Friday Stitch Day Update: December 3, 2021
Well, I did get the ends woven on “Interlude” by Shannon Dunbabin and the shawl blocked:
Some comments on the pattern: I think the lace is lovely, but I’m not too crazy with the construction of the shawl, or rather, the mode of increases.
Basically you have the 4 bands of lace and each of those has no increases within it, and in between the bands you have a row of alternating knit stitches and yarn overs to double the stitch count so you have big jumps instead of a steady increase.
This means at the end of those bands when you block it to the semi-circle/crescent shape, you have horizontal distortion.
Which is an interesting contrast, I guess, but I think I like it better when a shawl is shaped with other modes of increasing in more consistent and gradual ways.
The lack of increases except in between the different lace bands also made it tougher to stretch and block the shawl into shape
Anyway, I posted before what the yarn is, from a local spinner.
I’d also like a wider shawl, but then I have very broad shoulders and I also still have a bunch of weight to lose, so the shawl will wrap and sit better as I get down towards my goal. That’s an issue with other shawls I have, too, though, not just this one.
Now, one knitting project done, onto another. And since I wanted quick justification, I remembered I’d found a bag with 2 balls of yarn, a book, and a nearly-finished mitten:
So, I would just need to finish the thumb, weave ends, and knit the mate.
Just a couple problems:
- It’s too long. The white line is waste yarn when the thumb needs to go, but if I line that up properly, I’d have more than an inch at the top that will flap around past the end of my fingers.
- I kinda don’t really like the pattern, or at least the way it turned out with these yarns (they look better in photos than in person). It’s on the cover of the book in black and light grey and looks better with that level of value contrast, whereas the teal and purple I chose are fairly close in value so the pattern doesn’t pop as much as it would if I’d picked a tone-on-tone like sky blue and teal or purple and lavender.
- I don’t like the really pointy shape and I screwed up the tip:
I think I remember undoing and redoing it three or 4 times and it always ends up screwy with this dumb little flap at the tip that I somehow have to stitch down.
So… I wasn’t thrilled to just make a mate, and I have a fair amount of the yarns left:
So, I picked another pattern out of this book (60 More Quick Knits), called “Art Deco Mittens”:
These are a bit shorter with a blunter tip that should be easier for me to not screw up, lol:
So, I’m chipping away with these for the next project.
On the stitching front, the only thing I stitched is “Refuse to Sink” by Hands On Design:
