Nightmare Before Christmas Speckles Shawl - Finished!

I finished this up back on April 3.  I really like the red border.

It provides a nice dramatic finish.  I do think that adding a border to shawls like this helps bring the pieces together to make a more coherent whole.  The yarn for the edging is another of the Sundara Yarn skeins that I purchased as part of a temperature blanket kit that I never knit.  This color was for temperatures 91-100.

Pattern:   Improvised Garter Stitch Boomerang Shawl

Yarn:  The Unique Sheep 4 Ply SW Merino Fingering & Sundara Yarn Extra Fine Fingering Merino

Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Nightmare Before Christmas Speckles Shawl - Body Done, and Border Started!

I was in an all day class on Monday, so I got a lot of knitting done on this shawl, getting to the last mini-skein.  I finished it up Tuesday in some virtual meetings, so yesterday when I got home from work I picked through my stash and found a color for the border.  I knew I wanted red.  I was going to go for a dark red, but it didn’t really work with the colors of the shawl, so in the end I went with a brighter red.  It is another skein of Sundara Yarn Extra Fine Fingering Merino that was dyed up for a temperature blanket that I bought and never knit.  This color was for temperatures 91-100.

It definitely pops.

Pattern:  Improvised Garter Stitch Boomerang Shawl

Yarn:  The Unique Sheep 4 Ply Merino Fingering and Sundara Yarn Extra Fine Fingering Merino

Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Smaug Shawl - Border Started!

I am very happy with how the border is looking, although the colors are not quite right in the picture.  Reds are hard to capture, it seems.  I am using red beads on the border and I also changed where I placed them.  For the Wyvern Shawl I placed them at the tops of the centered double decreases, but for this shawl I am placing them between the ssk and k2tog that lead up to the centered double decreases and I really like how that looks.  Just 29 more repeats to go.

Pattern:  Over the Moon by Vicki Mikulak

Yarn:  The Unique Sheep 4 Ply SW Merino Fingering and Sundara Yarn Extra Fine Fingering Merino

Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Smaug Shawl - Four Skeins Done

I am now working on the sixth and last skein of the shawl body and will be setting up for the edging soon.  And then I will be casting on another shawl with the rest of this Advent set.  I do love the colors of this set.  The edging color contrasts with the final skeins.  After finishing the Wyvern Shawl I quite like the effect.  The yarn for the lace edging is another skein of Sundara Yarn Extra Fine Fingering Merino that was part of the temperature blanket/shawl kit that I never knit.  I will use red silver lined beads for this shawl.  I think the result will be quite dramatic.

Pattern:  Over the Moon by Vicki Mikulak

Yarn:  The Unique Sheep 4 Ply SW Merino Fingering

Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Wyvern Shawl - Finished!

I finished this up last Sunday afternoon.  It is hard to get a photo that does the colors justice.  In the natural light the colors and the beads glow, but that is hard to capture.

I used bright blue silver lined beads on the edging, and they pick up the other colors of the shawl.  I did discover, after the fact, that for 10 repeats of the edging I inadvertently used a US 3 (3.25 mm) needle.  It was in the wrong needle pouch.  Fortunately it didn’t really have much of an impact, if any.  I certainly couldn’t see any when I blocked, and that may just be due to the fact that I was knitting lace.  That needle is now safely put up in its proper needle pouch.  I should have listened to my fingers when they were telling me that the needle was smaller in diameter than the needle that I had been using.

Pattern:  Over the Moon by Vicki Mikulak

Yarn:  The Unique Sheep 4 Ply SW Merino Fingering and Sundara Yarn Extra Fine Fingering Merino

Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Wyvern Shawl - Edging Halfway Done (Almost)!

This has been my TV knitting this week and although this picture only shows 12 repeats of the border chart I am actually halfway through repeat 16, so I am halfway done with it.  I was glad to be able to spread it out and get a sense of how it was going to look when it is finished.  I am very pleased with the colors and the beads.  I almost bought new beads but ended up finding something in my stash, which made me very happy, as I have a lot of stash and it does feel good to use it.

Pattern:  Over the Moon by Vicki Mikulak

Yarn:  The Unique Sheep 4 Ply SW Merino Fingering & Sundara Yarns Extra Fine Merino Fingering

Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Smaug Shawl - Cast On!

