When someone very important to me told me she would be moving away, someone who had done a great deal for me over the years and for whom I have never done a damn thing, I knew I should do something nice for her. She had always admired my Ishbel, and so I thought something like that would be nice, but not exactly like it because I like variety in my crafting.

So I was looking for a small-medium sized shawl involving some lace – either all-over simple lace or just a little lace, along the lines of the Ishbel, and preferably something that would work in a lightweight sock yarn, since that’s what I had to work with. Enter Emily. Now I will straight up admit that I am not a lace knitter. I can do it fine, but it’s not my favorite thing, and I am almost never drawn to big lacy shawls. Ever. But the sideways asymmetry of this pattern really grabbed be. Knitscene did a great job shooting that shawl, in my opinion. It looks very casual and natural on the model. So many modeled shawl shots often look awkward or too magickal-fairie-dust-esque for my taste. So I grabbed some malabrigo sock and cast on.

And I fell deeply, passionately in love with the results. So much so that it made giving up the shawl even more painful than it was already going to be. The lace pattern was easy, but there were enough things happening around the edges that it kept me interested the whole time – no small feat when we’re talking about the world’s most easily distracted crafter. And then there was the blocking! Magical. (Not magickal.)

And in the end it’s taken me a month and a half total to hand over the shawl, post the pictures, and write a blog entry on it. In the end I managed it all by clenching my jaw, forcing back the tears, saying goodbye and walking away.

Although I like the look of knitted lace, I’ve never really been one for the process. The same used to go for shawls, until I realized you can turn them around and wear them bandit-style, at which point I managed to crank out three shawls over the course of the summer. Two were for me, one was a gift; two can be worn bandit-style, one is a bit more structured and meant to hang over the shoulders and down the back.

First up, Laura Chau’s Simple Yet Effective Shawl. My number one inspiration for this project was the brightly colored sock yarn shawlette version knit by my friend Meg. I love the poppy bright color and the texture of the shawl knit fairly loosely on sock yarn. I wanted to knit something for our friend Brenda’s birthday and it seemed like a great opportunity for the bright red sugar viscose yarn I picked up when we all (Meg, Brenda, Vanessa and I) got together in Austin.

This shawl was a perfect way to feature this slick, drapey yarn. So I mentioned it’s sugar viscose – the yarn is Queensland Collection Sugar Rush, and it has the slick texture of microfiber, but is made from sugar cane. I can’t imagine it would work very well on a garment that you would need to fit in a particular way (shirt, sweater, hat, etc) but it makes a wonderfully drapey accessory to toss over your shoulders.

The pattern is a simple formula for this type of shawl. The only specific choices I made (besides yarn and gauge, obviously) were regarding the YOs. Like most triangular shawls knit from the center neck point out, the shaping is done with YOs down the center and along the sides. In this shawl, however, you’re alternating between strips of garter and stockinette stitch, but I wanted the YOs to look the same throughout. So when I was in a stockinette strip and would be purling the wrong-side rows I would still knit the YOs so they would always be resolved the same way. It makes for neater, more consistent lines, in my opinion.

Next up is the shawl that swept the online knitting world this summer – Ysolda Teague’s Ishbel. I’m not going to re-hash everything everyone else has said about this one, besides just noting that it was especially quick and rewarding. Not much effort –> really great payoff. Like many other knitters I chose to do the large stockinette section, but small lace. I’m pleased with the size, and for scrunching up around the neck bandit-style you just don’t need a ton of lace. The only issue I’ve had with the shawl is that, after a fair amount of wear, the nicely-blocked, lacey drapey shawl has scrunched up and needs to be blocked again. Who knows when I’ll have time/space for that again.

Here’s what I will dwell on, though – the yarn I used for this shawl. It’s a silk-merino blend sock yarn hand-dyed by North Loop Yarns. Laura sells her hand-dyed yarns through her etsy shop – and please don’t despair, she’s been moving and is offline for a little while, but I imagine once she has a regular day to day life again she’ll resume business. (Please soon? Laura?) At any rate, the silk blend was perfect for a shawl, and the Ishbel pattern looks great in a semi-solid color.

