Liken II - Ladders Fixed.

I really love the colors of this shawl and I love wearing it, but I don't love the ladders that I have between my double decreases.  You can pick up an entire column of stitches in those ladders, and that is exactly what I did.  But how do I anchor them?  I had thought about adding beaded kinky fringe through the last loop, but that would require a lot work and I just wasn't up for it.  Instead I decided to use jump rings.  I got the idea from folks making stitch markers out of jump rings with beads placed on them.  So, I ordered some jump rings and on Saturday morning I sat down and fixed those ladders.

The nice thing is that if I lose one I can easily replace it, and if I change my mind and want to use different beads, or jump rings, I can change things out easily and quickly.  My kind of fix.

Pattern:  Liken Shawl by Sivia Harding, modified to be a circular cape rather than a semi-circle
Yarn:  Zen Yarn Garden Serenity 20 in Divinity, Cherry Garcia and Chestnut
Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Liken II - Finished

I finished up the knitting Sunday night and finished up the cast off and blocked it on Monday.  I ran out of the Divinity (the lightest color) about two-thirds of the way through the bind off, used up the rest of the Cherry Garcia (the variegated color) and then finished off the last two scallops with the Chestnut (the darkest color).  I really like the contrast bind off so I will use it when I reknit my first Liken shawl.  I've already frogged most of the first shawl, but will need to unkink the yarn before I can knit with it.  I'll do a spreadsheet for the repeats of the charts and the extra rows of the variegated.  It will be different than this shawl because it turns out that my skein of Chestnut was a little light.  It is a really great design for using up all of your yarn because you can adjust the clue repeats or add extra rows of the variegated yarn and it all just works out.

You can really see the contrast bind off in this picture.  I can't decide if I like the variegated or the brown better.

Pattern:  Liken Shawl by Sivia Harding, modified to be a circular cape rather than a semi-circle
Yarn:  Zen Yarn Garden Serenity 20 in Divinity, Cherry Garcia and Chestnut
Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Liken II - Charts C and D Done

I finished up Chart C last night and snapped a quick picture on the daybed under artificial light.  Once again I doubled the number of rows of Color B (the Cherry Garcia).  My yarn usage of Color C (the Chestnut) increased on this Chart, which meant that I had to adjust my plans because after Chart C I no longer had quite enough yarn to finish both Charts D and E as written.  Chart D has 8 rows of Color C and Chart E has 4 rows of Color C.  I had enough to do 6 of the 8 rows of Chart D and all 4 rows of Chart E.  On Chart D I switched to Color B two rows early.  The colors in the second photo are truer to life.

Pattern:  Liken Shawl by Sivia Harding, modified to be a circular cape rather than a semi-circle
Yarn:  Zen Yarn Garden Serenity 20 in Divinity, Cherry Garcia and Chestnut
Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Liken II - Charts A and B Done

I have been working steadily on my second Liken shawl.  I wasn't as diligent as I should have been when it came to weighing my skeins as I went, but I've gotten myself back on track.  I put together a spreadsheet after finishing 3 repeats of Lace Chart A and did some figuring to see how much yarn I needed to complete the shawl and how I wanted to work the rest of the charts. When I finished up Clue 2 I had enough of Color A (Divinity) to work the last clue (Chart F) and do the bind off.  Serendipity.

I then tackled Clue 3 - Chart B.  I decided to work 4 rows of Color B (Cherry Garcia) instead of the 2 called for in the pattern.  This lets me use up a lot more of Color B, plus I really like the color and wanted more of it in the shawl.  At this point I have enough yarn to work one repeat of each of the remaining charts, with extra rows of Color B for Charts C and D.

Pattern:  Liken Shawl by Sivia Harding, modified to be a circular cape rather than a semi-circle
Yarn:  Zen Yarn Garden Serenity 20 in Divinity, Cherry Garcia and Chestnut
Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

LIken II - Clue 1 Done

This past weekend was interminable.  Bruce was out of town and I had to cope with everything on my own.  I did a lot of projects around the house, but not much knitting.  But last week, before Fred became ill I did start my second Liken Shawl.  I pretty much winged the first clue, casting on 46 stitches and doubling stitches where it felt right.  I didn't do three sections like the original, only two.  This should cause the lace patterning to start at my shoulders.

As a reminder, these are the colors that I pulled from my stash.  From left to right - Divinity, Cherry Garcia and Chestnut.  All from Zen Yarn Garden, all Serenity 20, one of my favorite fingering weight yarns - a 70 % superwash merino, 20 % cashmere, 10 % nylon combo.

Pattern:  Liken Shawl by Sivia Harding, modified to be a circular cape rather than a semi-circle
Yarn:  Zen Yarn Garden Serenity 20 in Divinity, Cherry Garcia and Chestnut
Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)