Dress it Up - Finished!

I finished this shawl up this past Tuesday, and blocked it on Wednesday.  The bind off wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, and actually seemed to go a little bit faster than I imagined it would.  I got a fair bit done on Sunday evening during a Zoom meeting, and then just kept working away at it Monday and Tuesday.  The beads add a nice weight to the shawl, and give it some extra body.  The shawl will be pretty easy to wear, with the long crescent shape.  I am very glad that I frogged The Way Ahead Wrap and knit this pattern instead with these yarns, this pattern just shows them off beautifully.  Now I have to figure out what to work on next.  I do have several WIPs, but casting on something new is always a temptation.

Pattern:  Dress it Up by Lisa K. Ross

Yarn:  Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere

Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Dress it Up - Section 5 Done!

I finished up the last section, Section 5, and have started the bind off.  The final garter stitch section was easy, but the rows were long.  I ended up with 406 stitches, which was one stitch more than I should have had.  If I had done the full chart in Section 4 I would have ended up with 435 stitches, but because I stopped early, I was supposed to have 30 stitches less than that.  But when I counted them (twice) I ended up with 406 instead of 405.  I have no idea how that happened, but I did not worry about it.  The bind off is just a little tedious - cast on 2 stitches, bind off 5, and of course I’m adding beads, so when I start the bind off 5 I add a bead to the first stitch after working it.  On the dark purple I used light purple beads that sort of match the variegated yarn, and on the bind off I used dark purple beads.  Both are iridescent.

Pattern:  Dress it Up by Lisa K. Ross

Yarn:  Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere

Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Dress it Up - Section 4 Done!

I have slowly been working on the lace section of my Dress it Up shawl.  I did add beads.  The pattern calls for five vertical repeats of the pattern, but I don’t have enough yarn for that, so I’m stopping at four.  I knew going in that I might not have enough yarn as the pattern called for 430 yards per 100 gram skein for each color, and my skeins are 400 yards per 4 ounces (113.4 grams) and both of my skeins are actually short a few grams (109.4 grams instead of 113.4 grams), so I was not surprised when I got to the last two rows of the fourth repeat and weighed my skein and did the math and came up a couple of grams short.  I might have had enough if my skeins were not a little light, but it would have been very close.  Now I just have 16 rows of garter stitch with the variegated yarn and a picot bind off.  I might add beads to the bind off as well.

Pattern:  Dress it Up by Lisa K. Ross

Yarn:  Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere

Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Dress It Up - Section 3 Done!

Section 3 was quick and easy, just some more garter stitch rows in the variegated skein, but it sets off the dark purple band nicely.  Now on to Section 4, which is the longest, and is the lace section.  I did find some beads in my stash that should work with the dark purple, although I haven’t decided where I am going to place them.  

The shawl is finished off with another band of garter stitch in the variegated skein, and a picot bind off.  I have been carrying the other skein up along the edge so that I don’t have as many ends to weave in.  The pattern tells you to cut the yarn at the end of each section, but I just work both colors together on the second stitch on the right side rows and that secures it nicely.

Pattern:  Dress It Up by Lisa K. Ross

Yarn:  Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere

Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Dress It Up - Section 2 Done!

I finished Section 2 last night.  It is a simple section, a band of eyelets, about an inch of 1x1 rib with the knit stitches twisted and another band of eyelets.  The only real challenge was the darkness of the yarn, which made the stitches a little harder to read on the ribbing.  The colors are beautiful, and able to be seen, and appreciated.

And yes, that is another skein of yarn hanging out in my project box - wet spun Belgian Linen.  Isn’t it a gorgeous color?  I’ve not knit with linen before, tending to avoid the plant fibers, but Jennifer Beale released a pattern in May that uses this yarn.  The pattern is a summer tee and I thought I would try it as I really like the tee.  I’m still swatching.  I know that I don’t want to use the needle size that she did as that was way too lose, but I went down a little too far and though I like the fabric, my gauge is tighter, so I thought I would do one more swatch to see if I can match the gauge and still get a fabric that I like, or if I will have to do the math.

