knit a shawl

silk, wool, mohair, banana, soy, it’s all for you baby. knit yourself that shawl!

Grab an easy pattern and go for it. Takes only a little time and can be done while waiting at the Doctor’s office, watching t.v. etc. Give it away to someone who needs to be comforted, then start another.

I have now made 3 prayer shawls, that I’m planning to give as Christmas gifts this year. The pattern is very simple and very easy and the chunky yarn seems to be the most challenging part of the process.

I finished my Scribbling Shawl from Mason-Dixon knitting about a week and a half ago. I love the colors: dark red and black.

Then again, I always love those colors. But it was fun. I did drop a stitch about halfway through, so I have to figure out what to do about that. I also snagged it, but that will be a very straightforward fix, if a bit time-consuming.

I used Lang Venezia for the red and Doucier et Soie for the black. Both behaved themselves very well. :)

Right now I’m working on the Scribbling Shawl from Mason-Dixon Knitting. It’s definitely a straightforward pattern, so I feel like I’m cheating, in a way. But it’s not as quick as one might assume. Sure, it’s on big needles, so it’s faster. But…the big needles also mean you have to work your stitches more slowly, to keep the stitches even. Well, I do, at least.

I have a week and a half to finish this, because I promised the ladies at Serenity Needleworks in Tuscaloosa that I would bring it by when I return to Alabama for my husband’s graduation. Since I live in Atlanta, I won’t be back there anytime soon. (He earned his master’s through the Distance Learning program.)

Of course, I need to finish it much sooner, really…I’m planning to make the Bat Shawl from Not Another Teen Knitting Book for DragonCon. I think it will be a nice way to make my Ren Fest costume more interesting!

...but got stalled on it, and it has lain fallow while I whipped up innumerable little projects, largely as gifts for others.

At some point this fall or winter, I hope to resurrect this project and finish it.

I’ve knit a couple of shawls over the past month, and ended up binding off a little bit too soon, making them a teensy bit too small to wear properly. Boo. Oh well, I won’t make that mistake again.

My favourite thing to do is knit simple garter-stitch triangular shawls using scraps of yarn from previous projects. It uses up leftover yarn, and gives the shawl a neat homemade look and feel, as well as makes it very fun to wrap around oneself.

Yay, I found a pattern! I think it came from Bev’scountrycottage, but I wrote the instructions down on a scarp of paper and forget the URL. blushes.

It’s a triangular shaped shawl and seems easy to do? heh, famous last words.

row 1: cast on 4sts.
row2: knit 2, YO, knit to end.
row 3 and all subsequent rows: repeat row 2.
knit to 150 sts, then cast off loosely.

I’m using 5.5mm needles and some DK yarn from my stash so I just hope it will actually be big enough! I think I may have to go to 200sts. but I’ll see how it goes. :)

It’s fun though, even if it is sore on the wrists. :)

I want to knit a shawl for this autumn. I would love to make one in rainbow coloured wool, but it seems quite hard to get hold of at a price I can afford. I’m going to look for an easy, quick pattern tonight (I’m impatient: see the 15year WIP entry ;))and use up my stash and see how it goes!

I made a triangular shawl using the suggestions in Stephanie Pearl McPhee’s “Knitting Rules.” It’s for my daughter’s birthday, which is next Monday. I used directions for edging it in a pattern on the Lion Brand website.