Omega Shawl - Finished!

After I finished up my test knit I concentrated on this shawl again.  I had finished up the body and cast on for the edging.  I had to rip it out and start over again because I had forgotten to count the stitches after the pick up to determine how many repeats I could do, and how many plain rows at the beginning and end I needed to do.  Once I got started again it actually went very quickly.  I like how the yellow changed the expression of the colors in the body of the shawl, drawing out the yellow and playing down the green.

Pattern:  Boomerang Shawl (Improvised)

Yarn:  Alcidina Momentum and Sundara Yarns Extra Fine Fingering Merino

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

 

Omega Shawl - Body Finished, Border Started

 

With the return to office three days a week I had to have a simple project for work knitting so I took this one and quickly finished up the body.  It then sat around with the border skein until last night.  I had finished up a clue on my test knit and it was too dark to take a photo and I needed something to knit so I grabbed this and started the border.  Unfortunately it was too dark to get a picture of the body before I started and I hadn’t taken one before.

Pattern:  Boomerang Shawl (Improvised)

Yarn:  Alcidina Momentum and Sundara Yarns Extra Fine Fingering Merino

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Omega Shawl - Cast On

 

On June 21 I started going back into the office.  Actually, I started going back in on June 22.  I have to work in the office three days a week now.  Originally I was going to do Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, but I changed my days to Monday, Tuesday and Friday.  I don’t like being away from Jasmine, my 21 year old cat too many days in a row.  Working from home has been great from so many perspectives, but especially being able to look after Jasmine.  She had a pretty severe stroke a year ago and we didn’t think she would make it, but she did, and she is still going.  She hasn’t given up on life, so we haven’t given up on her.

Anyway, heading back in to the office meant that I needed a stupidly simple knit for my work bag.  This is the last skein of the Alcidina yarn in my stash, so it is fitting that this colorway is called Omega.  This is just a simple garter stitch boomerang shawl.  I am enjoying the colors.  I still need to decide on a border color, but there is plenty of time for that.

Pattern:  Boomerang Shawl (Improvised)

Yarn:  Alcidina Momentum

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Elinya - Finished!

 

A couple of longs days of meeting helped me make progress on this shawl and I finished it up on April 1. I did take two days to do the cast off.  I gave it a good blocking to stretch it out, using my blocking wires through the picots.

Based upon my yarn usage I could have gotten a couple of more stripes, although I did follow the guidance in the pattern and stop the stripes when I had about 20 grams of Color A left.  It might also look nice with a little more of Color A at the bottom.  I worked it per the pattern, but think a couple of garter rows before the eyelets would look nice.

Pattern:  Elinya by Ambah O’Brien

Yarn:  Alcidina Lightyears LF and Sundara Yarns Super Sock

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Elinya - Cast On

 

Lately I have been pulling some of my fingering weight skeins out from deep stash and trying to use them.  I’ve been working on a small collection of skeins from Alcidina, five total.  So far I have used three in projects.  This is the fourth.  Here are the skeins prior to caking.

The one on the left is the Alcidina skein, the base is Lightyears LF (light fingering) and the color is Spotlight.  The other skein is from Sundara Yarns Super Sock, Dangerously Delphinium.  I wanted a dead simple pattern to work on during work while reading documents and during meetings and this one definitely fits the bill.  It is another Ambah O’Brien pattern and it is just garter stitch stripes with increases every row.  I do like the way that my colors are playing together.  The pattern calls for more of the rose yarn, which is perfect, as that skein has more yardage.

Pattern:  Elinya by Ambah O’Brien

Yarn:  Alcidina Lightyears LF and Sundara Yarns Super Sock

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Zusammen - Finished!

 

The next project that I finished up was my Zusammen Shawl.  I had gotten past the short row shaping and was in the last set of stripes before working the lace part.  I was doing great on my stitch counts until I did the second to last set of rows for my contrast color.  When I finished the sixteen rows I counted my stitches and I was two stitches short.  I will claim distraction during a football game as the culprit.  I was not going to rip back at this stage of the game, so I continued on with the pattern and added four rows to the last contrast color stripe section, taking it from twelve rows to sixteen rows, which I like because it mirrors the symmetry of the other large strip sections.  The lace section was a lot of fun to work.  I’ve never knitted this particular lace pattern before and I really like it.  This was a fun pattern, and I may make more, I certainly have plenty of fingering weight yarn in my stash.

I didn’t even mind working lace with a dark yarn.  I can’t capture the subtle colors in my contrast color, but there are lots of them - burgundy, blue, teal, just to name a few.