Pattern:  Dress It Up by Lisa K. Ross

Yarn:  Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere

Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Dress It Up - Section 1 Done!

I finished Section 1 today and you can see how it lets the colors of the skein shine.  With the stripes you just get lines, but here you get to see the glory.  Much better, and it doesn’t make my eyes hurt.  Lots of increases to give it the crescent shape - 10 increases for every 4 rows (4 sts, 2 sts, 2 sts, 2 sts) - and that pattern of increases will continue.

Pattern:  Dress It Up by Lisa K. Ross

Yarn:  Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere

Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Way Ahead MKAL - Frogged, Dress It Up - Cast On!

I finished Clue 3 (the picture above), and Clue 4 (sorry no picture, but more of the mosaic with the colors switched) and was working more stripes to use up my yarn when I decided that I just wasn’t happy with the shawl.  The design is cool, but the striping of the colors was not working for me - the stripes seemed to vibrate in a most annoying way and I just couldn’t see myself wearing it.  I also felt that this pattern was not showcasing the yarns very well.  So, last night I frogged it and cast on a different shawl - Dress It Up, by Lisa K. Ross.  Even while I was working on this shawl, I had my doubts, so I had been looking for an alternative and I had a couple of potential patterns I could knit instead.

This shawl is crescent shaped, and features swaths of garter stitch with the variegated yarn, alternating with the dark purple worked in a section of twisted rib, and another section of lace.  I might add beads to the lace.

Pattern:  Dress It Up by Lisa K. Ross

Yarn:  Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere

Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Divine Beauty (Way Ahead MKAL) - Two Clues Done!

One of the many designers that I follow is doing a mystery knit along, and I decided to join.  I haven’t done one in quite a while, although I have bought more than a few MKAL patterns over the years, and then not done them, just because I like the designer.  This one is by SweaterFreak.  It is a shawl (obviously) and requires two skeins of fingering.  I have a lot of single skeins of fingering in my stash, so having the opportunity to use a couple is always good.  I did some stash diving in my Dream in Color boxes - I do love their colors.  I initially came up with three possible pairings:

Amethyst Ink and She Walks in Beauty

Cranberry Cocktail and Happy Birthday Loopy

Divine and The Color of Hope

In the end I picked Divine and She Walks in Beauty, which led me to name my project Divine Beauty.  The first clue was just stripes.

The second clue added the mosaic section.  I almost abandoned my color choices at that point, thinking I needed more contrast between my two skeins, but in the end I decided not to, and I am very happy with the way things are turning out.  The top picture actually has the set up row for clue 3 included, which has you bind off half of your stitches, so you are only knitting off of one side.  I am just over half-way done with clue 3.  The MKAL started on July 5, and I have been keeping up, so this project is taking priority over others right now.  The last clue comes out this coming Sunday.

Pattern:  Way Ahead MKAL by SweaterFreak

Yarn:  Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Electric Oogie Boogie Shawl - Finished!

I had gotten very close to finishing the border (10 repeats left) when I got sucked into creating Popcorns for my Wallflowers, so this shawl went on the back burner for a bit, but with the progress that I’ve made on the Grinch shawl I knew that I needed to get this one off the needles.  So last week I focused on it and finished it up Saturday morning and blocked it.

I have one more shawl from this Advent set to finish up, the Lock, Shock & Barrel Shawl.  I have picked a border color and have two bead color options to decide between.

Pattern:  Over the Moon by Vicki Mikulak

Yarn:  The Unique Sheep 4 Ply SW Merino Fingering and Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere

Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Nightmare Before Christmas Sally Shawl - Finished!

