Genius

So, I haven't any new knitting pictures, because the rain has been coming down for a week. You'll have to take my word that I'm nearly finished hubby's sweater, I've up to charts d1 and d2 on the stunning Celestarium, using Ozifarmer's Market silky lace, in a beautiful blue-to-pink gradient, and I designed and whipped out a little merino shrug for my shop. Or, at least,  that's how I'm telling it. I'm not mentioning that laziness turned the shrug I had intended to wear myself and worked tirelessly over in an attempt to wear it to the baptism into something to fit a small girl. Nope. I wouldn't do that. Nor would I design without a gauge swatch.  Nope.

What I would do, however, is have a long and emphatic conversation at my favourite yarn shop, regarding how I can't buy that stunning purple BFL, because I just don't like, and hence, wear, the colour purple. While wearing a purple t shirt. Which I appropriately noticed an hour later. Oh, the shame.

Gone, like the wind

I had a moment, earlier, when I was thinking something spectacularly amusing and intelligent, and I thought to myself, that, that is what you should be writing in that blog of yours, and then I dragged two tired kids to mass, ate a very late supper, had tiny fingers up my nose while giving an impromptu anatomy lesson...and forgot.  Just plum forgot, between the nose being pulled, and being screamed at (oh, bedtime), but I swear,  it would have been a glorious blog post.

But hey. I'm knitting a Link hat for a grown man, because I think he'll look great in it, and I just happened to have the exact shade of Cascade 220 on my shelf.

What is age, but a number?

Oh, blog readers. I can no longer claim to be young, hip, or cool. Okay, so perhaps I never have been able to, but any chance I ever had of claiming it has dissipated irrevocably. You see, my much cooler brother-in-law, who is in a two person cover band with his equally cool girlfriend, is playing a gig in a super cool bar in the awesomely cool City (you see where I am going here? Cool). My effortlessly cool other brother in law has gone down to watch said gig, and although I dithered, and considered, and even brushed my teeth...the lure of child-free, husband-free knitting was too strong. I am on the couch, periodically trying on a sleeve from the sweater I'm whipping up in the Skeinz Cheviot Aran I hand-dyed. I ended up overdying it with a blue/black mix, and it's lovely if I do say so myself.

Yea verily, I be not of the cool variety. But I am content. Mostly. Sorry, brothers in law.

Still alive, still knitting.

I've been busy, I swear. Firstly, I've been buying yarn. Heaps of it. Compulsively, it would seem, as I glance guiltily at my yarn shelf, which looks like this:

Forgive the crappy quality. I need a real camera. 

In my defense, my favourite shop  (which we only get to every few months) had an amazing sale and I was in need of a sweater quantity of red. That's it on top of my hand cards. I bought 10 balls of Debbie Bliss Luxury Aran Tweed, at a fantastic 30% off, for which I am still hunting for an appropriate pattern. May just have to write something up myself.

In the nearly two weeks I've been away,  I've completed (and worn many times) the cotton pullover I designed. I love the flattering fit, though I could have knit a little longer. Laziness won in the end. With it being a top down raglan,  it's easily adjusted.
My husband took the model-esque photos on the gorgeous south coast this past weekend. The shot below shows better detail on the mock-cable (it's really just knitting a few stitches out of order) detail on the front and sleeves.

I especially like that I paid about $20 for this shirt, as I scored the yarn at the Morris and Sons winter sale. It's Fibranatura Cottonwood, which is discontinued (I'm seeing I buy a lot of discontinued yarns...bad designer), in 41115. I used six of the ten balls I snapped up for $30, so I'll whip up something for the bub.

We were down on the South Coast this weekend for my nephew's baptism, and I wouldn't be a knitter if I hadn't whipped something up to wear for the ceremony! I attempted this pattern about ten times over the past year (I've been knitting for a year this week, whoo!), never managing to get past the halfway mark of chart B1 without frogging. I put the pattern in time out about nine months ago, but with a week to go until the baptism, I thought what the hey. So I dragged it out, grabbed the gorgeous August Bird flare fingering in "stonefall" I had been hoarding since November, and gave it one more go.

