Back for Now

Well, I decided to revive the good ol' blog here because I've been knitting again and need to share to those who will understand. I joined the 12 Shawls in 2012 group over on Ravelry. I was totally psyched to find so many beautiful shawls using just one skein of sock yarn. A few years ago, I joined the sock yarn craze but realized that I didn't really enjoy knitting socks. (Love the sock yarn and sock patterns-just not the actual knitting of the socks.)

The plan was to use stash yarn for all the shawls--2 birds and all that. I have some beautiful Neighborhood Fiber Co. sock skeins that I absolutely lurve. I got them when Karida had a yarn club a few years ago. I think the reason I have knit 3 shawl patterns that I have had to frog is that the label on the yarn says it has 435yds but the Ravelry database shows that her sock yarn has 400 yards. I've been planning and knitting based on 435yds but I think that is where I've been going wrong. My latest effort is Vlad using the Thomas Circle colorway. Love the pattern and so far its looking good.

My failed attempts (Rav links): Old Man of Storr Shawlette, Ethereal Triangular Shawl (I will have to find another yarn for this pattern), and Rough Sea Shawl. All great patterns and all just required a little more yarn than I had. I had a bee in my bonnet about finally using my Neighborhood Fiber Co. yarn so I just kept trying to find new patterns instead of changing the yarn. The yarns a pleasure to knit, and they are especially meaningful to me because I lived in DC and the color names remind me of the years I lived there. (Not to mention, the creator and owner of the company, Karida, is a wonderful person and talented artist.) I'll have to take some pics so that you can actually see what I'm working on these days.

Finally, photos

For my Tia, who is celebrating her 50th wedding anniversary in a few weeks:


(for reference, the shawl is blocking on a queen-sized bed)


(sorry for the white on white, hopefully you can still make out the shawl)

Pattern: Blue Curacao by Doris Chan (Ravelry link, part of Amazing Crochet Lace)
Yarn: Lily Chin's Greenwich yarn in white, 60% nylon, 22% acrylic, 28% mohair. This was the yarn in the pattern and I happened to have some in my stash. I actually have enough for another one but I haven't decided if I should make the same pattern for my mom.
Modifications: none

I really enjoyed crocheting this project. I was done in a couple of weeks but that was mostly because I didn't have much time to work on it during the week.

For myself:





Pattern: Tiger Eyes Lace Scarf by Toni M. Maddox
Yarn: Neighborhood Fiber Co. Limited Edition: Luxury Sock Yarn (Cashmere & merino) in Raspberry Truffle. (Ravelry link since I can't find it anywhere else)
Modifications: I split the skein in two (good thing I have that scale) and then knit both ends at the same time. Originally, I used a 3-needle bindoff to join the two sides but it wasn't stretchy enough so I had to kitchener it together.

I've already worn this twice. It's only 8" wide but its ridiculously long, I think it was almost 80". It was too long to block on the queen-sized bed so I put a sheet over the carpet and pinned it using blocking wires.