Saturday, February 26, 2011

First Shawl

With part of my Christmas gifts of Lambikin's Hideaway gift cards I recently took a class to make a lace shawl.

The class was taught by Mindy and used her first pattern, the Holden Shawlette (available for free on Ravelry). The class was very popular and the store is offering another session in March, as well as another class featuring a beaded shawl (details at the Lambikin's site linked above).

I used a skein of Juliana Fingering yarn (70% alpaca, 20% silk, 10% cashmere), which was dyed by Mindy -- her yarns are at Ewe3 over on Etsy. I think the popularity of the shawl classes and of Lambikin's Saturday Sock Club has greatly depleted her available stock, but I know more will be on the way. I used the Violet Vale colorway, which is three different shades of one color of purple. I love everything about this yarn, and one skein was more than enough -- I probably could have done another repeat of the lace pattern.

This pattern is a great introduction to lace knitting and to triangle top-down shawls. The stockinette portion isn't so big that you get discouraged or bored, and the lace is simple but beautiful. There are really only two rows per repeat where you really need to concentrate closely. I could handle baby-interruptions on all other rows. The picot bind-off takes a really long time, but is totally worth it.
Here's a shot of the shawl pre-blocking:

During its soak in the tub:

And while it was pinned out:

It's another new FO that I seem to wear every time I leave the house. I think I may have caught the Shawl Bug.

Monday, February 21, 2011

2011 Washcloths - February Edition

February's washcloth was finished on the 11th of the month. So far, so good with my washcloth-a-month plan. I used one of the patterns found on the back of the ball band from the yarn for January's washcloth.

Again I used my usual Lily Sugar 'n Cream cotton yarn with size 8 needles. This color is called "Mistletoe" and I rather like the way the colors pooled on this corner-to-corner pattern.
When I went to put away this washcloth, I looked through my cotton stash to get ideas for next month, and found quite a nice surprise:

I have three already completed washcloths hidden away. Bonus.

Friday, February 11, 2011

Little Legs

Several of my recent FOs have left me with half skeins that I'll need to use up later, but the first finished object of February actually used some scraps.

Little legwarmers for my little one. I simply improvised a 2x2 ribbed tube and used up every last little bit of the Baby Boutique yarn used in the baby blanket. I used Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-off again and am still quite pleased with it. I had to rip back the start of the bind-off several times until I found just the right spot to start it so I could use exactly all the yarn.

They don't stay on as well as I'd like, but at least they take longer to come off than socks. I'm also hoping they'll fit for quite some time. So far they're very handy for those days when pants would just interfere too much with the eating of her own toes.