Project 38: Traveling Woman

This project was completed in May, 2011.

Traveling Woman is a very popular pattern that's been around a while. The designer re-released the pattern with a host of matching patterns and directions for making the shawl in other sizes and yarn weights. I used the free version to make my own, at long last!





It's a nice little shawlette, and the yarn really makes it. It was also a quick knit, taking me only three days to complete.




Pattern: Traveling Woman by Liz Abinante (the free version; there is also a pay version available)

Yarn: Alina Shea Creations Vines in "dancing in the rain", the club yarn from February 2011.

Needles: US 7 (4.5mm) nickel-plated Knit Picks interchangeables.

Rav Page

Mods: I did 3 repeats of Chart A. it's been a while, so not sure if that's a mod or not....

Project 37: Deathly Hallows Illusion Dishcloth

This project was completed in May, 2011.

This dishcloth was my first try at illusion knitting. Very cool!





Pattern: Deathly Hallows Illusion Cloth by Jenn Bragg

Yarn: Natural color is a Peaches & Creme cone of cotton in Ecru; blue is Lily's Sugar & Cream in cornflower blue. I used 34.4 yards of ecru and 38.4 yards of blue.

Needles: Size 8 (5.0mm) boye aluminum circular needles

Rav Page

Mods: none

Locals, read this! and WIP Wednesday, November 9, 2011

My Tour de Sock....er ... tour.... ends tonight, as Stage 4 is ending in a few hours and this is all I have.



Oh well, I stuck it out as long as I could and that was far longer than I expected! And now I'm a sock knitter!!

But, right now, this sock knitter wants to look at lace.



This is a variant of the very popular pattern Ishbel, where the lace is started first thing instead of having a stockinette triangle. The variant is a free supplement to the actual Ishbel pattern, which needs to be purchased to make the shawl. Also,

Meanwhile, I've finished the first bobbin with half of my purple rain batts I started spinning the other day.



Back in August some areas near where I live were hit very hard by flooding from Hurricane Irene. Here in town we were fine, but some of the lower-lying areas of the city near the river were flooded and the nearby Schoharie Valley had historic flooding, destroying homes, farms, and businesses.

This morning I learned about a not-for-profit corporation called Schoharie Recovery, based right in Schoharie and working to match skills, volunteers, and donations with the people who need help.  This weekend there is a fundraising event for Schoharie Recovery from a local spinning guild in conjunction with the Home for the Holidays weekend.  There's more information over here.

As for me, as soon as I got off the phone with the organizer to say I'll be there Sunday for sure and probably part of Saturday too, I started spinning up this corriedale roving so I can donate it to sell.



Every little bit helps, right? Of course I want to help, but sometimes it's hard to figure out how to help. This time it was easy.  Maybe I can get some holiday shopping done too!

Project 36: Dane Shawl

This project was completed in May, 2011.

Another lovely free pattern on Ravelry! This is called Dane Shawl.





It's supposed to be a shallow triangle, based on traditional Danish heart-shaped shawls.  I blocked mine to more of a triangle and less of a heart shape.



I think every comment about this shawl in person has started with the colors.  It's all in the yarn, Plymouth Zino.  It's a sock yarn, but it's a fingering weight single (just one ply) and it just seemed like it really would work well as a triangular shawl.



Pattern: Dane Shawl by Jane Tanner (free)

Yarn: Plymouth Yarn Zino in color "8", all 436 yards of it

Needles: Size 6 (4.0mm) nickel-plated Knit Picks Options

Rav Page

Mods: I liked the written bind-off but ran out of yarn with about 3 inches to go. So I tinked back a bit and switched to a very loose regular old knit 1, pass old stitch over new stitch, repeat bind-off. I had enough yarn left from that to weave in as the tail, and that was that.

Monday, Monday

I'll  apologize right now for getting that song stuck in your head...

I've been longing for some spinning wheel time since,  oh,  the last time I used it,  and I finally gave in because I couldn't stand waiting anymore.  My wheel is a Kromski Minstrel, a double drive that I've been using primarily as a single drive because I'm a newish spinner and it helps me not lose control.  So my double drive band snapped a while back and I kept tying it back together a little shorter until it kept splitting to the point where I couldn't get it to work on my largest whorl.  So yesterday I got out the hemp I've had kicking around the craft room for ages and made a new drive band. Then, I got to work!





Fiber is a batt called Purple Rain from Old Sheep Studio on Etsy.

WIP Wednesday, November 2, 2011

We're up to Stage 4 of the Tour de Sock, and much to my surprise I'm still in it!! This stage's pattern is Technical.



Now, in case it's not obvious from the picture, I need to get back to work while I have two brain cells to clang together. This one is tricky!!