Placeholder
I knit this shawl a month ago, but it was to be a gift, so it remained unblogged, so to speak:
Sorry for the slightly blurry photo, but, alas, the shawl is away now, and not available for re-takes.
It started life as the Large Rectangle with center diamond pattern (descriptive name, I would say) from Victorian Lace Today (page 20-21). I changed a few things: the pattern specifies stockinette for the center section, and I changed it to garter. Experience tells me that a knitted gift, if given to a non-knitter, and if it has not other identifying features (such as sleeves), will be worn backwards, inside out and upside down. So garter stitch, being no-sided, is more useful in this case.
I changed the border slightly: there was a holey bit in the pattern, which I replaced with straight garter stitch. Then the edging, which in the original is very nice, got replaced with the easy, already-memorized knit-on edging that I have used before, for no other reason than it was quicker, and time was of the essence.
Then the color:
got replaced with black. Well, it really is black, bad photo notwithstanding. The recipient (my sister) wanted something black. I had this nice alpaca yarn, alas in rust. The yarn was in nice center-pull skeins, and would have been a pain to re-skein and dye (lace weight). Plus, then I'd have to figure out how many of the eight skeins I had to re-skein and dye. So instead I knit it as is, colorwise, then dyed the shawl. Mo' betta.
I made a shawl pin:
which happily shows up on the right color black this time. I also made a little case for it out of fabric. As a travel shawl, a fabric pouch is almost a necessity: pulling fine lace in and out of a tote bag would be a recipe for snag-disasters. The fabric pouch (alas, no photo) will make the bundled shawl into a nice pillow too, perfect for trains and planes when, yuck, who wants to use the *public pillows*.
I liked the pattern, and will probably do another version. I dyed a sample of the rust yarn red, which would make a nice shawl for me. I may also try a blanket, in a heavier yarn, with a wider center section. I love, love, love cuddling under a knitted blanket. This first version was knit on size 3 needles, and never got too big nor too heavy for a carry-around project.
Why the post title? I am working on some very fun weaving, which I thought I would have ready for a blog post this week, but alas, more sampling is required. I had this post in the blog-bank, and as more of you are knitters than weavers, I am sure you are just as happy!
Sorry for the slightly blurry photo, but, alas, the shawl is away now, and not available for re-takes.
It started life as the Large Rectangle with center diamond pattern (descriptive name, I would say) from Victorian Lace Today (page 20-21). I changed a few things: the pattern specifies stockinette for the center section, and I changed it to garter. Experience tells me that a knitted gift, if given to a non-knitter, and if it has not other identifying features (such as sleeves), will be worn backwards, inside out and upside down. So garter stitch, being no-sided, is more useful in this case.
I changed the border slightly: there was a holey bit in the pattern, which I replaced with straight garter stitch. Then the edging, which in the original is very nice, got replaced with the easy, already-memorized knit-on edging that I have used before, for no other reason than it was quicker, and time was of the essence.
Then the color:
got replaced with black. Well, it really is black, bad photo notwithstanding. The recipient (my sister) wanted something black. I had this nice alpaca yarn, alas in rust. The yarn was in nice center-pull skeins, and would have been a pain to re-skein and dye (lace weight). Plus, then I'd have to figure out how many of the eight skeins I had to re-skein and dye. So instead I knit it as is, colorwise, then dyed the shawl. Mo' betta.
I made a shawl pin:
which happily shows up on the right color black this time. I also made a little case for it out of fabric. As a travel shawl, a fabric pouch is almost a necessity: pulling fine lace in and out of a tote bag would be a recipe for snag-disasters. The fabric pouch (alas, no photo) will make the bundled shawl into a nice pillow too, perfect for trains and planes when, yuck, who wants to use the *public pillows*.
I liked the pattern, and will probably do another version. I dyed a sample of the rust yarn red, which would make a nice shawl for me. I may also try a blanket, in a heavier yarn, with a wider center section. I love, love, love cuddling under a knitted blanket. This first version was knit on size 3 needles, and never got too big nor too heavy for a carry-around project.
Why the post title? I am working on some very fun weaving, which I thought I would have ready for a blog post this week, but alas, more sampling is required. I had this post in the blog-bank, and as more of you are knitters than weavers, I am sure you are just as happy!
posted by Sara at 8:03 AM
6 Comments:
I especially like it that you dyed the finished shawl. And the fabric pouch is very thoughtful. You know I love the shawl pin. What a good sis you are!!
What a neat gift - especially since it had it's own shawl pin and pillow/pouch. Very cool, and lucky sister. Great idea to dye the shawl rather than the yarn.
I'm scratching my head as to how you got those beads onto a safety pin. Terrific shawl! Maybe I'd wear a shawl if I pinned it on. I hold my hands in front of me to keep mine from falling off - kinda the priest posture.
Very pretty! As a person who lives with cats (with lots of pointy bits) I really like the idea of the pouch.
Ahh, but I knit AND weave, so I'm always happy to read your posts! Very lovely shawl. I wish I had the setup to just dump things in dye pots willy nilly as you do. No space, sadly. Love reading your blog.
How pretty! I too would like to know how you put put the beads on the pin. Just larger bead holes, she asks?
Post a Comment
<< Home