Bambara Wrap - Finished!

I finished up this shawl on Monday - while I was home from work with a migraine - the pattern was simple enough to work even with my brain on the fritz, although blocking was a challenge.  I tried to make sure that the diagonal lines of central double decreases were straight, and that the edges were parallel.  Bruce helped me with the fine tuning.  Taking a picture of a shawl this size is a bit challenging.  I'll try to get some beauty shots at Bead & Button.

I've spent most of the past week re-arranging my yarn stash by fiber weight.  I started with the lace and light fingering, and then did the super bulky, bulky, Aran and worsted and then I tackled the fingering, which makes up the largest portion of my stash.  I've been working on the fingering all weekend and finished up this evening.  I still need to do the DK and Sport weight, but I did some sorting while I was doing the fingering weight, so they should go a little quicker.

Pattern:  Bambara Wrap by Ambah O'Brien
Yarn:  Zen Yarn Garden Superfine Fingering
Needles:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Bambara Shawl - Two Sections Done

I have been focusing exclusively on this project lately because I really want to get it done.  I love the colors and the shape and I want to finish it so I can take it to Bead & Button with me.  I always take a trunk show of the things that I have knit over the past year.  I usually end up giving a few things away to friends and family, but this shawl will not be one of them.  I've been laying it over my legs as I work, just so I can admire the colors.

The design makes me want to make something similar as a one-shouldered dress or tunic.  I've always liked bias sewing, and now I'm really liking the bias knit patterns.  I'm actually almost done with the shawl at this point - having knit on it most of the weekend.  I am on the last lace section before I start the garter stripes with the pink.

I also did some stash diving to come up with colors for another Ambah shawl - her latest release - Kimba, and in the process decided that I really need to reorganize my stash to make it easier to find things.  So I'm reorganizing it by yarn weight, and then within each weight, by yarn manufacturer and then the specific yarn.  I am almost done with the lace weight.

Pattern:  Bambara Wrap by Ambah O'Brien
Yarn:  Zen Yarn Garden Superfine Fingering
Needles:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Liken II - Ladders Fixed.

I really love the colors of this shawl and I love wearing it, but I don't love the ladders that I have between my double decreases.  You can pick up an entire column of stitches in those ladders, and that is exactly what I did.  But how do I anchor them?  I had thought about adding beaded kinky fringe through the last loop, but that would require a lot work and I just wasn't up for it.  Instead I decided to use jump rings.  I got the idea from folks making stitch markers out of jump rings with beads placed on them.  So, I ordered some jump rings and on Saturday morning I sat down and fixed those ladders.

The nice thing is that if I lose one I can easily replace it, and if I change my mind and want to use different beads, or jump rings, I can change things out easily and quickly.  My kind of fix.

Pattern:  Liken Shawl by Sivia Harding, modified to be a circular cape rather than a semi-circle
Yarn:  Zen Yarn Garden Serenity 20 in Divinity, Cherry Garcia and Chestnut
Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Bambara Shawl - One Section Done

I decided to focus on this project for a little while.  I discovered a mistake in my Falling Leaves Shrug and I'm going to have to rip back and start the second side over again and I just haven't felt like dealing with it.  This pattern is easy, and at times a little boring, but it makes good TV knitting, and I just love the colors. 

Pattern:  Bambara Wrap by Ambah O'Brien
Yarn:  Zen Yarn Garden Superfine Fingering
Needles:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Pippi Short-stockings - Cast On

You know how I hate having leftovers - so after finishing up the Morphology Cowl I decided that I would make socks out of the leftover yarn.  I had to wait to cast on until I had finished my most recent basic toe up socks.  I actually cast on a week and a half ago, but I didn't know what to call the project, so I couldn't create a project page.  I thought about calling them "Fire and Ice Socks" but that just seemed a bit pretentious.  I thought about calling them "Hot and Cold Socks" but that just seemed nonsensical, without being funny.  I thought about calling them "Sprinkles and Shannanogins Socks"  after the color names, but that was just too hard to say.  Then, today while I was knitting during a break in a meeting I suddenly thought of Pippi Longstocking, and I knew I was close, but these were not going to be long stockings, they will probably turn out to be ankle socks, so I had to flip the name.

Pattern:  Basic Toe-Up Sock from Custom Socks by Kate Atherley
Yarn:  Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock Lightweight in Sprinkles and Shannanogins
Needle:  US 1 (2.25 mm)

Bambara Wrap - Cast On

A week and a half ago I dropped into Ambah O'Brien's forum and noticed that there was a knit along starting up for her latest pattern - the Bambara Wrap.  I get her emails so I knew it had been released, but I hadn't bought it yet.  As I was looking through the thread I really liked some of the color combinations that were being posted  and it occurred to me that I might have some good colors in my stash.  I had picked up some single skeins of Zen Yarn Garden recently and decided I should collect them and catalog them and see if any would work and came up with the set above.  The two outermost skeins actually came as a pair, and the two inner skeins are Magic Dye Pot skeins I picked up a while ago.  Once again it seemed to me the universe was sending me a message.  I purchased the pattern, posted my yarn choice to the thread, and caked my yarn.

The colors are, from left to right:

C1 - Pink Orchid - 101.9 g
C2 - Confetti - 101 g
C3 - Magical dye pot 21 - 100 g
C4 - Magical dye pot 19 - 99 g

I don't really need another work in progress, but I couldn't resist casting on.  I've knit a bit more since this photo was taken, but haven't gotten another photo.

Pattern:  Bambara Wrap by Ambah O'Brien
Yarn:  Zen Yarn Garden Superfine Fingering
Needles:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Virginia's Charivari Shrug - Finished!

After finishing up the Salvia test knit I picked up this project again and finished it up - these are great projects to work on while reading, although when you're working on the second half there is a fair bit of fabric in your lap.  I had to set my Kindle up in a stand in order to use it.  I weighed my skeins after every row and captured all of the data so I could get yarn usage numbers and continue to refine the pattern.  Now I can make some yarn usage predictions and check them with my next shrug.

I also managed to get a beauty shot of the Watermelon shrug.

Pattern:  Traveling Zebra by Louise Robert
Yarn:  Bis-sock by Biscotte & Cie
Needle:  US 2.5 (3 mm) & US 4 (3.5 mm)