Pattern:  Zusammen by Susanna Winter

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Oasis Camel Silk (MC) and Alcidina Momentum (CC)

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Zusammen Shawl - Short Row Wedges Finished

 

This has been pretty good mindless knitting for my first week back at work.  The short row wedges were fun.  Now I’m into the stripes.  I like the contrast between my yarns both from a color and a feel perspective.  The light colored yarn is camel and silk so it has great drape.  The darker yarn is Merino and has a more solid feel to it.

Pattern:  Zusammen Shawl by Susanna Winter

Yarn:  Alcidina Momentum and Expression Fiber Arts Oasis Fingering

Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Zusammen Shawl - Cast On

 

I am always on the lookout for good two- and three-color shawls for using up my large fingering yarn stash and I found this one recently.  The dark skein is from deep stash - Alcidinia Momentum, the color ways is The Swan Nebula.  The lighter one is a more recent acquisition from Expression Fiber Arts - Oasis Fingering in Vintage Rose.  I struggled with finding a good contrast yarn to go with the Momentum.  I had originally grabbed a skein of gray, but there was no pop.  I also considered blue, red, even pink.  Then overnight I dreamed the solution and dug the Oasis Fingering out of my recent stash box.  I hope it works.

Pattern:  Zusammen Shawl by Susanna Winter

Yarn:  Alcidina Momentum and Expression Fiber Arts Oasis Fingering

Needle: US 4 (3.5 mm)

Albuquerque Spring - Finished!

I spent most of last week finishing up my Albuquerque Spring.  Once I got past the third section, the end was in sight and I wanted to get it done.  I started out the fourth repeat section with one less stitch than the pattern called for and ended that section with one more stitch than the pattern called for.  Looking at the picture of the shawl in the pattern it looks like rows one through eight were worked on the sixth repeat, although the pattern says to only work rows one through six.  I couldn’t get the slipped stitch rows to match what was given in the pattern, so I just worked them however they needed to be worked to make the pattern correct.  I didn’t even look at the pattern once I started that section, given how easy the repeat is.  I worked the extra stitch into the lace section at the beginning of the row.  The chart for the right (increase) edge threw me at first because of the way it was charted - the right hand edge of the chart was straight and the increases added stitches to the left, which is backwards.  Once the pattern was established I only had to refer to the chart at the beginning and end of the right side rows.

Overall I like the color and texture of the finished shawl.  I really like the yellow variegated yarn and almost ripped the project so I could knit a simple garter stitch boomerang shawl just to show it off.

Pattern: Albuquerque Sunset by Casapinka
Yarn:  Alcidina Momentum in Corona and Sundara Yarns Extra Fine Fingering Merino in Green
Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Albuquerque Spring - Pattern Repeat Section Three Done

This really is more spring time than sunset, so I’ve changed the project name.  I finished up the third pattern repeat section this morning while finishing up volume one of the William Patterson biography of Robert Heinlein.  It has been a fun read considering how influential he was on me when I was growing up.  I started reading Science Fiction when I was 14 and worked in a Science Fiction & Fantasy bookstore in my hometown of Yellow Springs, Ohio my senior year in High School.  The bookstore was called “Elsewhere”.

I’m liking the colors in this one.  Very happy colors.

Pattern:  Albuquerque Sunset by Casapinka 

Yarn:  Alcidina Momentum in Corona and Sundara Yarns Extra Fine Fingering Merino in Green

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Albuquerque Sunset - Pattern Repeat Section Two Done

This weekend I took a little break from my Xuan Wrap and finished up the second repeat section on my Albuquerque Sunset, which should maybe be renamed Albuquerque Spring.  It was some nice pretty mindless knitting that I could do while reading.  I’m reading a biography of Robert A. Heinlein.

Pattern:  Albuquerque Sunset by Casapinka

Yarn:  Alcidina Momentum in Corona and Sundara Yarns Extra Fine Fingering Merino in Green

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Albuquerque Sunset - Cast On & Pattern Repeat Section One Done

I frogged my Ziggy Shawl yesterday and decided to knit an Albuquerque Sunset shawl with the yarn instead.  I just wasn’t feeling it with the other shawl in these colors.  Casapinkia’s designs are interesting and I’m hoping this will show the colors off better.  So, I got the pattern all set up in my knitCompanion and got myself started.