I finished this shawl up on May 4, so two weeks ago.  I didn’t get any blogging done last weekend.  I am happy with how it came out.  At this point all of the mini-skeins from this Advent set have been knitted up into shawls and I just need to finish the borders on the other two.  Because of the way the mini-skeins were designed/dyed I ended up with four shawls - two of the garter stitch boomerang shawls, and two of the Over the Moon shawls.

Pattern:  Improvised Garter Stitch Boomerang Shawl

Yarn:  The Unique Sheep 4 Ply SW Merino Fingering and Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere

Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)
 

Nightmare Before Christmas Sally Shawl - Border Started!

I finally received the yarn for this border last week.  It took a bit of time to get here.  It was mailed from Loveland Colorado back on April 6, went from Loveland to Denver on April 7, left Denver on April 9, arrived in Richmond Virginia on April 16, and was delivered to me on April 17.  Usually my packages from The Loopy Ewe get here quicker than that.  But in any event, it did make it here safely.  I really like the color, it is Black Pearl, and it does have a sort of pearly quality to it.  It is quite interesting.

Pattern:  Improvised Garter Stitch Boomerang Shawl

Yarn:  The Unique Sheep 4 Ply SW Merino Fingering and Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere

Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Electric Oogie Boogie Shawl - Making Progress on the Border

It is always nice to get a project like this to the point where you feel confident that you made the right color choices.  I really like the way that this is working up.  I’m about one-third of the way done with the border.  This shawl and the Speckles Shawl represent half of the mini-skeins in the Nightmare Before Christmas Advent Set, except that I realized when I was casting on the last project using this Advent set that I had totally screwed up cataloging it in my stash.  This mini-skein set ended up getting stashed with the Advent 2018 set that was really the Dragons set (which I just knit up).

Pattern:  Over the Moon by Vicki Mikulak

Yarn:  The Unique Sheep 4 Ply SW Merino Fingering and Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere

Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Electric Oogie Boogie Shawl - Border Started!

It took me some pondering before I finally settled on a color for the border.  I also considered a bright yellow, but in the end I decided to go for a gold.  I am also using dark purple silver lined beads from deep stash.  I tried a bright blue silver lined bead but it just didn’t work.  This skein is from my Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere collection.  The color is Gold Experience.  Loving color as I do, I do love Dream in Color yarns.

Pattern:  Over the Moon by Vicki Mikulak

Yarn:  The Unique Sheep 4 Ply SW Merino Fingering & Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere

Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Midnight Rose - Cast On!

This is the Knit Love Shawl by Ambah O’Brien, her latest knit along.  I really struggled with selecting the yarns and colors for this one.  I loved the colors of her samples, but wanted to work from my stash.

My first thought was to use a set I had gotten from Sunshine Yarns.

But I was worried that the color changes would not be smooth enough.

Next I looked at two of my Unique Sheep Advent Calendars, wondering if I could take a portion of one of them and pair it with a solid skein.  I came up with two options.

But neither one really felt right to me.  So I sat down with my iPad and went through the fingering weight yarns in my stash.  I came up with a couple of options, but in the end went with two skeins from deep stash that did not have a project identified in the notes.  Zen Yarn Garden Serenity Sock 20 in Midnight Rose.  I then had to find a good contrast skein for the mosaic.  I have identified two options, and haven’t decided which one I will go with yet.  Both are fairly recent stash acquisitions, and both are Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere - Gold Experience and Hope.

For the cast on I went with long tail, pulling out a very long tail (almost not long enough, I had a couple of inches left).  I placed the markers identified in the set up row as I cast on, so I wouldn’t have to count all of those stitches.

Pattern:  Knit Love Shawl by Ambah O’Brien

Yarn:  Zen Yarn Garden Serenity 20 and Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Cheri Chevron - Finished!

 

I actually finished up this shawl a week ago yesterday, on July 16.  This is my July Camp Loopy Project.  The requirement was stripes, and 600 yards.  I used 193 grams and 688 yards.  Blocking was relatively straight forward.

