I know. I’m not a rainbow kind of girl. But I just had to try. And I kinda like it, even if it’s not really me.
So I only have 2 skeins left to dye. I’m hoping to open my Etsy shop in early January. Now, I must get back to the Bella Mittens…only one half a mitten to go!
Ok, so it wasn’t a total surprise. My sister figured out the surprise was for her BUT she didn’t know exactly what it was. And what it was, my friends, was the Vernal Equinox Shawl and the free pattern can be found here.
As you will see in this picture, I tried blocking it with 2 different edgings, to see which I preferred. One side has the pointy edging, and the other has the more scalloped edging.
I decided I liked the scalloped edging best, so I reblocked the pointy side. Oh, and I chose to knit the edging with 3 or 4 rows of garter stitch. Most people on Ravelry seemed to use the crochet edging…but I can’t crochet, and I think I like the look of mine better anyways. Below you can see it with a 4 year old cutie beside it. That gives you a good idea of the size.
I started the shawl in August and I finished it a few days ago, but I didn’t work on it every day…in fact, there were whole weeks I didn’t touch it.
I used Cascade Yarns Heritage Silk…which was a wool and silk blend. The yarn was very nice to work with and had a nice drape and feel to it. I’d definitely consider using it again.
I gave the shawl to Shelly on Saturday, when I traveled to NY to take a dye class with her. It’s her Christmas gift, but in this family, none of us can ever wait so Christmas gifts often come early. I took pictures of her in the shawl, but her pictures came out way better than mine, so I’m stealing hers to show you.
How’s that?! It looks like it was made for her….Ha! I kill myself. 🙂
Oh, and yes, she did love it. She blogs about it on her own blog here.
Next up, I have another sister in dire need of Bella mittens for Christmas…I think I’ll start those next. (They’re the mittens Bella wore in Twilight.)
Ok, well, not really. But I’m getting closer. My friend asked me to make her a hat like the one I made for Evan, (remember the hat knitted on toothpicks?), but she wanted it to be charcoal gray with a lime green stripe and a white stripe. Now, this hat is made with sock yarn, and 3 different colored skeins of sock yarn would be pretty expensive, so I offered to dye the yarn myself from one bare skein. So I guess starting from scratch would be actually shearing the sheep, carding the wool, spinning and then dyeing it. I’m not quite there yet. But I can dye, and I’m learning how to spin too!
So here we are, looking like a tangled mess, right after coming out of the pots.
Above we have all 3 colors waiting to turn into balls, and below we have 3 beautiful balls waiting to be made into something special. They stare at me while I work on other things….I can see their patience wearing thin.
It’ll be a great project to work on during the long ride we’re going to take this Thanksgiving. They’ll just have to wait a little longer…or maybe I’ll start earlier. After all, I did finish THE SUPER SECRET PROJECT and it’s blocking right now as I type! It’s quite lovely and I don’t know how I’m going to restrain myself from posting the pictures before I give it to its recipient. Must. Hold. Back!