Socks & More Shawl Photos

As you might have gathered from my WIP post on Wednesday, where I showed you newly cast on socks, I have finished my Kaffe Fassett Socks.

I have mixed feelings about these socks.  In this picture they look great.  The striping matches, the ribbing is neat and they have a good length with a nice stretchy cast off.  I should love them, but when I put them on, they have a problem.

They have a baggy heel.  I think I need to shorten the heel by a few rows.  I'm hoping that when they have been washed and worn a few times the problem will be resolved by softening the seam which pulls the heel a bit wonky.  When the sock is pulled tight, it looks so different.

I do hope it works when it's been washed because I love these socks.

By the way, the nice neat ribbing is created by changing to combination knitting.  I love how tidy it looks.  I highly recommend giving it a go, as it is also really improving the way my Maplewing Shawl looks.  There is such even tension between the knit and the purl rows, I can't quite believe it.

So now the socks are dealt with, I can share the pretty shawl photos I took of my Blog Week Shawl before I posted it off.

Look at all the pretty stripes you all helped make!

After blocking, the shawl has really lovely drape.  Knitting 4 ply yarn, on larger needles, in garter stitch, creates a lovely loose yet bouncy fabric.

I'm really pleased with the finished size, after blocking.  I think the length is right for most women of average height.  I am ashamed to say that I didn't take finished measurements after blocking, because I am an idiot.  However, estimating by looking at this photo, the height of the shawl is about 26"-27".  I haven't a clue about the width, but it wraps round me nicely, and I am quite an ample lady.

I really am proud of how this shawl worked out.  I think it is an accessory that can be used throughout the year, because of it's light weight, and it's muted but varied colouring.  I am fairly sure that Cyprienne will enjoy wearing it.  (And if she doesn't she can send it back LOL)

To look at other finished objects, click on a button!

Blog Week Shawl Winner!

I said that when I finished the Blog Week Shawl I would announce the winner of said completed shawl.  Well I can reveal that the shawl is currently being blocked outside and will be dry in a matter of hours!

This photo shows why it is easier to block this shawl outside, than try to make it fit indoors!  It also reveals why I haven't been online much this week.  This photo was taken at 10am!  Look how glorious our weather is!  This week has been wonderfully warm.  It is estimated that today the temperatures will reach 25°C or 77°F.  You would understand how unusual this is, if you knew that our average temperature for May is around 16°C or 60°F.  We normally only get these kinds of temperatures in the height of Summer, if we are lucky.  We have had temperatures like this all week.  I have been enjoying them, as has my cat.

My pain levels are much reduced in warmer weather.   This has meant I've been able to go out TWICE this week.  I'm hoping as the weather is set to continue until Sunday I may be able to go out somewhere over the weekend, or even have friends over!  I feel like I'm on holiday in the Mediterranean.  All this activity has left little time for blogging or knitting.

The warmer weather has reduced my compulsion to knit, but it has meant I have been outside with my camera taking photos of our woodland glade of garden.

I love aquilegias.  These grow underneath our apple tree.  I want yarn in this colourway! 

No overgrown UK garden is complete without dandelions and their seed heads!

These are the flowers we have hiding underneath our lilac tree.  The white flower is from one of the only shrubs we have planted in our 8 years of being in this house.  I think it's some kind of verbena plant.  It's survived well considering our neglect.  I do love our garden and I wish I was able to work on it, because with the right care it could be glorious, but instead, it is simply appealing.

So enough of our garden, and back to what you are really interested in - who won the Blog Week Shawl?

There were 68 people who left comments, I didn't get to use all of the numbers left in making the shawl, but everyone was included in the draw.   The number chosen by the True Random Number Generator was 37.  The 37th person to leave their number was Cyprienne Zed, who is in Maryland, USA and chose colour number 4!  I have emailed Cyprienne to let her know she's won and I will hopefully get the finished shawl out to her in the next week.

Thank you so much to everyone who took part in this experiment.  I think the finished shawl looks great and I hope that Cyprienne enjoys wearing it too.

To see some properly finished projects, click on the button!

Blog Week Shawl & Another Shawl

I haven't given you much of an update on how the shawl created with the aid of Blog Week is going.  It was put on the back burner last week as I was working on a test knit for a friend, but I've picked it up again now.

The skeins of coloured yarn were numbered randomly and are shown here:

I know you can't see the bottom right number, but it is 8.  Here they are, all together.

I am very pleased with how the shawl is coming out.  The following photo is a little more yellow than it should be.  The colours in the above photo of all the yarns together are more accurate.

It's quite difficult to see how big the shawl is, because it is all bunched up on the needle.  I think at some time in the next week I'll try and put it on a piece of waste yarn to lie it flat, and see how big it is.

Each row is taking longer and longer now.

But I am really enjoying the changes of colour and pulling out the right skein at each change over.  It keeps it interesting.  I am weaving the ends in as I knit, because I think it would drive me crazy to sew them all in at the end.  I'm using the same technique I discovered when I started doing my Tribute Wrap.

I would never have striped the colours in the way that the list has come out, and because of that I am enjoying the colour combinations and how some stripes really pop out of the background.

