Artsygal 3 - Cast On

Once I had finished up the body of my second Artsygal shawl I cast on my third one.  These skeins came as a set of four, and the color repeat is shorter, so it will be interesting to see how it comes out.

Pattern:  improvised
Yarn:  Artsygal
Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Artsygal 2 - Shawl Body Done

I finished up the body of my second Artsygal shawl over a week ago, but hadn't gotten around to taking any pictures.  I have already picked up the stitches on the decrease edge and started working the border, although I haven't gotten very far - not quite one repeat.  Once I'm finished with this one and my third one I will probably go back to the first one and ravel the border and work a few more rows on the body to get that one to an even repeat of the border (it ends on a half repeat) and use up more of the yarn - I have 25 grams left and didn't make it to the yellow on the border.

Pattern:  improvised
Yarn:  Artsygal
Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Moonflower - Clue 2 Done

I finished up Clue 2 this past weekend, a little behind on the knitting.  Last week work was just insane, but we finished up the week with a nice little adventure - a Full Moon Kayak trip on the Potomac River, courtesy of Caledon State Park.  I spotted it on Facebook and Bruce stopped by the Park a week ago when he was out running errands and they just happened to have a cancellation on a tandem kayak, which was exactly what we wanted.  We didn't see the moon, as it was overcast, but we did see bioluminescence when we paddled thanks to some jelly fish.  We signed up for the next Full Moon Kayak trip in October.  Hopefully the skies will be clear so we can see the moon and the stars.

Pattern:  Moonflower by Larissa Brown
Yarn:  SpaceCadet Celeste
Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Moonflower - Clue 1 Done

Larissa Brown's Moonflower Mystery Knit Along started last week.  I picked up the pattern back in July, when she announced it.  I have a couple of her patterns in my library, but this is the first one that I've actually knit.  I've been trying to use stash yarn (event though new yarns keep appearing in my house - I have tried to slow the influx) and these three colors come from the SpaceCadet Gradient Explorers Club (which is one of the ways that new yarns keep appearing in the house, but hey, once they're here, they count as stash, right?).  I had all of them sitting in a box and I kept taking them out and looking at the colors and wondering what they wanted to become.  Last week I decided to take three of the colors and use them for this shawl.  The color sitting on the neck of the dress maker dummy was the first one that called to me.  It is the July 2019 shipment and the color is Berry Picking.  For my first choice I grabbed  June (Smoulder), May (Laser Tag) and July (Berry Picking)

But that was just a bit too monochromatic.  Larissa gave me some feedback and even checked out my impressive stash catalog on Ravelry, but of course these skeins haven't made it into my Ravelry stash just yet.  So I swapped out the left hand skein.

Replacing June (Laser Tag) with April (...and the Russians used a pencil).  But then I grabbed February (Take it Slow) and March (Burgle Isn't a Word) and swapped out the first and second skeins.  I knew I really wanted that third skein.  And I got that little frisson that says "YES".

I posted both of these two trios in the forum and Larissa's response to the second one was "WOW".  Which was pretty much how I felt.  And as you can see from the picture of the shawl - yeah, WOW.  Now I have to wait until next week for the next clue.  Sigh.  To pass the time I've been setting up two other Larissa Brown patterns - Lunar Phases and Midwinter Moon and pondering colors.  I have to say, the pattern is extremely well written.  One of the best I've ever seen.  The other two patterns also look to be extremely well written - it makes for a longer pattern, but I'm good with that if I don't have to do any reverse engineering from photos or make guesses as to what the designer meant.  And she also provides excellent advice for choosing colors.

Here are all of my Gradient Explorer Skeins hanging out together.  The picture really does not do them justice.  Even Bruce says "WOW" when he sees the skeins.

The one on the far right just came in the mail.  It is called "Sassy".  I can't wait to see what comes next.

Pattern:  Moonflower by Larissa Brown
Yarn:  SpaceCadet Celeste
Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Artsygal 2 - Cast On

Once I got the first Artsygal shawl to the point where it was no longer mindless knitting, and had freed up a needle by finishing the border on one edge of the shawl, I cast on a second Artsygal shawl.  I've made  fair bit of progress this weekend, and finished reading one book and made it over half way through another (Felse mysteries by Ellis Peters).  I actually cast on this shawl a week ago, exactly (August 18), but finally got around to taking a photo today.

Pattern:  improvised
Yarn:  Artsygal
Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Artsygal 1 - Finished!

I was going to do another knit on border across the top edge, but after 3 repeats I realized I wouldn't have enough yarn to complete it with the border that I picked, so I ripped it out and decided to block it and then decide if it needed more embellishment.  I quite like how it came out.  I still have 27.5 grams of the second skein left - all the yellow part.  I'm not sure what I will do with it.

Pattern:  improvised
Yarn:  Artsygal
Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Artsygal - Main Border Finished!

I finished up the border on the decrease edge and the cast on edge last night.  I still have 27 grams of yarn, enough to do another knit on border across the increase edge, which is the neck edge of the shawl.  I am going to use a portion of the same border that I used on the other two edges, it just won't be as deep.  I've picked up stitches along the neck edge, but I had to cut my yarn and start picking up the stitches at the opposite end so that when I start working the knit on border the color sequence of the border will not be interrupted.  I joined my yarn to the tail of my cast on, which anchored it nicely and takes care of having to weave in either of those ends.

I debated working some short rows at the corner between the decrease edge and the live stitches edge, but in the end I decided that the turn angle was shallow enough that blocking will take care of things.  You can see the remains of my second skein sitting on top of the dress maker dummy.

Pattern:  improvised
Yarn:  Artsygal
Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)