there and back again

It is done! Melanie Berg’s Sunwalker shawl has been in my Ravelry queue since November 2015 when I bought the yarn at Knit, Purl on a Thanksgiving trip to Portland. While it took me a long time to start it, it took just a month and a half to finish. I think that speaks to both the simplicity of the pattern and how much I enjoyed it. I certainly intended for it to be a longer knit, but there you go. Couldn’t put it down.

I did need to refer to the pattern at the beginning and end of each row to make sure I had my increases correct, but the fabric itself is quite simple. The textured sections are moss stitch and the lace panel pattern was not only easy to memorize, but easy to read from the row below.

I remember taking the photo above and thinking “omg am I ever going to get to the lace section???” As the rows of moss stitch grew, the long stretches of k1/p1 motion was getting harder on my hands so I switched back and forth between working on this and the other things I have going. I mean, what else is a girl to do while watching all of the tennis?? 

The first rows of the lace felt like a huge milestone only to be eclipsed by the first rows of the second moss stitch band. I must admit, once I started that last part I ignored the rational me who knew it would be an awful lot of knitting for one day and just kept going until I finished. The I-cord bind off wasn’t cumbersome but took a long time. It is a lovely way to finish off an edge though. Taking stock, this thing is huge. Like I wasn’t sure how to take pictures of it huge, and I am likely not going to block it and the lace looks just fine without it huge. As for me, I like the larger shawls because they wrap easily and in many ways. 

I’m not totally sure where the color name ‘Shire’ came from but I’m assuming it is a Lord of the Rings reference, so instead of Sunwalker I’m calling this There and Back Again. We still have some chilly days ahead of us in April so despite the fact that I did not finish this in time to wear it for St. Patrick’s Day I’m hopeful it will get some use before it gets too hot. 

Pattern: Sunwalker by Melanie Berg (my Ravelry page)

Yarn: Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light in ‘Shire’

Needle: US 6

Size: 124” x 30”

Update:

I decided to block it. It is now more like 140" x 40" Huge! And awesome. The lace panel looks way better and even the textured seed stitch sections are improved after the soak and stretch. 

more mosaic

I’ve been enjoying a return to crochet lately. I’ve also enjoyed starting a bunch of new things. And (ahem) acquiring more yarn. This new project ticks off all three of those boxes at once! I have a nephew coming this summer and I decided it was the perfect time to try out a crochet blanket pattern I found recently. It might seem ambitious, but I think it will actually go pretty quickly! 

Picking out colors for a little boy was SO FUN. I ended up with a slant rhyme to nautical yellow and blue. While the teal and mustard are not what I’d call bright, they are still saturated and vibrant. The natural colored background (Scheepjes calls it English Tea) color sets them off well and hopefully will hold up better than white. I wonder, does “English tea” suggest the color of a cup of tea, or that the yarn was dropped in tea and rescued? It makes me chuckle as I work to think of fishing yarn out of a cup of tea. 

The Crossroads Throw I finished was so fun that I went searching for other mosaic crochet projects on Ravelry and came up with this pattern. The center panel will be the teal and tea waves, and there is a border strip with the mustard ‘snake’ all around the edges. It was a little slow getting started and reading the pattern, but now that I’m used to it things are moving along. 

lavender

With all the tiny yarn shawl projects on the needles, sometimes you just have to work on something quick and easy. It seems like every time I stop in Michael’s I find myself over by the cotton yarn bins picking out a couple of balls for crocheting. 

This time I was with a friend who picked out these pretty spring colors. The fun thing was, when I got home and started working on these I realized that the purple ball was scented like lavender! That made working on these especially nice - I will have to keep my eye out for more of the smelly ones. 

I used the scented solid in the border rows and the variegated ball in the center and for the edging which means each of the finished squares look quite different from each other. These four squares used up all of two balls of cotton and filled up an evening with lavender scent and relaxing making.

yet another

While it’s ironic that I haven’t made much more progress on the Shetland shawl, whose last hank of yarn was the reason I wound all of the things, I have enjoyed the casting on of not one but THREE new shawls. All triangle, all fingering weight, two of which are just one skein big. This third shawl uses another King’s Mountain Art Fair purchase. It has SPARKLES in it and is a variegated party of some of my favorite colors: gray, purple, and turquoise.

The pattern is super simple and has some really neat slipped/dropped stitch texture to it that I think suits the relatively busy variegation very well. I am enjoying the way the colors are playing in the stockinette and also the funny fact that my needles and silly sheep stitch markers coordinate. It’s a simple thing, but oddly satisfying whilst taking photos. This yarn bowl is on my nightstand so I can get in a row here and there before going to sleep. Hopefully the mischievous kitty who likes to play with yarn can ignore it for now!