Finally, most recently I knit a shawl for my wedding reception. We got married in the end of September in Chicago, and although it’s frequently been pretty warm at this time, this year it got cold quickly. Our heat even came on a couple days ago! About a week before the wedding I started panicking about having something pretty to throw over my shoulders. I had a nice silk pashmina-style scarf I’d ordered with my dress, and ordinarily I’m a big fan of these things, but I just didn’t want to be constantly adjusting the thing, having it fall off when I hug people and hit them in the face, etc etc. I needed something to keep my shoulders warm that would also stay put, and as you can see in this next picture, the Summer Lace Shawlette (scroll down to the “sweet somethings” packet or just skip that awful page and see it on rav) by Sandi Wiseheart was the perfect solution:

Look – no adjusting required! So, I clearly didn’t wear a pink dino tee (by seibei, for all who are curious) for my wedding – if you’d like to see the shawl + dress combo you can take a look at these shots taken by Carolyn.

I used cascade cloud 9 for the shawl, and that yarn, although it is a touch sheddy because of the angora content, is worth Every. Cent. Soft and warm, soft and warm.

Just to bring this epic shawl post to a close, I have two more notes on this pattern. First, I did find one surprise in the shaping of the shawl, and that is at the shoulders. The reason I picked this shawl, like I said, is that it has that nice line of YOs over the shoulders so it stays put really naturally – no pinning, holding, wrapping, tugging, etc. (Um, that and I could knit it in like 3 days.) The thing is, there’s a spot along that line of YOs where the shaping changes (in row 27 you switch from YO, k1, YO to YO, double decrease, YO, so you’re not increasing so much across each row) and it creates a bit of a point right around the end of the shoulder. At first I allowed the point to do its thing in blocking, thinking this would provide the shoulder shaping I was after, but it was WAY too pointy. Then I blocked it again, trying to smooth out the point, which isn’t entirely possible while you’re trying to preserve the shape of the shawl. I ended up ironing over the points on the day of and it was fine, but not perfect.

Secondly, I’d like to say I wish Interweave would do something to promote this pattern a little better. I mean, I guess blog entries like that one, and people’s gorgeous shots of it on flickr do help, but it would be nice to see its publisher help out. The pattern is buried in a pamphlet of “sweet somethings,” which is cute, but it doesn’t tell me anything about what’s in there, and when you print this packet up you only get a grainy, out of focus picture of the front of the shawl. Clearly the interest is all in the back here. So come on interweave, you published a gorgeous shawl, why not give it some love?

WARNING: PHOTO-HEAVY POST!

This is a confession. I’m much better than I used to be about starting things and not finishing them. But I’ve been letting things pile up lately, and I’ve started to feel really guilty about it because, well, there are BABIES coming, people!!! Three of my friends are having babies in the pretty-near future and those babies need BOOTIES and SWEATERS and all kinds of cute things. And frankly, who doesn’t love knitting for babies, because they’re so little they wear very. little. clothes. And there is a child who is TWO YEARS OLD that I have yet to knit for. I know, I know. I’m a terrible person. So I figure, by letting everyone on the internet know how many projects I’ve let pile up maybe I’ll be motivated to finish them.

Also, I say I’m a lot better than I used to be because I no longer feel the need to finish things that I hate. I tear them out now, and I get a sickly gleeful about it because I can figure out a way to put that yarn to better use. It’s really creepy. I giggle psychotically the whole time.

So here we go:



This is where the UFOs live… This photo (with cold unforgiving light courtesy of amazing Chicagoland weather – looks like things are shaping up for a thunderstorm now – great) looks like some creepy Dutch still-life or something. (Sorry for exhibiting my horrible understanding of art, Jenny!)

Let’s take a look inside…

First up, and I won’t bore you with more photographs and babbling, is that Rusted Root sweater of my last post.



This guy has an interesting story. The yarn is Lion Brand Wool Ease Thick-and-Quick in Wheat, 86% acrylic, 10% wool, 4% rayon. I originally bought this to make the poncho in Deb Stoller’s first book (gee, I would put the title here, but I don’t want to get sued by that asshole company that will remain nameless that made everyone stop using that name). Anyway, I just didn’t like the poncho and was never wearing it and I thought it was taking up a whole lot of room in my closet for something I never wore, so I frogged it. Then I tried to knit the Bulky Cabled Sweater of Glampyre Knits, and it just wasn’t working out. Gague was fine and all, but the more I struggled through it, the more I realized I just didn’t like knitting it. That sweater should take two seconds it’s so bulky, and I’m not sure if it was the bulky yarn, bulky needles, or having to pay attention to the cable pattern or what, but I HATED it. So I frogged that, too. It’s too bad, because the pattern is cute, but it just wasn’t going to work on me (it was clearly going to add 20 lbs).

