Recent Knitting

I realized yesterday that I never posted anything about the shawl that was destined for the cruise. When I picked out the dress that I wore for formal night, I thought it would be nice to have a shawl to go with it. Like many knitters out there, wanting a shawl did not mean going to the store to peruse the selection of shawls. Instead, it means going to the yarn store and perusing the selection of yarns. Even if the cruise is a mere few weeks away. With the blessing of my husband, I went to the local yarn shop and spent a good deal of time looking at every beautiful yarn that seemed like it would coordinate with the purple of my dress, as seen here. I rubbed them against the inside of my wrist to see how soft they were. I carried them around. I laid all my choices side by side and stared at them. I texted my husband pictures of the laid out yarns and asked his opinion. I ended up choosing a 50% merino, 50% silk fingering weight yarn by the Great Adirondack Yarn Co. The yarn name is Sirino, and the colorway is Peacock. The price tag for the yarn did make my breath catch, but it was just so pretty. This was, by far, the most expensive yarn I have ever purchased.

I chose the pattern Palessie. This is a paid pattern, and I felt it was well written and worth the cost. I purchased the ebook with has both a shawl and cowl pattern.

 I knit with all my might and free time on this shawl, trying to finish in time. My free time was not in a great abundance leading up the cruise and trying to get all of out preparations and packing in order. I was so close, and yet not quite there. By the time I went to bed on the first evening of the cruise I was a third of the way finished with the bind off. With formal night being on the second night, I really did not think I have time to finish and block the shawl, and made the decision not to let it overtake the other fun things I wanted to do with my family.

I did end up finishing it on the place ride home, and blocking it the following weekend. As far as I am concerned, it still is a souvenir from my trip, and I love wearing it. I still have yet to master the great shawl photograph, so you will have to take my word on just how much more beautiful the colors are in person.

The second project that I am working on is a simple pair of socks for myself. The yarn is Premier Yarns Serenity Sock Yarn in the Indigo colorway. But what is that you are thinking? That sock picture below looks nothing like Indigo. Well, you see, Joanns had a wonderful clearance of sock yarns going on a while ago so I purchased a number of skeins. I had enough for two pair of socks with this colorway, but I didn't actually want two pair of socks the same color. The color you see below is the result of me plopping the yarn into a pot filled with water and a number of Kool-Aid packets. There was grape and some sort of red one, but I can not get any more specific than that....since I can't remember.

The pattern for the sock is just from using the numbers provided in Silver's Sock Class, which I highly recommend for those wanting to learn to knit socks. I did change the heel flap for a regular stockinette and added the garter edging. The toe does look really weird in this photograph due to the fact that I still need to do the Kitchener stitch to close it up. Second sock syndrome hit me pretty bad on this one, and even before the first sock was done.

Lastly, I am working on a pair of socks for the little man. Squirt has been asking me who gets the socks I was working on for the last few pairs I have made, and was disappointed that none of them were for him. I had a single skein of Panda Cotton on my yarn shelf, so I decided to try to whip him up a quick pair. I had gotten to the arch of his foot when I made the conclusion that they were too big.

Two things bothered me about the socks being too large. First, I was pretty sure I would run out of yarn before I finished. Second, the whole idea of making something for him to grow into flies out the window as far as socks are concerned. I would bet my pinky toe that one is lost within two months of me completing them.