Midwinter Moon - Finished!

Once I got to the final section, there really didn’t seem to be a good stopping place, so I just kept knitting and finished it up this past week.  Blocking it was interesting, and I’m glad that I have 3 sets of knit blockers.  There was only one section where I had to resort to pins.

I love the colors, and the SpaceCadet Yarns Celeste Fingering results in such a light and airy shawl.  It feels ethereal.

Pattern:  Midwinter Moon by Larissa Brown

Yarn:  SpaceCadet Yarns Celeste

Needle:  US 5 (3.75mm)

Midwinter Moon - Sections 5 and 6 Done

I’ve been making fairly steady progress on my Midwinter Moon shawl this weekend.  This project is mostly reserved for weekend knitting, when I can spend more time on a knitting session.  I thought about getting a photo after Section 5, but that section was pretty short, so I decided to finish Section 6 as well before taking a progress shot.  Section 5 involved the first of the picking up of stitches.  The instructions stated to pick up an extra stitch every 4th or 5th stitch.  I decided to just work a straight pick up in the slipped stitch edging and not worry about getting the extra stitches, and then I added them in when I knit back on the row after the pick up.  I used my Knit Evenly app, which is miraculously working again.  It was originally an iPod Touch app, which I was able to use on my old iPad, but it disappeared when I got my iPad Pro, and then reappeared on my new iPad Pro.  I’m super happy to have it back as it is the best app for determining how to increase or decrease evenly, and it will even step you through it.

Pattern:  Midwinter Moon by Larissa Brown

Yarn:  SpaceCadet Yarns Celeste

Needle:  US 5 (3.75mm)

Midwinter Moon - Section 4 / Clue 2 Done

I finished up Clue 2 yesterday as well, but couldn’t get a photo of it until this morning.  I thought about working German short rows on this section, but the pattern said to just turn and knit the first stitch through the back loop, so that is what I did.  I figure if there are any holes at those spots that is just part of the design.

Pattern:  Midwinter Moon by Larissa Brown

Yarn:  SpaceCadet Yarns Celeste

Needle:  US 5 (3.75mm)

Midwinter Moon - Section 3 Done

I had to travel to California this past week for a one day meeting.  I flew out late afternoon on Wednesday and took red eye back Thursday night, which meant that I had Friday off.  I had knit most of Section 3 before I left and quickly finished it yesterday.  I do love the way the colors are playing together.

Pattern:  Midwinter Moon by Larissa Brown

Yarn:  SpaceCadet Yarns Celeste

Needle:  US 5 (3.75mm)

Midwinter Moon - Section 2 / Clue 1 Done

I finished up Section 2 / Clue 1 this morning.  I really like Larissa’s patterns because she spells everything out for you step by step and she gives stitch counts.  I don’t check every row, but do spot checks to make sure I’m staying on track.  I did a spot check when I brought in the third color and discovered that I was somehow 2 stitches short.  I have no idea what happened.  I did count the stripes leading up to the third color and seem to have the right number.  I didn’t worry about it too much, I just knit two extra stripes at the end of the section before bringing color A back in.  I did not cut color A when I was working with B and C, I just carried it up the side with the rest.  It does make it a little more awkward to work sometimes, but it is pretty easily managed as long as you’re careful.  I have the three cakes sitting to the right of me and I rotate them at the beginning of the right side rows so that the one I am currently working with is first in the line to make sure they don’t twist.

Pattern:  Midwinter Moon by Larissa Brown

Yarn:  SpaceCadet Yarns Celeste

Needle:  US 5 (3.75mm)

Midwinter Moon - Section 1 Done

I cast on this shawl last week.  I’ve had the yarn set aside for a little while.  The colors are all from the SpaceCadet Gradient Explorers Club.

The colors are (from bottom to top):

...and the Russians used a pencil, April 2019

Very Van Gogh, November 2019

Steampunk, December 2019

I’ve been wanting to make this shawl for a while but have been waiting for the right colors to come together.  When I saw the November and December colors together I knew I had two of the three.  I had all of my Gradient Explorers Club colors laid out in chronological order and I grabbed the April skein and realized I had my third color.

Larissa Brown is starting another Lunar themed mystery knit along in April and I’ve already started looking for possible color combinations.  While I ponder colors I’ll continue working on this shawl.

Pattern:  Midwinter Moon by Larissa Brown

Yarn:  SpaceCadet Yarns Celeste

Needle:  US 5 (3.75mm)

Moonflower - Finished!

I finished the shawl almost a week ago, but didn't block it until the weekend.  I added beads to the center of the lace motifs, although my first attempt did not get them centered vertically and I had to shift them one at a time as I worked across the row that they really should have been on.  This involved stopping at each bead, dropping down the stitch, pulling off the bead, pulling the stitches back up and putting the bead back on.  Fortunately once I figured out which row they really should be on I got them right the first time on the second diamond.  I also did an I-cord bind off with color A.

Blocking wasn't hard, but getting a good picture was because of the size and shape of the shawl.

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

Moonflower - Clue 3 Done

I finished Clue 3 at least 2 weeks ago, but never got around to posting.  In fact it has been almost three weeks since I last posted.  Things have just been crazy busy.  At this point I've actually finished the shawl, but that will have to wait for the next post.

Pattern:  Moonflower by Larissa Brown
Yarn:  SpaceCadet Celeste
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)