More artsy photography.

Success! I love this shawl. It's soft, warm, and airy, and looks equally beautiful worn as a kerchief or pinned around my shoulders for maximum effect. It's the "Petal Shawlette", from Sock Yarn One Skein Wonders. modified slightly to suit my needs. As I used my 4.5 mm needles (I didn't really read the pattern prior to starting, and was NOT going to frog this attempt, damn it), I cut the shawl off with four rows left of chart C, as it was plenty large.

Better get the kidlet to school...

On a non knitting note...

Does anyone else's kid go out of their way to be irritating before your first cup of coffee? I swear mine just sat down as I was trying to enjoy my breakfast (cake I made yesterday, so sue me), waved a clicking plastic "weapon" and screeched "NING NING NING NING NING". It's going to be a long day. Thank god for school.

(But not for the germs school brings.  The baby has watery eyes and a snotty snout.)

Success!

I forgot to mention, in the end I completed that pesky christening gown, as well as jotted down a quick pattern for it (which I'm unfortunately not releasing as the gown is available as a custom knit in my shop) and I have to say, I'm quite pleased with it! I used Bendigo Woolen Mills Luxury 8 Ply in "cream". Took just a little under 100 grams.

Free pattern! Ruffled Shawlette

As promised. Do let me know if you spot any errors!

Ruffled Shawlette

Materials: 50 grams (200 metres) each of Australian Alpaca Barn’s Panache 4 ply, in Taupe, Grape and Mulberry (I used every last scrap of the mulberry, you may wish to purchase a second ball of your edging colour to be safe). As gauge is not important for this project, feel free to sub in the 4 ply (fingering weight) yarn of your choice. Please bear in mind this may change the meterage required.

4.5 mm 100 cm circular needles

Stitch marker

Body:

C/O 5 stitches using main colour, placing marker between the second and third stitch. The third stitch will be the center stitch, or backbone of your shawl.

Row 1: Knit across, using the Elizabeth Zimmermann M1 (backwards loop cast on) to make one stitch after the marker, K1, M1 and knit across.

Row 2: Slip 1 stitch purlwise, YO, purl to last stitch, YO, P1

Row 3 (Contrast colour): Slip 1 stitch purlwise, YO, knit to marker, M1, K1, M1, knit to end of row.

Row 4: Slip 1 stitch purlwise, YO, purl across to last stitch, YO, P1.

Repeat rows 3 and four, changing colours every second row (IE: Knit one row, purl one row, switch colours) until shawl is desired size. End on a right side row (knit the last row).

Edging:

The edging is knitted on sideways and utilises short rows to emphasize the ruffles, so you begin by casting on 13 stitches on your left-hand needle.

Row 1: Knit across these 13 stitches

Row 2: P10, turn, K10

Row 3: P10, K3, knitting the last stitch together with 1 stitch from the main body of the shawl

Row 4: K3, P10

Row 5: K10, turn, P10

Row 6: Knit across, knitting the last stitch together with a stitch from the shawl body.

Repeat these rows across the length of your shawl, until there are no remaining stitches from the shawl body. Bind off.

To Block: Soak shawl in warm water with a mild wool wash (I use Eucalan, Soak, or Unicorn Fibre Wash) for a minimum of 30 minutes. Remove from the water, supporting the weight of the shawl, and gently squeeze out the water. Place on a towel, roll up, and squish the towel to remove any remaining water. Pin out on a mat, bed, or any flat surface you don’t mind getting a little damp. Stretch the backbone straight out until you reach desired dimensions and pin. As this shawl’s “wings” curve, I tend to pin with them curved just slightly above the shawl. Do not pin out ruffled edging, or you’ll lose the welts.

Let dry, unpin, and enjoy!