Queen Conch Shawl - Finished!

Even though I always have lots of projects going at once, when one of them gets close to being done I will often focus on it until it is finished, and that is mostly what happened with this shawl.  Once I had found a good border color and a good bead color and got the border started I ended up coming back to it and working on it to the exclusion of the other projects that are high on my “to do” list.  I am very happy with how this one turned out, and I’m also happy to be using up my old Advent sets.  The rest of this particular set is really two 9-skein gradiances, although I could have used them as a single 24-skein gradiance, if I had wanted to.

This is the Queen Conch set.

The Sea Urchins set.

The Beyond the Breakers set.

The Beyond the Breakers set flows in to the Sea Urchins set (right most skein to left most skein) and the Sea Urchins set flows in to the Queen Conch set (right most skein to right most skein).  But figuring out something that takes all 24 skeins is non-trivial.  I’ve done it twice.  For the two 9-skein sets I’m thinking about some short sleeve top-down pullovers.  I’ve been collecting patterns.

Pattern:  Over the Moon by Vicki Mikulak

Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Verve and Sundara Yarn High Twist Sock

Needle:   US 4 (3.5 mm)

Queen Conch Shawl - Body Done and Border Started!

Once I had finished the border on the Cindy Shawl, I transferred this project to my Della Q Hatbox and started working the border.

Finding a good color for the border was quite a challenge.  The yarn of the shawl is The Unique Sheep Verve, which is a fairly hard sock yarn, so I knew I needed a similar yarn for the border.  I searched in my stash for all of my sturdier sock yarns and made a list of likely candidates, and where they were stashed and then just went diving.  In the end I picked Sundara Yarn - HIgh Twist Sock in “Oh, The Places You Will Go”.  The next challenge was the beads.  It took me a while, but in the end I settled on Matte/Raku Teal/Plum.  The colors were not something that I originally thought of, but I’m very happy with how it is all coming out.

Pattern:  Over the Moon by Vicki Mikulak

Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Verve and Sundara Yarn High Twist Sock

Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Queen Conch Shawl - Body Almost Done!

This shawl has been in my work bag and I’ve been making progress on it.  At this point I am almost done with the last of the six skeins, and am contemplating border colors.  The yarn is a bit firm, being a sock yarn with a fairly tight twist, so I want a yarn for the border with similar characteristics.  I’ve been diving in my stash and have come up with four alternatives, so far.

These are all Zen Yarn Garden Superwash Sock Yarn.

I still haven’t decided if I want to pick one of these, or go stash diving some more.

I also need to think about bead color.  This morning I’m going to finish knitting the rest of skein six, and then slip the stitches on to a Knitting Barber Cord so I can spread the shawl out to really get a sense of the colors, and then I will search my stash for all possible border skeins and see if I can come to a decision.

Pattern:  Over the Moon by Vicki Mikulak

Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Verve

Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

 

Queen Conch Shawl - Cast On!

After finishing up my Lock, Shock & Barrel Shawl I immediately caked up this set of yarn from another Unique Sheep Advent Calendar set.  This gradiance is called Queen Conch, and the rest of the skeins are also similarly themed.  This set is a bit different in that the other two gradiances are both 9 skeins.

The top photo is Sea Urchin, and the bottom photo is Exploring the Breakers.  All together they actually form a single gradiance, so the rightmost skein in the bottom photo is the transition to Sea Urchin, and the right most skein in the top photo is the transition to Queen Conch.  This was one of the 2020 Advent sets.  I am considering making tops out of the other two sets.  I have some good candidates in my Ravelry library.  Since casting on I have made a great deal of progress - lots of knitting at work while reading documents plus some car knitting on the way to and from my step daughter’s wedding last weekend, and I am on the 6th skein.  I will have to pick a border color and beads soon.

Pattern:  Over the Moon by Vicki Mikulak

Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Verve

Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Lock, Shock & Barrel Shawl - Finished!

I actually finished this shawl up back on September 8.  I was making rapid progress on my Joy to the World - Cindy shawl, and new I had to clear some of the knit on border backlog, so after finishing up the Canby Cardi I decided to focus on this project.  I also had some tendinitis in my elbow from intense crocheting on my Wallflowers and knew I needed to give things a rest.

Blocking these shawls is pretty straight forward, it just takes a little bit of time to pin out all of those points.  The choice of color for the border and the beads was a bit challenging, but I’m happy with how it all turned out.

I really do love these shawls as they are so easy to wear.  They stay in place and they provide just the right amount of coverage without getting in your way.  I have knitted 11 of them so far, and have a 12th one on my needles.  With the completion of this shawl I have used up all of the Nightmare Before Christmas Advent Calendar set.

Pattern:  Over the Moon by Vicki Mikulak

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

Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Lock, Shock and Barrel Shawl - Border Started!