Also, somewhere along the line I noticed that the yarn kind of looks like off-white yarn that has tons and tons of pubes stuck to it. Seriously. And I can’t wear something that looks like it’s covered in pubes. But I figured I HAVE to use this yarn for SOMETHING, so I started making a really simple garter stitch rug out of it, and that’s what you see here. When this is done I think it’ll be really nice. Super washable, I won’t be bothered by the quasi-pube factor since it’ll be on the floor and not near my face, and it’ll feel so nice and squishy under my feet. Great for the bedroom, I think.



And here we have a knit that is a true pain in the ass to photograph! That shiny black thread (yarn? or thread. who knows.) with super-shiny beads. There’s NO. WAY. to distinguish those stitches!



Yeah, it just always looks like it’s glowing. It just loves the camera, I guess.

This is MaryElla from Knitty. My mom knit me one of these (I think it was for my birthday?) a few years ago and I think it’s just the coolest thing! I never would have picked that pattern out on my own, just because it never occurs to me to knit jewelry, but it is just so cute, and it turns out knitting with beads is fun as all get out! I love it. That’s DMC Perle cotton there, folks, on US0000 needles. Yikes! This one would get done faster, but it really puts a lot of pressure on my joints to knit on those tiny needles, so I can only do a little bit at a time. Also, there’s no way I’m taking those terrifying needles on an airplane. Ever. They’d get taken away in two seconds they look so scary.



And here we have something I’d really like to get done soon, but it’s just not going to happen immediately. I mean, it’s a sweater on size US3 needles for Christ’s sake. This is the Union Square Market Pullover (if you follow that link, it’s the one on the cover) by the fabulous Kate Gilbert in Misti Alpaca Worsted. This sweater is going to be so nice and cozy, yet pretty, when I finally finish it. I loved working the hemmed bottom – really smart design there!



Yes, we’ve all seen these. These are Grumperina’s Jaywalkers for Ali in Blue Moon Fiber Arts Sock Candy.

This yarn is so squishy and wonderful, I seriously MUST go out and buy more immediately after I send these socks away. And the name is hilarious: Sock Candy? Disgusting and adorable in a very special way. The pattern is so fun and easy! I’m planning on making a tiny pair for my favorite 2 year old after I’m done with these, which will be very soon.



But Lauren, you say, that isn’t even a project – that’s just a pile of blue yarn!

And that it is. But it’s my biggest guilty confession of them all. When my grandmother died last year the family encouraged my mother and I to take as much of her crafting materials as we could fit into our suitcases (they even shipped me some, so I have boxes of yarn AT MY PARENTS’ HOUSE – how sad is that). This is some German wool that looks like it originally was for one of her knitting machines (I think they’ve found 3 so far while cleaning out her house, but God only knows how many more there might be). It’s nice stuff, and it feels like it could be superwash, but I need to figure out the German word for that, because the label doesn’t have any English on it. At any rate, I have this stuff sitting in my UFO basket in the living room because I keep thinking I’ll start this project. What I want to do is knit a lap blanket for my dad. He likes lap blankets a lot, and having one made with his mom’s yarn by his daughter is the kind of thing that would really make him tear up. My dad is the kind of guy that appreciates objects of everyday use that carry deep personal (particularly familial) meaning. He’s a good guy. Very Yankee. He wants precious objects, but he wants them to have some kind of use. And thus, a lap blanket is perfect for him. I’m planning on using some big, fat Addis that I borrowed from my mom – she had them to make me a blanket a while back. I’m also going to copy the pattern mom used – it’s just a simple basket-weave. I think it’s the best way to make a blanket in only one color and have it be interesting.

So, I guess that’s that. At least one of these – the Jaywalker socks – will be done very, very soon… I suppose that’s six projects total. If you count the blue blanket…