarn, in the Valentine colorway. I used 910 yards, although the pattern calls for 640 yards. Gauge generally isn't a big factor in shawls---unless you're likely to run out of yarn. Or if you're test knitting the pattern.

The shawl was a fun knit, and fairly fast. I started this shawl on 22 May and finished on 01 June. The final dimensions of my shawl were 77 1/2 inches by 30 1/4 inches.

The next shawl I knit was also a test knit for Michelle Miller, the Be Sweet Shawl. I especially like the deep, ornate edging on this shawl. I knit this shawl using Knit Picks Shadow Tonal, a lace-weight yarn, in the Deep Waters colorway. I used 475 yards of yarn, and the resulting shawl is 58 inches by 30 inches. I started the shawl on 01 June and finished on 09 June.

The next shawl I finished was Color Affection by Veera Välimäki. This was my project for The Loopy Ewe's Camp Loopy, the first (of three) project for this summer's "camp." For this project, a knitter could choose any pattern by a designer who was born in a country other than the country in which the knitter was born.

Being an engineer, symmetry appeals to me, but despite its asymmetric design, something about this shawl just called to me. Plus, it's all garter stitch, so I could knit without watching what I was doing, and since it's baseball season, most evenings my eyes are glued to baseball.

The Color Affection pattern calls for three different colors of yarn, but I used four: The Loopy Ewe Solid Series in oyster, Fiesta Baby Boom in the Pansies colorway (the variegated purple that begins in the second section), Monkeypal Superwash Sock yarn in Deep Purple (the dark blue color in the bottom section), and Lorna's Lace Shepherd's Sock in Grapevine (for the bottom border). The latter two yarns were left over from other projects; the first two were purchased a year or two ago for...something.

The bottom border was supposed to be 2 inches wide, but due to the limited amount of yarn I had, my border is only 1 1/4 inches. I used a total of 624 yards of yarn, and my shawl is 59 inches by 17 inches. The final size was limited by a slightly too tight bind-off. I started binding off using Jeny's Surprisingly Sretchy bind-off, but it seemed too loose, so I did a standard bind-off using a big (US11) needle. But the bind-off needs to be very stretchy to create the curved shape of the shawl, and my bind-off was not as stretchy as it should have been. If I knit this shawl again---and I probably will---I'll use Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-off.

The photo at the right shows my shawl staked out on the blocking board. It doesn't have quite the desired shape, but I like it.

I started this shawl on 20 May and finished on 15 June. That nearly caused a problem because the dates of this year's Camp Loopy are not the same as last year, and I jumped the gun. I emailed the lovely ladies at the Loopy Ewe, and explained my dilemma. Since I'd started and finished a week early, my shawl was deemed acceptable for my first project.

As the dates show, while I was knitting Color Affection, I was also knitting the two previous shawl and test knitting the pattern for a summer top.

I finished one other shawl in June, but I'll talk about it next time. It was my first mystery knit-along, and I'm doing two others this summer.

What have you been knitting?

Susannah

Shawls!

This year my goal is to knit at least twelve shawls. Last year my goal was to knit eleven, and I ended up knitting 24, plus finishing three large ones I'd started in 2010.

I started 2012 knitting Jared Flood's Bridgewater Shawl, but ran out of yarn (after 1250 yards) near the end of the first lace chart. So far, I haven't been able to find more of the yarn, but I'm still looking.

The next shawl I knit was Storm Fir by Erica Jackofsky. This shawl was designed for bulky yarn, so it knits up fast. The shawl could probably be knit in one day, but since I was knitting other things at the same time, it took me three days. I started on 29 January and finished on 31 January. I used just over three skeins (381 yards) of Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Bulky in the Blue Blood Red (M-80) colorway. (As always, click on any photo to enlarge.)

Next I knit the Ballerina Shawl by Michelle Miller. I knit this as part of a knit-along with several other people on Ravelry. I used just over one skein (1.06 skeins, or 475 yards) of Dream in Color Smooshy in the Rose Smash colorway. The shawl was fun to knit, and it worked up pretty quickly. I started on 08 April and finished on 13 April.

Then I decided to knit the Sabrina Shawl by Marisa Hernandez. I test knit this shawl last year and loved it, then gave it to my son's fiancee's grandmother because she fell in love with a photo of it I'd posted on Facebook. I decided I wanted one of these shawls for myself, so I knit another one. This time I used Monkeypal Superwash Sock yarn (1.33 skeins or 506 yards). I started the shawl on 20 April and finished on 25 April. I like the shawl just as much the second time as I did the first.

Then I knit Fluid Velocity, another shawl by Michelle Miller. As an engineer who took a lot of fluid dynamics classes on the way to my B.S. and M.S. in mechanical engineering (but none for my Ph.D.), the name of the shawl appealed to me---as does the resulting shawl. I knit this shawl with Colinette Jitterbug yarn (1.48 skeins or 554 yards) in the Blue Parrot colorway. I started the shawl on 26 April and finished on 30 April.

Next I chose the Baah Shawl, another Michelle Miller pattern. Like the Ballerina Shawl, I knit this with other fans of Michelle's shawls on Ravelry as a knit-along. I used Dream in Color Starry in the Flamingo Pie colorway (0.89 skeins or 400.5 yards). I started the shawl on 01 May and finished on 04 May.

I chose some-thing slightly smaller for my next shawl: Victorine by Cindy Guggemos. This is more of a scarf than a shawl, at least for someone who is 68 inches tall (which I am). I knit this scarf/shawl in Dream in Color Smooshy in the Some Summer Sky (VS170) colorway (0.72 skeins or 324 yards). Although it's difficult to see in the photo, the color is glorious. And the pattern is lovely, too! I started this scarf/shawl on 11 May and finished on 13 May.

Six shawls in four and a half months, not counting the waiting-for-more-yarn Bridgewater. Not bad, especially since I knit two sweaters and have had two more sweaters, a baby surprise jacket, and a started-but-nowhere-near-finished lace scarf on my needles during that time period.

What have you been knitting?

Susannah

Another Shawl from 2011

The final shawl I knit in 2011---shawl #24, counting only those shawls started and finished in 2011---was the Flambe Shawl by Michelle Miller, a.k.a.  Fickle Knitter. This shawl is a fast, fun knit, and the result is gorgeous. (As always, click on any photo to enlarge.)

My Flambe Shawl was knit with one skein of Dream in Color Starry in the Honey- moon colorway. I love the added sparkle that Starry brings to this shawl, as shown in the photo at right. (I hope everyone's browser shows the shimmery aspect of this yarn.) I started the shawl on 11 December and finished on 18 December.

As with many of Ms. Miller's shawls, the body is knit first, then the edging is knit on. The resulting shawl, shown at right, is lovely.

I haven't worn my Flambe Shawl yet, but I'm looking forward to doing so.

I still have one shawl and one jacket from 2011 to block. Readers of this blog have no doubt guessed that the actual knitting appeals to me more than blocking or finishing. Partly the delay in blocking these two garments was due to the holidays, when I put away my blocking boards, my swift, and my ball winder. But partly it has been due to my interest in knitting new projects, particularly a modified cardigan version of Alice Starmore's Na Craga. More about that later.

Happy knitting!

Susannah