Wonder Woman Wrap - Cast On

I finished up my Violet Valentine and my Bright & Bold shawl last week, so I figured it was okay to cast on a new project.  I have had this one in my library since the holiday season and had a spreadsheet already set up for it so all I had to do was wind the skeins.  The pattern is very well written and it was easy to expand out into my spreadsheet.  You have to use markers in this one, and I stuck a split marker on the right side so I wouldn't get confused.  You can see the W forming already.  I'm about to start with the yellow.

The yarn I picked for this project is Cascade Yarns Heritage Silk in Sunflower and Christmas Red, which I purchased at the Loopy Ewe last year.  It is a light fingering (437 yards/100 grams) and is 85% Merino Superwash Wool / 15% Mulberry Silk.  It is wonderful to work with.

Project:  Wonder Woman Wrap by Carissa Browning
Yarn:  Cascade Yarns Heritage Silk
Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Violet Valentine - Decreases Started

After a week of clouds and some rain we got hit by a crazy Nor'easter that brought a lot of wind - approaching hurricane strength - but no rain or snow.  Our power went out yesterday around 6:30 in the morning, while I was downstairs exercising.  Our local authority sent out an email alert warning of downed trees and power lines and to stay off the roads if at all possible - a request I was happy to comply with.  I live off of a tree-line two-lane road and there are only a few ways in or out, so I wasn't going to risk it.  Our power was out all day, finally coming back on just before 6:30 pm, right after we had eaten our cold supper and I had just lit a couple of candles to augment the LED lantern we were using.  I worked on this shawl most of the day, despite the fact that I really need my knitCompanion app on my iPad to stay on track, and my battery was getting low.  I also had a print out of the pattern, so I could refer to that as needed, and just use the app for keeping track of my progress and checking my stitch counts.  I had screwed up my stitch counts when I started the second eyelet section of the dark purple and had to tink back an entire repeat to fix it.  I used my Beam N Read task light when I needed the extra light - it hangs around my neck and has a yellow lens over the LEDs so they aren't quite as harsh.  We spent a fair bit of the day upstairs in our bedroom, which is a corner room with good light.  Thanks to the sun it also received some solar warming, so it was more comfortable than our living room.

Pattern:  Zarya by Ambah O'Brien
Yarn:  Zen Yarn Garden Superfine Fingering
Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Bright & Bold - Knit On Border Progress

I believe that I am approaching the half-way point of my knit-on border.  I worked mostly on this last week.  The colors are just so happy.  I like being able to finally show off the colors of the shawl itself.  It has been scrunched up on my needles since Christmas.  Kelly did a great job matching the light green color in the sixth skein with the border skein.

Pattern:  Over the Moon by Vicki Mikulak
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Bright & Bold Advent Calendar 2017
Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Saltwater Taffy Myndie - Finished!

I finished this up Tuesday.  I did a little improvising at the end.  My initial estimate of when to start working the mini-skeins was off, so I really started them too early.  It also turns out that my copy and paste was a little more enthusiastic than thoughtful, so I had to do some rejiggering at the end.  Instead of working Decrease Section 2 18 times I had to work it 21 times.  In this version I think I actually knit it 20 times.  The fact that I always switched colors at the end of a repeat meant that I had some leftovers of five of the six colors (the Saltwater Huckleberries came out almost perfectly).  I wanted to use those leftovers, and I had a pretty big stretch of gray at the end, so I updated my spreadsheet and used my updated yarn usage calculations to determine yarn usage for each repeat.  I weighed all of my leftovers and figured out where I could use each of my leftovers, which is how I got those stripes at the end.  I had the least amount of the Bananas and Key Lime so I used them at the very tip.  I hadn't quite worked all the kinks out of my spreadsheet when I did those last two repeats, so the decrease rate is a little too quick for the Key Lime, but I would have run out of yarn if I had done it per the pattern.

 
Pattern:  Myndie / Kallara mashup
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Bright & Bold Advent Calendar
Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Saltwater Taffy Myndie - Four Skeins Done

Yesterday I made it through four of my six skeins, well almost.  I am one row shy on my fourth skein.  I am switching skeins at the beginning of a repeat, after the eyelet row.

The colors used so far are:
Saltwater Bananas
Saltwater Mangoes
Saltwater Key Lime
Saltwater Blueberries

Next up is Saltwater Huckleberries and then Saltwater Strawberries.

When I was switching between the Saltwater Mangoes and Key Lime I tried it in the middle of a repeat and decided it really didn't look as nice, so I ripped back.  I really like the colors of this one, they are cheerful and fun.

Pattern:  Myndie by Ambah O'Brien
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Rare Breed, Bright & Bold Advent Calendar 2018
Needles:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Saltwater Taffy Myndie - Skein 1 Done

I have been making progress on my enlarged Myndie, finishing up the first skein - Saltwater Bananas - last night and getting a good start on the second skein - Saltwater Mangoes.  I really wanted to get this one to a point where I felt confident that it was going to work and that I was going to be happy with it, and I am pleased to say that I have reached that point.  I'm doing the skein switches at the end of a repeat instead of in the middle.  I think this just gives it a cleaner look.  I will do another shawl like this using the Bright and Bold solid colors from my Advent Kit, which will use up all of the skeins from that set.

Pattern:  Myndie by Ambah O'Brien
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Rare Breed, Bright & Bold Advent Calendar 2018
Needles:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Saltwater Taffy - Myndie / Kallara Mashup

Earlier this month I restarted the Saltwater Taffy using the Myndie pattern, but as I neared the first switch I knew I would have more yarn left over than I wanted to, and I wanted to end up with a shawl bigger than Myndie.  So this past weekend I restarted it using the Kallara pattern, but I'm not really happy with that one either.

I like the look of the eyelets from Myndie, but I want the size of Kallara so I decided to do a bit of a mashup.  I've modified the Myndie pattern to work more increases.  These shawls are pretty simple in their construction.  There are two increase sections and two decrease sections.  The first increase section has increases on both sides of the central double decrease.  The second increase section has increases only on one side of the central double decrease.  The first decrease section has decreases only one side of the central double decrease and the second decrease has decreases on both sides until you run out of stitches.  To make Myndie larger I will work more increase sections and more decrease sections, using the stitch counts from Kallara as a guide.

So, instead of working 8 repeats of increase section 1, I will work 10 repeats, which will give me 70 stitches at that point instead of 58.  I will then work 14 repeats of increase section 2 instead of 10, which will give me 117 stitches instead of 97.  On the other side, I will work 24 repeats of decrease section 1, instead of 20 and 18 repeats of decrease section 2 instead of 16.

Pattern:  Myndie / Kallara mashup
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Bright & Bold Advent Calendar
Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)