Duga - Finished!

We went down to St. Augustine Florida from 25 October to 4 November and I took this project with me (along with three others).  We drove down in my Element, and then took the Auto Train back.  It has been a long time since we’ve done any traveling and I think we were both pretty stuck in our rut.  I’m not sure either one of us was super keen on going, but we went and we thoroughly enjoyed it.  We stayed at Bruce’s Mom’s house.  She is an assisted living facility in St. Augustine.  His son was there for the first five days with his family (wife, two little ones and a grandpa).  The house was a little crowded, but not bad, and we enjoyed spending time with the little ones.  We went to the St. Augustine Alligator Farm, which was a lot of fun.  The next week Bruce and I went back and did the zip-line and obstacle course above the alligator farm - called Crocodile Crossing.  It was a blast.

I did a lot of knitting on this during the drive down.  The top picture is of Section 3.  I finished it on October 28.  I finished Section 4 - the complete shawl on October 30.  Here is Section 4 before blocking.

And here is Section 4 blocking.  I just soaked it and then laid it out.  I did not bother pinning anything.

And here is a picture after it came off the mats.  My beauty shot.

I only used about half of the yarn.  I’m thinking of making a second one to use the yarn up, but using a needle one size smaller and changing the order of the colors to get more contrast.

Pattern:  Duga by Janica York Carter

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Luster Superwash Merino Sport

Needle:  US 7 (4.5 mm)

Duga - Cast On and Sections 1 and 2 Done

On October 15th, the Expression Fiber Arts Group on Ravelry kicked off a fun knit along for a very simple pattern called Duga.  It is just garter stitch and German Short Rows and is composed of wedges of color.  I picked up the pattern, which was free at the time, as well as a yarn set (Luster Sport in Kaleidoscopic Hues).  I was a bit concerned about the needle size called for in the pattern - US 7 (4.5 mm) - as the yarn appeared to be more fingering weight than sport weight, but I swatched with smaller needles as well as the ones called for and decided I like the fabric with the larger needles.  I did a long tail cast-on and placed markers every fifty stitches.

It is a super simple pattern and great for knitting and reading or for watching TV when you actually need to pay attention.  The knit along has the pattern broken up into 4 sections, with a drawing for completing each section by the deadline for that section.  The picture above is section 1 - composed of the first two colors.

Here is section 2, with the next two colors.  Now I need to go wind the next skein so I can start knitting section 3.

Pattern:  Duga by Janica York Carter

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Luster Superwash Merino Sport

Needle:  US 7 (4.5 mm)