Liken III - Finished

I finished this up last week, on Armistice Day, which everyone knows now as Veteran's Day.  It is one of the few holidays that doesn't move around.  It is always on the 11th of November, commemorating the end of World War I at the 11th minute of the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, dubbed the war to end all wars by H. G. Wells.  He had written a book in the summer of 1914 called "The World Set Free" in which he imagined a world war, as well as the atomic bomb.  When the way broke out he was horrified and wrote a pamphlet titled "The War to End All Wars".  It became a national slogan.  And why are red poppies  associated with that war?  Because they were one of the first plants that grew back on those war torn fields - covering the devastation with fields of red flowers.

This week it seems that winter has finally settled in.  All October we had mild weather, but this week the temperatures have dipped.  Jasmine and I snuggle under the blanket on the daybed to stay warm.  She has reclaimed the space where Fred used to sleep.  The wooden box with the plaque in the background contains Fred's ashes.  I picked them up two weeks ago.

Pattern:  Liken by Sivia Harding, modified to be a circular cape
Yarn:  Abstract Fibers O'Keefe in Pearl, Smitten and Burnside Bridge
Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Liken III - Charts B and C

I finished up 3 repeats of Chart B and Chart C this past week.  I was thinking about working 4 repeats of Chart B, as I had worked 4 repeats of Chart A but after doing the math it looked like that would leave me with very little margin and I really want to work a constrast bind off, probably with Color B, the variegated yarn.  I also don't want to be worrying about running out of yarn.  Knitting is supposed to be relaxing, not stressful.

I've worn my other Liken shawl several times, including with my Autumn Dress.  The shawl is warm and cuddly and so easy to wear.  I love it.  I may make more.  It is such a lovely design and it is so fun playing with colors, and I do have an awful lot of single skein sock yarns in my stash.

Pattern:  Liken by Sivia Harding, modified to be a circular cape
Yarn:  Abstract Fibers O'Keefe in Pearl, Smitten and Burnside Bridge
Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Liken III - Charts A and B

This past Thursday I stayed home from work.  I felt like I was coming down with something and I have found that if I stay home and rest as soon as I feel something trying to get me I can usually kick it before it gets a hold of me.  My brain was pretty fuzzy so I spent the morning finishing up the frogging of my first Liken shawl.  Then I wound all of the balls of frogged yarn into skeins on my Niddy Noddy, soaked them and hung them up to dry.  Then I started knitting my third Liken shawl.  This time I am being more conscientious in my weighing of yarn and have my spreadsheet all set up so I can figure out how many repeats of the charts I can do.  The skeins for this shawl have 110 grams each, so I was able to work 4 repeats of Chart A.

For my first Liken I used Berry-Lined Light Topaz beads throughout, but I wasn't sure I would have enough for this one, so I am using two different colors of beads, Nebula on the cream sections and the Berry-Lined Light Topaz on the purple sections.

Pattern:  Liken by Sivia Harding, modified to be a circular cape
Yarn:  Abstract Fibers O'Keefe in Pearl, Smitten and Burnside Bridge
Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Liken MKAL - Finished!

I finished up Clue 4 on Sunday and the final clue on Tuesday and just took it off the blocking pads tonight when I got home from work.  Unfortunately we're entering the time of the year when it is hard for me to get good photos during the week so I didn't get a shot of the shawl blocking.  It is supposed to be a semi-circular shawl, but I couldn't get the top edge to be straight.  Both sides of the shawls sloped away from the straight line after the stockinette section, where the lace section started.  The shape actually looked more like a shelf lichen.  I'm going to make a second shawl and I'm going to add repeats of the lace section to try to take care of that.  It means I will use more yarn so I will  play with the color changes to use more of color A - the pearl in this picture.

Project:  Liken MKAL by Sivia Harding
Yarn:  Abstract Fibers O'Keefe in Pearl, Smitten and Burnside Bridge
Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Liken MKAL - Clue 3 Done

I've mainly been focused on this shawl and managed to finish up clue 3 this week.  The lace pattern in this shawl has a really nice rhythm to it, a row with lace, a rest row, a row with beads, a rest row, another row with lace, a rest row, and then two rows of the variegated yarn.  Nothing too hard or complicated, and the yarn feels wonderful.  The purple has wonderful tonal variations that the picture just doesn't do justice to.  The final clue (clue 5) has come out with a picture of the blocking shawl.  It will be beautiful when finished, and cuddly.  I picked out some possible beads this week for my second Liken shawl.  Here is a picture of the shawl draped on my dress form, just to give an idea of how it might look when worn.

Project:  Liken MKAL by Sivia Harding
Yarn:  Abstract Fibers O'Keefe in Pearl, Smitten and Burnside Bridge
Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Liken MKAL - Clue 2 Done

I finally finished up Clue 2 today, just in time for Clue 4 to come out.  I don't mind being in the slow lane.  I have discovered that I am not as big a fan of MKALs as I used to be - I like being able to make design decisions with full knowledge of the pattern.  On the other hand, I have discovered that I very much enjoy being a test knitter.  Here is a close up so you can see the beads.

They are Berry-lined Topaz.  I like the colors of the yarn and the beads, but they do make a rather fanciful lichen.  I really love some of the other color combinations that folks have come up with and am really looking forward to knitting a second one in the Serenity 20 yarn that I pulled from my stash.

Project:  Liken MKAL by Sivia Harding
Yarn:  Abstract Fibers O'Keefe in Pearl, Smitten and Burnside Bridge
Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Liken MKAL - Clue 1

I decided to take a break from my Autumn Dress and finish up clue 1 of the Liken MKAL.  This is a Sivia Harding MKAL and the design is inspired by a Shelf Lichen that she saw on San Juan Island.  Three color kits of Abstract Fiber yarn were created and I picked this set.  The yarn is O'Keefe, 80% superwash merino and 20% silk.

Not very lichen like, but colors I'm a sucker for - Pearl, Smitten (the purple) and Burnside Bridge (the variegated).  While I was working the first clue it occurred to me that I had some colors in my stash that would make a nice combination.

This is Serenity 20 from Zen Yarn Garden, one of my favorite fingering yarns.  It is 70% superwash merino, 20% cashmere and 10% nylon.  The colors, from left to right are:  Divinity, Cherry Garcia and Chestnut.  I'm not going to start a second shawl, though, until I finish the first one.  I have enough projects on my needles.

Project:  Liken MKAL by Sivia Harding
Yarn:  Abstract Fibers O'Keefe in Pearl, Smitten and Burnside Bridge
Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)