Mariposa Tee - Done!

Once I got past clue 3 this top went very quickly.  I did have to make a couple of more adjustments to the pattern because of the changes that I had already made.  I had to recalculate where to do the yoke decreases, which was easy thanks to an app on my iPad.  Once I did the initial 3 sets of decreases that were common between the scoop neck and the high neck I tried it on to see how it was fitting.  I really liked the neckline so I decided to stay with the scoop neck, but I really didn't feel like figuring out how to do the short rows with my pattern adjustments, so I just skipped them.  Instead I did another set of decreases and then started the neck edge, working another set of decreases into the neck edging.

Pattern:  Maripos Tee by Michelle Miller
Yarn:  Zen Yarn Garden Serenity Worsted in Carnival
Needle:  US 8 (5 mm)

And the sun was out yesterday, so I got some beauty shots of my latest shawls.  First up, my Treasure Island Cape, front view.

 And my Ardent Spring Shawl

Have you heard?  It's time for Camp Loopy.  Camp week - the week you can get discounts on the yarn used in the camp challenge is this week.  I wasn't going to do it again this year, but I caved.  The first challenge is easy.  Knit or crochet something that uses only 1 skein (at least 375 yards), but it has to be a yarn that you haven't used before.  Well, that might be a bit of a challenge, but there is no harm in looking.  So I went to the Camp Loopy site and checked out the yarns, just looking, and found Dragonfly Fibers Djinni Sock, a yarn that I have never used before.  The first color that caught my eye was Queen of Tarts.  How can you resist that name.  Then I spotted Blue Morpho Butteryfly.  You have to understand, I have been haunted by the Blue Morpho ever since I listened to the ZBS radio play Dreams of the Blue Morpho.  I have been wanting to make something inspired by that radio play ever since I heard it.  Actually, I thought it would be cool to design a whole series inspired by the Adventures of Jack Flanders radio plays, starting with Blue Morpho.  And here is the yarn.  It was meant to be.

I'll use the Queen of Tarts for the challenge, and find a nice one skein shawl.  I have tons of patterns, and there are lots more on Ravelry if I don't have one in my library that suits.

Ardent Spring - Done!

I originally called this shawl Crocuses, because of the colors, but the name just doesn't flow, so I decided to call it Ardent Spring.  This name actually works the name of the colorway - Ardent - into the name of the shawl, which I like to do with these leftover shawls.  The yarn for this shawl was left over from my Robin Hood shawl, which I renamed Maid Marian, because purple just is not Robin Hood's color, but it is Maid Marian's.  I picked up a skein of Rumpelstiltskin for the border.  When I ordered it I had no idea that it was a gradiance set, so I got the darkest skein.

I did make a mistake when I was knitting this shawl.  I missed an increase row.  The shawl pattern is based on Elizabeth Zimmerman's pi shawl, where you periodically double the number of stitches.  I missed one of those rows very early on, but I didn't discover it until I got to the border.  I had actually kept track of my rows so I knew how many stitches I should have had, but I counted them anyway and was very surprised that I had less than I expected.  A lot less.  I counted twice, just to be sure.  So how much of an impact did my mistake have?

Well, it made it a little harder to block.  The shawl just didn't seem to pull out as cleanly or easily.  It definitely took some tugging and adjusting.  Obviously I did not do as many repeats of the border pattern, which resulted in the border being stretched more horizontally.  It looks okay, but I definitely felt like there was very little border to spare while blocking.  On the other hand, if I had had as many stitches as I thought I had, I would not have had enough yarn for the border.  Of course, if I had done the increase row I probably would not have gotten as many rows out of the yarn and would have ended up with fewer stitches when I started the border.  Would it have been enough fewer so that I wouldn't have run out of border yarn?  I don't know.  Probably.  Interestingly enough, I compared the shape of this shawl with one of my previous left over shawls, and the shape is almost identical.  As expected, the border is not as stretched out horizontally on the other leftover shawls.

Pattern:  based on Over the Moon by Vick Mikulik with a knit on border adapted from Damask Rose by Janine le Cras
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Tinsel Toes in Ardent and Rumpelstiltskin
Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)