Pattern:  Cheri Chevron Shawl by Ambah O’Brien 

Yarn:  Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere 

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Cheri Chevron - Half Way Point

 

I reached the half way point back on July 10.  I actually finished up the shawl last night.  From cast on to finished shawl in 14 days.  Amazing what monogamous knitting can accomplish.  I used a total of 194.4 grams.  I forgot to weight my skeins before I started knitting, so I had to weigh the shawl after I cast off to determine how much yarn I used and make sure that I had met the yardage requirements for the July Camp Loopy project.  I used 688 yards, so I easily made the requirement.

Pattern:  Cheri Chevron by Ambah O’Brien 

Yarn:  Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere 

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Cheri Chevron - Cast On!

 

It is July, which means there is another Camp Loopy project to cast on.  The theme this month is stripes, so I’m knitting the Cheri Chevron Shawl by Ambah O’Brien.  I’ve actually made a fair bit of progress since this photo was taken.  The yarn is Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere - positively Dreamy to knit with - in Gold Experience and Summer Sunrise.

Pattern:  Cheri Chevron Shawl by Ambah O’Brien

Yarn:  Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Pardalote Shawl - Finished!

 

I blocked my Pardalote Shawl yesterday morning and this morning it was dry, so I unpinned it and blocked my Goblin Kalari.  Once it got light I grabbed a quick picture on the deck.

A blocking picture in the early afternoon winter sun.  It is hard to do justice to the colors, but here are a couple more shots that get close.

Here you can see the contrast bind off.  I worked the last couple of rows in C1.  And I think this photo helps show the lovely subtle colors of the Haunted colorway.

Both of the colors are Dream in Color Loopy Ewe exclusive colors - Exploration Station and Haunted.

Here they are in the skein - Haunted is the one on top.

Pattern:  Pardalote Shawl by Ambah O’Brien

Yarn:  Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere 

Needle: US 5 (3.75 mm)

Pardalote Shawl - Cast On

Once I had finished up my Kentia Wrap I cast on my Pardalote Shawl.  This shawl was just recently published by Ambah and I had already picked out my colors from some recent acquisitions from The Loopy Ewe.  The pattern is easy and repetitive (most of her patterns are), but they really showcase the yarn, and they let you play with color.

Both of these skeins are Loopy Ewe exclusive colors from Dream in Color.  I love their yarns and their colors.  The top one is Haunted, and came out last month.  The bottom one is Exploration Station and came out this past summer during Camp Loopy, which was science themed this year.  Both are Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere.  I keep an eye on that page and tend to buy at least one skein of the color on Smooshy because I know that I can use it in a shawl.  Sometimes I will buy a couple of skeins on City as well.

Pattern:  Pardalote Shawl by Ambah O’Brien

Yarn:  Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

 

Lacy Business - Finished!

I finished this up yesterday morning and blocked it.  I did learn a few things.  I did not maintain the spine when I switched to the lace section, and I think I should have.  It looks fine as it is, but the blocking would have probably been a little easier.  I also did a second repeat of the lace pattern, which I really like.  I think it balances the colors better than a single repeat.  I do love this shawl shape.  I’m going to have to try my hand at designing one.  I also think that cashmere tends to pill.  I noticed fiber coming off on my hands when I was blocking, and I’ve noticed that with other fingering weight yarns that have cashmere in them.

I’ve been on mandatory telework since this past Friday.  I resisted going on telework, but now that I’m doing it I find that I like it.  I am an introvert by nature, and only pretend to be an extrovert at work.  But that pretending is pretty tiring.  Now that I don’t have to pretend any more I find I have more energy and my stress level is down.  It’s going to be hard going back to the office after this is all over.  I’m also getting more knitting done because I can knit while reviewing documents and while on telecons without worrying about anyone taking exception to it.

Pattern:  Lacy Business by Ambah O’Brien

Yarn:  Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere in True to Life and Time Away

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)