Midnight Rose - Finished!

I finished this up Friday night and blocked it Saturday morning.  I did get a bit careless in the final Mosaic section and missed a decrease after I finished up the main patterning, which messed up my stitch count.  Unfortunately I somehow didn’t notice it until several rows later, so I had to tink back almost to the beginning of the “easy” part of the Mosaic.  I did take the opportunity to also switch to needles with a shorter cord as wrangling the longer cord was becoming just a bit annoying.  Blocking wasn’t too difficult.  It is always hard to get things perfect, but I think I did pretty well.  I always end up noticing the things that are off after I take the photo.  Sometimes I go back and fix them, sometimes I don’t.

Pattern:  Knit Love Shawl by Ambah O’Brien 

Yarn:  Zen Yarn Garden Serenity 20 in Midnight Rose and Harvest Pear

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Midnight Rose - Second Lace Section Done!

Once again I pulled the stitch markers when I reached the single color rows in the Mosaic section and reinserted them when I worked the first lace patterning row.  As I was working that first lace patterning row I did discover that I had not paid enough attention to the pattern and worked decreases on the last wrong side row of the Mosaic pattern when I was not supposed to, so I had to tink back and fix that.  I cheated and just did not work decreases on the first wrong side row of the lace chart.

Pattern:  Knit Love Shawl by Ambah O’Brien

Yarn:  Zen Yarn Garden Serenity 20 in Midnight Rose & Harvest Pear

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Midnight Rose - First Mosaic Section Done!

I do really enjoy Mosaic knitting, and I am very happy with my color choice for this one.  I am glad that I decided to change from the solids that I had picked out.  I pulled the stitch markers out at the end of the lace section and put them back in on the first row of Mosaic patterning.  I have a marker on the center stitch that I shift up periodically just to make sure I don’t lose it in all of the patterning.

Pattern:  Knit Love Shawl by Ambah O’Brien

Yarn:  Zen Yarn Garden Serenity 20 in Midnight Rose & Harvest Pear

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm) 

Midnight Rose - First Lace Section Done!

This one has been languishing in my WIPs pile for a while now.  I cast it on back on February 23 and I only knit a few rows before I had to set it aside to focus on a test knit.  But now the test knit is done I can focus on finishing some of my WIPs (before I start casting on more!).  The first lace section actually knit up pretty easily.  I have markers to keep me on track - I rarely use markers but they are definitely useful on this pattern - and the yarn is a real joy to work with.  The yarn is Serenity 20 from Zen Yarn Garden and at one point (based on the amount in my stash) it was my favorite fingering weight yarn.  It still is one of my favorites.

As I approached the first mosaic section I realized that I did not want to use one of the Dream in Color yarns that I had picked out.  I really wanted to use another Serenity 20 yarn.  So back I went to my stash.  Actually, I just looked at my stash of Serenity 20 on Ravelry, came up with a couple of possibilities, and then went to my stash.  I ended up picking Harvest Pear.  Despite the name and color inspiration it reminds me of a rose garden.  I am a few rows in to the first mosaic section and am very happy with how the colors are playing together.

Pattern:  Knit Love Shawl by Ambah O’Brien

Yarn:  Serenity 20 by Zen Yarn Garden

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 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)