Summer knitting round up! (part 1)

Part one is all about shawls! I managed to start and complete 5 shawls since the beginning of June. 5!

Homage to Ricky

Lava is Hot, Hot, Hot

Merope in Green

Maia
The latest one is "Frank's Lucky Mom":

Pattern: #10 Beaded Shawl from Vogue Knitting, Holiday 2008
Yarn: JaggerSpun Zephyr in "cinnibar"
Needles: Knitpicks Options, size 4
Notes: My friend, Frank, asked me to knit a shawl for his Mom, for her birthday. She has been lusting after them in the Long Wharf Theatre Gala Silent Auction for several years, but has managed to get outbid each time. (good for the theatre, but bad for her) I talked with him about what he was looking for, what she would like.. you know, like you do. We decided that shiny is good, color is good and not pastel. Right. I don't think that Frank understood how open-ended this project still remained. I sat down in front of the yarn wall with my laptop, and cruised ravelry and my books searching for the perfect pattern. I know Frank's Mom pretty well, and she is not a "flowery" or "geometric" person. She is an exotic person. I was looking for something that felt Spanish, Indian... maybe Moroccan. I knew I wanted beads - or at least charted and easy to add beads. I came up with three top contenders, and after much deliberation, decided on the Vogue shawl based on sheer awesomeness.

It is, for all intents and purposes, a half circle. BUT, it is also squared off. whaaaaaAH? You see, my dear readers, it is three triangle sections, making it a half of a hexagon. It fits like a half circle shawl, AND is squared off at each triangle. This happens because you are increasing on the two center spines and the two outer edges, instead of evenly across on the "pi" rows like you do in a half circle shawl. Maths are good...

Anyway, it is a unique shape, and the motif feels exotic and non-leafy, and it is beaded. Oh boy, is it ever! Literally a bazillion beads. The beading was totally worth it though. It looks so nice. I am proud to hand this over to Frank for his Mom. He is going to get the "best birthday gift" award, if I do say so myself.

The pattern was confusing at first, since the edging is odd... but once I tried it, we were golden. I like that the beads are denser toward the end, making the bottom edging heavier. The half hexagon is awesome, too. It stays on the shoulders without a pin, and is long enough to wrap up and over the shoulder if desired. As a woman with a sizable butt, I appreciate the lack of "arrow at my butt" on this shape shawl, as well. (What woman wouldn't like that aspect?)
All in all, I am very happy with it, and I hope Frank and his Mom are too!
So, I evidently had an ass-ton of knitting time this summer, because part two is just as packed!

Merope

I found out about a seven shawl series by Rosemary Hill from Jennsquared. Each shawl is inspired by one of the Seven Pleiades - the seven sisters from Greek Mythology that were relentlessly pursued by Orion. Zeus turned the sisters into doves, then later constellations, along with Orion, so he could ever pursue them. They, along with the Hyades make up the constellation Taurus. Since I am a Taurus, how could I refuse to knit these shawls?

The first one, Merope in inspired by the Mythological wife of Sisyphus - the mortal that had to keep pushing the boulder up the hill. Merope's star is very dim, since she married a mortal, and is often called the is the "lost Pleiades" since she astronomers originally couldn't see her. People are going to be able to see this Merope. Being acid green, and all...

Name: Merope in Green

Pattern: Merope

Yarn: Rowan Kid Silk Haze, 2 balls in color 597

Needles: Knit Picks Harmony, size 5

Notes: This was my first time using Kid Silk Haze, and I love the end result. The yarn has a beautiful halo, and even though it is half mohair, it isn't itchy. (at least to me, ymmv.) But, it is a pain in the ass to knit with. Not a huge pain, just enough to make it frustrating. It is simultaneously sticky and slippery. When you want it to slide, it won't, and when you want it to stay it slides. I didn't have to frog at all during this shawl, thank George, but I can only imagine the streak of unsavory language that would have come out. I have heard that throwing the project in the freezer for 15 minutes helps in the frogging process. I assume it helps lay the barbs on the mohair fibers down, not that the freezer suffocates the thing.

Morope is knit from the tip to the top edge, starting with "all pattern" and getting increasingly more stockinette filled in the center. It is a nice way to knit a shawl. It gets proportionally less "charty" as you go.

What looks like an applied edging on the sides of the shawl is actually a border that is knit simultaneously with the body. Some designers would make the three components of the edging, border, and center all separate charts, that you, the knitter, have to keep track of separately, Romi made hers one chart. Ahh.... one chart. I love simplicity in chart following.

The top edge has my favorite style of finishing! Knit on border! Only 7 stitches to bind off! woo! That was a lot of excitement over an edging...

All in all, I'm very pleased with this shawl, and super excited to cast on for the second shawl in the series. I think these will be great gifts!

knitting lately? Not so much.

I had a crisis in crafting three days ago. It was over a hundred degrees, I was knitting mohair, and it kept touching me.

Fuck that right in the head.
I switched to my sweater. It's cotton, it'll be fine!

So wrong. It was just as bad.
I decided to work up some squares for the Schuyler Blanket project. I looked through the “ends” bin and found two partials of Cotton ease, and had two more I just got from a yarn swap at SnB. woo!
I thought about knitting them, but had recently been thinking that I hadn’t crocheted anything in, like, 6 years. I didn’t want to totally lose the skill, ya’ know? I looked up an easy granny square pattern and went all Chuck Norris on 'em. 6 granny squares later… I decided I needed a change.

As luck would have it, my crochet stitch pattern book was at work. So I bought the pattern book for the "non granny squares" at AC Moore, along with another skein of yarn. I might have calmed the crochet bug for a while. 14 squares is pretty respectable!

The yarn is all cotton-ease except the orange yarn. The orange is Red Heart eco-ways. I hadn't used the eco-ways yarn before, and I can't say i cared for it. It was irritatingly splitty. It was kind of a let down after the cotton-ease, which i love.
I'm glad the tempurature has finally gone down. I want to knit my shawl again!