Sky Song MKAL - Clue 1 Finished!

I know, another Mystery Knit Along, and we all know how the last one ended.  But there are Miss Babs kits!  And I can never resist Miss Babs kits!  How can anyone resist those colors?  The Yummy 2-Ply Toes are Sunshine of Your Love and the dark color is McHales.  The designer is Lisa K. Ross, and I love her shawl designs (the last project I finished was also one of hers).  She is so good at shawl construction and the use of colors.  I have done a couple of her Mystery Knit Alongs and have never been disappointed, and I have Miss Babs kits for a number of them that are just waiting to be knit up.

True to form, this one started out interesting.  And all of the pieces have song title names, to go along with the theme of Sky Song.  First the piece on the left - Brand New Day by Van Morrison.  Then the piece on the right - Morning Has Broken by Cat Stevens.  I have that song on CD, and we sang it in Chorus when was in high school (a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away).

And here are the backs of my pieces.  The pattern recommends weaving in all those ends as you go, to save yourself trouble later, so that is what I did.  It was a little bit fiddly at the start of each of the colors, but not too bad.  Clue 2 has already dropped and I already have it set up in my knitCompanion app.  In clue 2 we join the pieces, which is why they are pinned out the way they are, because that is how they are going to go together, and I get to work lace bands in the colors in reverse order.  The width stays the same.  When I was working Clue 1 I was counting after every increase row to make sure that I didn’t forget to work an increase, because I did forget when I was working the first piece and had to tink back to fix it.  The second piece has you start with a garter stitch tab, but it was only worked over 2 stitches (I usually work them over 3).  It was super fiddly, and it just looked bumpy and ugly, so I ripped it out and just cast on 7 stitches and went with it.  I think it looks just fine, and it was not near as fiddly.

Pattern:  Sky Song by Lisa K. Ross

Yarn:  Miss Babs Yummy 2-Ply

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Dress it Up - Finished!

I finished this shawl up this past Tuesday, and blocked it on Wednesday.  The bind off wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, and actually seemed to go a little bit faster than I imagined it would.  I got a fair bit done on Sunday evening during a Zoom meeting, and then just kept working away at it Monday and Tuesday.  The beads add a nice weight to the shawl, and give it some extra body.  The shawl will be pretty easy to wear, with the long crescent shape.  I am very glad that I frogged The Way Ahead Wrap and knit this pattern instead with these yarns, this pattern just shows them off beautifully.  Now I have to figure out what to work on next.  I do have several WIPs, but casting on something new is always a temptation.

Pattern:  Dress it Up by Lisa K. Ross

Yarn:  Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere

Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Dress it Up - Section 5 Done!

I finished up the last section, Section 5, and have started the bind off.  The final garter stitch section was easy, but the rows were long.  I ended up with 406 stitches, which was one stitch more than I should have had.  If I had done the full chart in Section 4 I would have ended up with 435 stitches, but because I stopped early, I was supposed to have 30 stitches less than that.  But when I counted them (twice) I ended up with 406 instead of 405.  I have no idea how that happened, but I did not worry about it.  The bind off is just a little tedious - cast on 2 stitches, bind off 5, and of course I’m adding beads, so when I start the bind off 5 I add a bead to the first stitch after working it.  On the dark purple I used light purple beads that sort of match the variegated yarn, and on the bind off I used dark purple beads.  Both are iridescent.

Pattern:  Dress it Up by Lisa K. Ross

Yarn:  Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere

Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Dress it Up - Section 4 Done!

I have slowly been working on the lace section of my Dress it Up shawl.  I did add beads.  The pattern calls for five vertical repeats of the pattern, but I don’t have enough yarn for that, so I’m stopping at four.  I knew going in that I might not have enough yarn as the pattern called for 430 yards per 100 gram skein for each color, and my skeins are 400 yards per 4 ounces (113.4 grams) and both of my skeins are actually short a few grams (109.4 grams instead of 113.4 grams), so I was not surprised when I got to the last two rows of the fourth repeat and weighed my skein and did the math and came up a couple of grams short.  I might have had enough if my skeins were not a little light, but it would have been very close.  Now I just have 16 rows of garter stitch with the variegated yarn and a picot bind off.  I might add beads to the bind off as well.

Pattern:  Dress it Up by Lisa K. Ross

Yarn:  Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere

Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Dress It Up - Section 3 Done!

Section 3 was quick and easy, just some more garter stitch rows in the variegated skein, but it sets off the dark purple band nicely.  Now on to Section 4, which is the longest, and is the lace section.  I did find some beads in my stash that should work with the dark purple, although I haven’t decided where I am going to place them.  

The shawl is finished off with another band of garter stitch in the variegated skein, and a picot bind off.  I have been carrying the other skein up along the edge so that I don’t have as many ends to weave in.  The pattern tells you to cut the yarn at the end of each section, but I just work both colors together on the second stitch on the right side rows and that secures it nicely.

