Saugerties Shrug - Finished!

I finished up the shrug this past Sunday and posted the left over Bisque (59.9 grams) on Tuesday to the Ravelry user that had contacted me about it.  I am very glad that I knit this at a tighter gauge than the pattern called for, or else it would have been really huge.  I stopped working the flat stockinette section when I reached the end of the third skein of the Bisque instead of making it as long as the pattern called for.  After casting off I picked up stitches around the opening and knit 8 rows of the cuff pattern, working decreases every row where the two sides meet (the corners) to just finish it off.  That stockinette edge curled horribly and looked unfinished to me.

The blocking picture shows the edging on the opening, and you can see my decreases.

Pattern:  Saugerties Shrug by Jill Zielinski

Yarn:  The Plucky Knitting Scholar Worsted

Needles:  US 7 (4.5 mm) and US 8 (5.0 mm)

Saugerties Shrug - One Skein of Bisque Done

I have used up one skein of my Bisque and am halfway through my second skein.  Based upon some yarn usage calculations I will use up most, but not all, of my four skeins of Bisque.  It is actually fortunate that I am knitting at a tighter gauge and making a slightly smaller shrug, as I don’t think I would have had enough yarn otherwise, given how under weight my skeins are.  Four skeins should give me 460 grams of yarn (115 grams each), but I have only about 420 grams, and I will use about 400 grams.  I like the size that mine is working out to be, and it will be snuggly when it is finished.  I did go back down to the US 7 needle when I started working back and forth, it just looked neater than continuing on with the US 8.

I did make a slight modification to the colorwork pattern on the last patterned row.  I worked 3 C2, 1 C1 instead of 7 C2, 1 C1, just so I wouldn’t have to catch my floats.  This project is one of three that is in my current rotation and is my “I want to pay attention to something else (reading or watching TV) knitting” at least until I get back to the colorwork section on the right sleeve.  The other two projects are my Peacock Shawl, which requires some attention, being lace, and my Wallflowers blanket, which I also have to pay attention to while I work on it, but it makes a great lap blanket while I’m doing it - perfect for these winter evenings.

Pattern:  Saugerties Shrug by Jill Zielinski

Yarn:  The Plucky Knitter Scholar Worsted

Needles:  US 7 (4.5 mm) and US 8 (5.0 mm)

Saugerties Shrug - Cast On!

Yesterday I received an inquiry from a fellow Raveler, apologizing for stash stalking and asking if I might be willing to part with a skein of my Plucky Knitting Scholar Worsted yarn in Bisque (the lighter color) as she had a sweater knit in that yarn and colorway with a sleeve in need of repair.  I had purchased this yarn back in 2016 as a kit from Plucky Knitter to make the Saugerties Shrug, so obviously I could not just send her off a skein if I ever wanted to knit that pattern.  Instead I offered to knit the pattern up and send her any leftovers.  So yesterday afternoon I pulled the yarn out of my stash, caked it up and cast on.  The darker color is Attaché.

I did not do a gauge swatch, after all, this is a shrug, and unless my gauge is way off it will still be wearable.  The needle sizes recommended for the pattern are US 6 (4 mm) for the edging and US 9 (5.5 mm) for the main body.  It should be noted that there is no recommended needle size on the skein band.  I went with my trusty method of comparing the double width of the yarn with the diameter of potential needles sizes and decided a US 6 would be too tight and a US 9 would be too loose, so I went with a US 7 (4.5 mm) for the edging and a US 8 (5.0 mm) for the main body.  My gauge is a little bit tighter than what the pattern calls for, but I’m good with it.  I like the fabric.  The pattern calls for 15” width of the folded fabric and mine looks to be about 12.5 inches.  Definitely smaller, but I’m petite, so it will fit me just fine.

I had forgotten how much fun colorwork in the round is, and the pattern is very easy.  The longest run of a color is 5 stitches, so I’m not bothering to catch my floats.  I’m almost done with the colorwork on the left sleeve, then there will be a long boring stretch of working single color back and forth on the body until I get the right length, then more fun colorwork on the right sleeve.  It should work up quickly.  I weighed all of my skeins before I cast on.  I try to do this so I can keep an accurate record of my yarn usage, and I’m very glad that I did as all of my skeins are underweight.  According to the yarn information on Ravelry the skeins are supposed to weigh 115 grams, but most of mine are coming in a little over 100 grams.  I have one skein that came in at close to the called for weight.  The pattern calls for approximately 363 yards of C1 (Attaché) and 910 yards of C2 (Bisque).  Based on the weights of my skeins I have approximately 456 yards of C1 and 933 yards of C2.  We’ll see how my yarn usage works out given my tighter gauge.

Pattern:  Saugerties Shrug by Jill Zielinski

Yarn:  Plucky Knitter Scholar Worsted in Bisque and Attaché 

Needles:  US 7 (4.5 mm) and US 8 (5.0 mm)
 

Omena - Finished!

I finished this up this past Wednesday.  I was going to work nine ripples of the Element 79, but when I got to six I decided it was the right size and cast off.  Getting a good shot was a bit of a challenge, from the front it doesn’t look like much.

 

Pattern:  Omena by Jill Zielinski

Yarn:  Dream in Color City

US 6 (4.0 mm)

Omena - Half Way

Having finished up my Mirror, Mirror Vest, I turned my attention back to my June Camp Loopy project.  This project is also great work knitting, and I have a lot of meetings this week, so I should make a lot of progress on it.  I usually try to remember to weigh my skeins before I start knitting, but sometimes, in my eagerness to get started, I forget with that first skein, which is what happened on this project.  I did remember to weigh my second skein, and partway through knitting that one I decided that I really wanted to know exactly how much yarn I had used.  So I weighed my knitting.  It came out to 201 grams, total.  I had 13 grams of my first skein, the Fancy, left over.  My first skein of Eaten the Plums weighed 116 grams total, and I had 28.4 grams of it left when I weighed my project.  So, doing the math: 201 grams - (116 grams - 28.4 grams) - 13 grams = 100 grams.  So I used 100 grams of the Fancy, less whatever my knitting needles weigh.

The pattern calls for an equal number of the ripples or ridges or whatever you want to call them, but because I could only get one skein of my first color, Fancy, I could only get three ripples out of that single skein.  I figured out that I needed to work eighteen ripples total to get the size I want, so I decided that I would knit six ripples in my second color, Eaten the Plums, and nine ripples in my third color, Element 79.

Pattern:  Omena by Jill Zielinski

Yarn:  Dream in Color City

Needle:  US 6 (4.0 mm)