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)