As a change from all that garter stitch I have cast on another shawl.  This one is a bit different as I'm using Posh Yarn Gretchen 2 Ply yarn.  If you look on the Ravelry page for this yarn the top picture is pretty close to my skeins of yarn.

The pattern for this lovely yarn chose itself.  It has been in my "Favourites" for a couple of years now.  The pattern is Maplewing by Anne Hanson of Knitspot.

I didn't realise, but the pattern is knit from the outer edge up.  It took me 2 hours to cast on the 600 stitches with an accurate count!  This is why the following photo is all I have to show you!

I LOVE this yarn, its 55% Wool and 45% Silk, which gives it bounce and strength and sheen.  The colour is amazing and after treating myself to two skeins of this glorious stuff, I knew it would be the perfect match for this pattern.  This pattern is one of a few that have motivataed me to practice my lace knitting and become more confident with knitting in 2 ply, so I could one day attempt it.  It has lace stitches on both right and wrong sides, but once the pattern was established, it hasn't been too difficult to keep the repeats all straight.

I'm using my new Kindle Touch, instead of printing out the pattern.  I love being able to highlight the sections I have completed and also add notes if I want to.  I can't imagine ever having to print out patterns again, which will save a few trees!

I am also using combination knitting on this project which is proving interesting.  If you follow the above link to Annie Modesitt's website and click on the Combination Knitting Tab there are clear instructions on how to do this style of knitting.  I think it will improve the tension variations that seem to have appeared in my knit and purl rows since starting continental knitting.  I'll let you know how the experiment goes, but so far, so good!  I hope that next week I will have completed a few more rows to show you. 

If you want to be inspired by lovely crafters today, click on the button!

Something A Bit Different - 3KCBWDAY5

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Something a Bit Different is something that normally feels a little tricky for me to get my head round.  Last year I did a simple slide show of photographs set to music.  I've done that one now and it wasn't particularly imaginative.  It's hard for me to do things that require physical effort, such as "interpretative dance", which is always suggested for some reason.  I did think of doing some live blogging thing but I am going out today to catch up with old friends.  Therefore that plan is out of the window.  So I've come up with this;

and this;

I am going to create a project from these yarns.  It doesn't sound very different yet does it?  Well here comes the interesting bit - you are going to help me design my project.

I'm going to start with a basic pattern that is already written, my More Than a Triangle Shawl pattern.   It's a really simple pattern that creates a basic shape and in the photo below you can see a striped version I created.

So, with this pattern as the basis of the design, I am going to let you determine how the project knits up.  I want you to leave a comment, and in that comment I want you to leave a number between 1 and 8, and where in the world you are, just country or state, nothing too specific.  Each number represents one of the colours in the first photograph (I won't tell you which is which as I want it to be really random).  I will then knit one stripe in that colour.  The coloured stripes will be alternated with the cream coloured yarn in the second photograph.

I will knit the stripes determined by the comments left until I reach the end of the numbers, and then I will repeat that stripe pattern until I either run out of yarn or get a decent sized shawl.  I want to know where each comment comes from not only out of sheer nosiness, but also because, as I said on the first day of this Knitting and Crochet Blog Week, I am excited about how this event draws people from across the world together.

Once I have knit the shawl I will put all the commenters into a random draw and the winner will get the finished shawl.  Even if your stripe isn't included in the finished shawl, because I had loads of comments, you will be entered into the draw.  I will, however, only keep the comments on this post open until the end of this event.  I will close this contest at Midnight, GMT, on Monday 30th April.

The yarn is pure wool and it is approximately 3-4 ply in weight.  You will have to hand wash the shawl, but I hope there will be enough people interested in the shawl, despite that, to get enough stripes to make a decent shawl size.

I can't promise how long it will take to finish.  The above shawl took me 2 weeks but you might have to allow 2-3 months as I won't be working on the shawl exclusively.

I will blog about my progress on the shawl and I hope that you will be interested in the progress of something you have helped design!  My comment system doesn't post until I approve each comment, so your number won't show immediately, which means no one will know what the preceding numbers are.  I might end up with several stripes being the same colour or just three colours in the whole shawl.

I won't make the draw until the shawl is finished. I think my comment system makes you leave an email address so I should be able to get in touch with the winner, but even so, I will announce the winner in my "ta-dah, I've finished" post.

As you may have already guessed from my "tell me where you are" requirement, I will send the shawl to anywhere in the world, so anyone can enter.  I hope you do join in with this Something A Bit Different, as now I have thought it up I'm kind of excited about placing myself in your hands.  This will be a shawl created with input from around the world and will be sent to someone who joined in with the fun.

I look forward to casting on, help me get started!


UPDATE

I decided to make the start of the shawl begin with 30 rows of the main colour, to make sure that every stripe got a decent length.  I have my main colour all done and I'm ready to start striping.

Apologies for the poor photo quality, it was taken with my phone using a flash because it is so dreary here today.

I've also picked random numbers and assigned them to the yarns.  I then tied the numbers to the skeins so I don't forget which colour is which number.

I hope I haven't given anyone any clues as to which colour is which number!  Thank you so much everyone who has left a number so far.  It is so much fun finding out where everyone is reading.

Update @ 01/05/2012

I have started knitting the stripes now and this is what I have produced so far.

And you will be pleased to note that I am weaving in the ends as I go!

Comments are now closed!