As soon as I had finished the body on the Wyvern Shawl and had started the lace edging I cast on the next set in the queue - a six gradiance set called Smaug.  I have another skein from that Sundara Yarn temperature set to use for the border.

Pattern:  Over the Moon by Vicki Mikulak

Yarn:  The Unique Sheep 4 Ply SW Merino Fingering & Sundara Yarn Extra Fine Fingering Merino

Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

 

Wyvern Shawl - Border Started!

Last week I was able to finish knitting the body of the Wyvern Shawl and have started on the lace edging.  This time I have decided to add beads, just because.  I am using a lace edge that I modified from another pattern, and it is one that I have used on other shawls of this type.  One repeat done, thirty more to go.

The yarn for the lace edging is Sundara Yarn Extra Fine Fingering Merino, part of a set for a temperature scarf/shawl/whatever that I never did, but I have had no problem finding other uses for the skeins.

Pattern:  Over the Moon by Vicki Mikulak

Yarn:  The Unique Sheep 4 Ply SW Merino Fingering & Sundara Yarn Extra Fine Fingering Merino

Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

 

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)

Shimmer & Shine - Finished!

From a temporal perspective, I find knit on borders fascinating.  When you first start them you don’t seem to be making much progress, then suddenly you are halfway done, and then you get to those last 10 or so repeats and everything seems to slow down again.  I finished up the knit on border this past Wednesday and blocked it right away.  It is huge, but so light and floaty.

Pattern:  Woollsia by Ambah O’Brien

Yarn:  Sundara Yarns Extra Fine Fingering Merino

Needles:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Shimmer & Shine - Border One-Quarter Done

This has become my meeting knitting when I am on telecons.  I can look at a chart and at my knitting, so I can do simple lace while listening to the telecon.  This week I made some good progress  on it, finishing about one-quarter of the border.  It goes surprisingly quickly.

Pattern:  Woollsia by Ambah O’Brien

Yarn:  Sundara Yarns Extra Fine Fingering Merino

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Shimmer & Shine - Two Skeins Done

I finished up the second skein earlier this week and snapped a quick picture before I picked up stitches for the knit on border.  I’m using a skein of Mauve yarn that came as part of a kit for a temperature scarf that Sundara Yarns offered last year.  I decided not to knit the scarf - too much to track - and have been using the wonderful solid colors as accents for other shawls.

I managed to get a couple of repeats in during a meeting.  I think it’s going to look great.

Pattern:  Woollsia by Ambah O’Brien

Yarn:  Sundara Yarn Extra Fine Fingering Merino

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Shimmer & Shine - One Skein Done

This is mostly my work knitting project.  Pretty mindless and strangely addicting, you just want to knit another row.  It helps that the yarn is so pretty and feels so good to work with.  I almost stopped after one skein, just to finish.  I even started working a knit on border, but after sleeping on it I decided to rip the border out and continue with the second skein.  I also fished in my stash for more border color options.

I know that the mauve will work, as I worked a few repeats of the border with it yesterday, but the green would also look nice if I want more contrast.

Pattern:  Woollsia by Ambah O’Brien

Yarn:  Sundara Yarn Extra fine Fingering Merino

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Shimmer & Shine - Making Progress

I mostly worked on this project this past week.  It is an easy knit and suitable for work knitting.  I pulled out a semi-solid skein for a possible knit on border.  I think it will work.  I’m very happy with the way the skein is working up.  I shall probably only use one of the two skeins that I have for this shawl.

Pattern:  Woollsia by Ambah O’Brien

Yarn:  Sundara Yarn Extra Fine Fingering Merino

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Shimmer & Shine - Cast On!

Ambah O’Brien released her pattern Woollsia recently and is hosting a knit along for the it, with prizes.  I already have two Ambah patterns on the needles, but decided to cast on anyway.  I was thinking about using one of my many gradiance sets but the other two Ambah projects I have going are using mini-skein sets and I just didn’t feel like messing with another one, so I grabbed this yarn out of my recent acquisitions pile.  It is Sundara Yarn Extra Fine Fingering Merino in the colorway Shimmer & Shine.

The shawl is a basic boomerang shawl, a shape I love, and garter stitch, which I also actually enjoy, with some eyelet lace thrown in every eight rows to give it a little variety.  I may work a knit on border when I’m done.  We’ll see.

Pattern:  Woollsia by Ambah O’Brien

Yarn:  Sundara Yarns Extra Fine Fingering Merino

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)