Pattern:  Albuquerque Sunset by Casapinka

Yarn:  Alcidina Momentum in Corona and Sundara Yarns Extra Fine Fingering Merino in Green

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Ziggy Stardust - Cast On

I pulled the variegated yellow skein out of deep stash a while back.  It is Alcidina Momentum in, fittingly enough, Corona.  I was thinking of making another  boomerang shawl, but I hadn’t caked it up, and it has been sitting in the top of a project bag for a while.  I recently saw the Ziggy Shawl by Joji Locatelli in the Kitterly newsletter.  Although the shawl is designed for a single color, they were offering a two color version.  It occurred to me that my yellow skein would look good for the garter stitch sections.  I went in search of a solid color for the lace sections.  I was originally thinking about a red, but that just didn’t click.  Then I spotted the green in a box of yarn from Sundara Yarns.  It is actually part of a set for a temperature scarf - you know, one of those scarves that record the high temperature each day.  I ordered the set, but then never started the scarf, and decided that the set gave me some nice semi-solid colors for coordinating with other yarns in my stash.

Pattern:  Ziggy Shawl by Joji Locatelli

Yarn:  Alcidina Momentum in Corona and Sundara Yarns Extra Fine Fingering Merino in green

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Black Eye Galaxy - Finished!

I also finished up this shawl over the fourth of July weekend.  This was a fun, easy, mindless project.  Perfect for sitting around with family and talking.  My sister Virginia agreed it was her colors, but said it needed some black to finish it off, so I ordered a 50-gram skein of black sock yarn from Simply Socks and did a few rows of garter stitch lace followed by a picot bind off.  I used the lace pattern from the end of Helen Stewart's Impressionists shawl.  It's a reasonable size for a little shawl, just enough to throw over your shoulders or wrap around your neck.

Now I just need to package it up and send it off to my sister.

Yarn:  Alcidina Stargazer in Black Eye Galaxy
Pattern:  improvised
Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Black Eye Galaxy - Skein Finished

The last couple of weeks have been a bit crazy.  I spent the week of June 17th in Norway (traveling for 3 days to attend a 2 day meeting).  This shawl came with me, along with my Sunny Side shawl and my Peacock Feather shawl.  I did manage to work on this one, mostly while traveling.  The other two almost got lost with my suitcase when British Airways didn't put it on the plane when it was gate-checked.  Fortunately it was delivered to my hotel the next day.  Still, it was no fun having no luggage for a day.  I had to find a store to buy some dressier clothes as I didn't think briefing in my cargo pants and Marvin the Martian t-shirt would go over very well, especially considering the brass that showed up.  The cool part about the trip was that it never got entirely dark while I was there.  Kongsberg is close enough to the Arctic Circle and I was there during the week of the Solstice.

After the week in Norway I had 4 busy days back in the office and then a 4-day trip to Half Moon Bay California for my niece's wedding.  My sister Liz had rented a huge house for the family to stay in and 4 of the 5 siblings stayed there.  Our brother David stayed at the hotel that the wedding was held at.  I showed the shawl to my sister Virginia and she agreed that they were her colors, but that it needed some black to finish it off, so I found some black sock yarn at Simply Socks.  I finished the skein up while in California.  I still need to do the finish work.  I think I will do a strip of garter stitch lace and a picot bind off.

Yarn:  Alcidina Stargazer in Black Eye Galaxy
Pattern:  improvised
Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Black Eye Galaxy - Cast On

I needed a dead simple project for taking to work.  I actually have a sock project in my work bag but I really just don't feel like working on socks right now, so I grabbed a skein out of my stash and cast on a shawlette or scarflette or something along those lines.  The yarn is by a dyer named Alcidina (her real name is Trisha) and her tag line is "Exploring the cosmos one yarn at a time".  Being a lifelong space cadet I couldn't resist and bought a half dozen skeins from her Etsy site.  I bought the yarn at least five years ago and haven't done anything with it.  I was buying lots of single skeins of sock yarn back then (weren't we all?).  Lately I've been trying to work more from my stash and buy less yarn so I pulled out my first box of fingering (I have most of my yarn stashed by weight) and grabbed this skein and caked it up.  Because I wanted a simple knit I decided on an asymmetrical triangle, which is a shape I like, and cast on.  On the right side, I'm working a knit, yo, knit two stitches in from the right hand edge and a k2tog two stitches in from the left hand edge.  I'm knitting the wrong side rows, which will make this essentially a reversible piece when I'm done.

Yarn:  Alcidina Stargazer in Black Eye Galaxy
Pattern:  improvised
Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)