Pattern:  Dress It Up by Lisa K. Ross

Yarn:  Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere

Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Dress It Up - Section 2 Done!

I finished Section 2 last night.  It is a simple section, a band of eyelets, about an inch of 1x1 rib with the knit stitches twisted and another band of eyelets.  The only real challenge was the darkness of the yarn, which made the stitches a little harder to read on the ribbing.  The colors are beautiful, and able to be seen, and appreciated.

And yes, that is another skein of yarn hanging out in my project box - wet spun Belgian Linen.  Isn’t it a gorgeous color?  I’ve not knit with linen before, tending to avoid the plant fibers, but Jennifer Beale released a pattern in May that uses this yarn.  The pattern is a summer tee and I thought I would try it as I really like the tee.  I’m still swatching.  I know that I don’t want to use the needle size that she did as that was way too lose, but I went down a little too far and though I like the fabric, my gauge is tighter, so I thought I would do one more swatch to see if I can match the gauge and still get a fabric that I like, or if I will have to do the math.

Pattern:  Dress It Up by Lisa K. Ross

Yarn:  Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere

Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Dress It Up - Section 1 Done!

I finished Section 1 today and you can see how it lets the colors of the skein shine.  With the stripes you just get lines, but here you get to see the glory.  Much better, and it doesn’t make my eyes hurt.  Lots of increases to give it the crescent shape - 10 increases for every 4 rows (4 sts, 2 sts, 2 sts, 2 sts) - and that pattern of increases will continue.

Pattern:  Dress It Up by Lisa K. Ross

Yarn:  Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere

Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Way Ahead MKAL - Frogged, Dress It Up - Cast On!

I finished Clue 3 (the picture above), and Clue 4 (sorry no picture, but more of the mosaic with the colors switched) and was working more stripes to use up my yarn when I decided that I just wasn’t happy with the shawl.  The design is cool, but the striping of the colors was not working for me - the stripes seemed to vibrate in a most annoying way and I just couldn’t see myself wearing it.  I also felt that this pattern was not showcasing the yarns very well.  So, last night I frogged it and cast on a different shawl - Dress It Up, by Lisa K. Ross.  Even while I was working on this shawl, I had my doubts, so I had been looking for an alternative and I had a couple of potential patterns I could knit instead.

This shawl is crescent shaped, and features swaths of garter stitch with the variegated yarn, alternating with the dark purple worked in a section of twisted rib, and another section of lace.  I might add beads to the lace.

Pattern:  Dress It Up by Lisa K. Ross

Yarn:  Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere

Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Garden Variety MKAL - Finished!

I finished this up this past Monday, although I didn’t block it until Tuesday.  It was a lot of fun.  I enjoyed the construction and the color work and the pattern was extremely well-written.  It is huge, about two feet wide and eight feet long.

Pattern:  Garden Variety MKAL by Lisa K. Ross

Yarn:  Miss Babs Yummy 2-Ply

Needles:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Garden Variety MKAL - Clue 3 Done

After spending last weekend finishing up Arabian Nights, I turned my attention back to this shawl and finished up Clue 3 yesterday morning.  The design is a lot of fun, and very inspiring and I like the fact that it kind of looks like a dress.  The fourth clue is out and it uses the first three colors.  I may add some rows in to use up my leftovers, depending on how much of my main color I have.  I like the asymmetry of the design, and I love the colors.

Pattern:  Garden Variety MKAL by Lisa K. Ross
Yarn:  Miss Babs Yummy 2-ply and Yummy 2-ply Toes
Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Garden Variety MKAL - Clue 2 Done

The second clue on this shawl was a fair bit of knitting.  If I were running the show I probably would have allowed two weeks for this one, just so folks didn’t feel rushed.  I did find some of the stitches not hard, but a bit tedious, so I took my time.  I did use a crochet hook on the second and third loops of the Dahlia stitch.  Now I have to do more or less the same thing on the other side.  There is still a clue left, and this shawl is not big enough to be a shawl, yet, and there are three colors that we haven’t used since clue 1, so there is more to come.

Pattern:  Garden Variety MKAL by Lisa K. Ross

Yarn:  Miss Babs Yummy 2-ply and Yummy 2-ply Toes

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Garden Variety MKAL - Clue 1 Done

Last month Lisa Ross (Paper Daisy Creations) announced a mystery knit along and I was captivated by the kits that Miss Babs put together.  This is the Morning Glories kit, and the picture above shows the order that the mini-skeins were packed, but they are not the order that I am using them in.  I used the monochrome filter on my iPad to order them from lightest to darkest, which was a technique recommended in the pattern notes.

Here is the first clue knit up.  The second clue comes out on Tuesday.

Pattern:  Garden Variety MKAL by Lisa K. Ross
Yarn:  Miss Babs Yummy 2-ply and Yummy 2-ply Toes
Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)