I have been obsessing over the color for this border for months now.  I have tried and discarded several different colors and finally went with a skein of Sundara Yarn Extra Fine Fingering Merino in Saguaro Sunset.  It is hard to get a good sense of the colors in this photo, but I think it will work.  I’m using Hot Pink Lined beads, although they are hard to see in the photo.

Pattern:  Over the Moon by Vicki Mikulak

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

Needle:  US 4 (3.5 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)

Lock, Shock and Barrel Shawl - Body Done!

This is the last of the mini-skeins from the Nightmare Before Christmas Advent set.  I have about ten repeats left on the border of the Electric Oogie Boogie Shawl and then I can start working on the border for this one.  I still have to decide on a border color.  I am pretty sure I want to go with a dark purple, I just need to find the right purple in my stash.  I will use light pink beads.

Pattern:  Over the Moon by Vicki Mikulak

Yarn:  The Unique Sheep 4 Ply SW Merino Fingering

Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Lock, Shock and Barrel Shawl - Cast On!

This is the last of the mini-skeins of the Nightmare Before Christmas Advent set, and it was setting up this project in Ravelry that clued me in to the stashing mistake I had made with this set and the Dragons set from 2018.  It took me a little bit to get it sorted, but it is sorted, at least on my project pages, even if it is still screwed up in my stash, which I’m just not going to worry about seeing as how when I complete these shawls all of the yarn will be used up.

Yesterday I started the second skein of the set while I was finishing up my latest read:  Dust Mites:  The Siege of Airlock Three by James A. Bacon Jr.  It was a wonderful read and I really want to see him finish the story.  So, if you like hard science fiction, with a realistic world (our own not too distant future) and characters and conflicts that make sense, I highly recommend it.

This is the set that is being used for this shawl.  I may change out the border color, but I will decide when I get there.

Pattern:  Over the Moon by Vicki Mikulak

Yarn:  The Unique Sheep 4 Ply SW Merino Fingering

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)

Electric Oogie Boogie Shawl - Body Done!

Even with being in the office every day, I’m still managing to get lots of mindless knitting done.  I finished up the body of this shawl last week.  I still have a little bit of the last skein to knit, but I doubt I have enough for a full row, and I need to decide on the edging color before proceeding.  I currently have a skein that continues the purples set aside, but I’m pondering a change, maybe gold or yellow, with dark purple beads.  If I stick with the purples I’ll use more of the bright blue beads that I used on the Wyvern Shawl.

Pattern:  Over the Moon by Vicki Mikulak

Yarn:  The Unique Sheep 4 Ply SW Merino Fingering

Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Electric Oogie Boogie Shawl - Cast On!

Last weekend, having completed the body of my Joy to the World - Dragons shawl I needed another easy knit to throw in my work bag.  I’m back in the office full time again due to some technical/security issues with the VPN we use.  I don’t really mind that much.  I had never teleworked until COVID because I liked the clean break between work and home, and I’m enjoying that again.  It isn’t quite as clean as it used to be because I have a work phone that I can check email and MS Teams on, but I don’t bring the computer home anymore.  Anyway, I grabbed another six-skein set of minis that I had set aside for another Over the Moon variant shawl.  At this point I am working on skein 4 and don’t have to refer to the pattern anymore as there are no more stitch doubling rows.

This set is part of an Advent set that was inspired by A Nightmare Before Christmas.  This is the best set of that lot, the others are going to be more challenging to work with.  It was a bold choice for an Advent set, and bold choices don’t always work out so well.  I have a full sized skein picked out already, but I’m not sure if I will stick with that choice.

I may go for a blue skein, if I can find a good match.  Or I may stay with the purple, after all, purple is my favorite color these days.

Pattern:  Over the Moon by Vicki Mikulak

Yarn:  The Unique Sheep 4 Ply SW Merino Fingering

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)

Smaug Shawl - Skein 2 Done (Almost)!

This has been the project that goes in my work bag so that I have something to work on while reading documents or sitting in virtual meetings.  I have almost worked all of the second skein and am almost to the last increase row where I double my stitches.  This pattern isn’t quite an Elizabeth Zimmerman Pi shawl because it has increases on the edges on the right side rows, but for the increases rows it does follow the basic Pi shawl formula.  Once I do the next increase I can just knit as established, until I use up all six of my mini skeins.  They are not enough to require another increase row (thank goodness) as I end up with almost 500 stitches as is.

I did have a bit of an “oh no” moment when I pulled it out at work this past week because I had forgotten to load the project in to my knitCompanion app on my phone, which is an Android device.  If it had been an iPhone it would have just been there for me to use, but as it is not I have to upload it to Dropbox and download it onto my phone and I had forgotten to do that.  So I grabbed the pattern from my Ravelry library and had to do the set up all over again, and then figure out where I was.  Fortunately the pattern has stitch counts for all of the repeats so it wasn’t too hard.

Pattern:  Over the Moon by Vicki Mikulak

Yarn:  The Unique Sheep 4 Ply SW Merino Fingering

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)