Wednesday, February 14, 2007

LYS Super Bowl Sale Part 2

I stopped in at Unwind yesterday to see how they were recuperating from the big sale, and to order some of Sweet Georgia's hot red Slayer sock yarn. Yes, I am/was a big BTVS fan, and I've got all the DVDs.) Stephanie said she rang up over 150 sales that day, and it was not until 4:30 that the checkout line was temporarily empty. Yay! I love Unwind and I'm glad it's thriving. Stephanie had a raffle for those who contributed to the Half the Sky charity, and I was one of the winners! I won a copy of Knitting Out of Africa, a lovely book, with beautiful and intricate patterns.

Ahem. Blush. Astonishingly, she had not sold out all of the half-price yarns, so I took a look, since I had not looked at those yarns at the sale. I have no resistance to yarn at a big discount, y'know. I picked up some Encore for $3/skein, two shades of tan for Operation Gratitude, a local group that is sending warm caps to the soldiers. Plus two pretty pinks, a deep rose and a paler shade, which will be caps for the foster kids' group my charity group supports. I also fell for some of Cascade's Cloud 9 wool/angora mix in a great lavender, which will be a vest, perhaps, for our only DGD-by-love, who didn't get a knitted gift for Christmas. I'm glad there's a little girl to knit for, especially since she loves pinks and purples. ;-) The photo of the browns, which are sort of mocha. is color-truer than the pinks. The Cloud 9 is not; it's a true pale lavender, not a pinky shade. Your monitor may vary.

I finished the little shawl I was making from Lang's Mille Colori yarn (thanks, Curlerchik!) and blocked it yesterday. I wanted it to be proportionally wider than the usual 2:1 ratio, and I couldn't find a pattern I liked. Fiber Trends' Versatile Scarves pattern was close, but I didn't want quite that much curve - the pattern comes out in a sort of 'angelfish' shape. The Shape It! Scarf from Sally Melville's 'The Knit Stitch' was also close, but still not quite right. So I improvised, and I'm pleased with the result, though it's still not quite as wide as I had in mind.

About the 2:1 ratio, for those of you who don't know what I mean: usually a simple shawl's proportions are that it is approximately twice as wide across the shoulders as it is deep from shoulder to the point. When you start it from the shoulder, generally you make one increase at either side, and two in the center, often on each side of a stitch or two, with the increases only on the right side. This makes a nice eyelet design along the triangular edges and up the middle. When you start it from the point and want the eyelets in the middle, you decrease to offset the yarnovers.


To get a wider shawl, I knitted the 2:1 ratio for 4-5 inches, then began making increases at the sides on both the right and wrong sides. This turned into a shape somewhat similar to the Versatile Scarves pattern, which is achieved by knitting on separate sections at the top. You could also get this design by short rows, I think. Measured along the entire top edge, this is 40in, with a depth of 18in. If you measure straight across the top, it's 33in. I used 2 skeins of yarn, about 200yds. This is color 06. There are shades of lavender, green, teal, and brown. The second skein had only a little bit of lavender, but I don't find it to be obvious, since the additional width makes the color sections run only a row or two. Now that I've knitted this, I think I'd have been just as well off to have used the Versatile Scarves pattern. But, y'know, I've learned something I may use in the future.

Today I'm going to start learning mattress stitching, sewing up my Ribby Cardi. Send positive thoughts, please??

11 comments:

Madge said...

How cool that you won the raffle and scored some sale yarn! Yay!

And I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Sweet Georgia is going on an extended leave; you can read about it on her website. So, if you find any Slayer, snap it up quick.

Cute little shawl. And lots of luck with the seaming!

Grace said...

love your little shawl someday I must try that yarn

jayne said...

The shawl is very pretty, CBM, terrific yarn. I really like all those soft colours.

Sending oodles of positive seaming thoughts your way. I know you're going to rock at this.

Cindy G said...

The shawl is lovely, and congratulations on working out a design solution in such an elegantly simple fashion. If you had knit separate sections ala Versital Scarves, or done it with short rows, wouldn't that have interrupted the stripe pattern? Anyway, the results are super.

Sandra said...

oooo, nice shawl! Isn't that yarn delicious? I love my Moebuis cowl that I made. I also swapped the two extra balls I had for another colourway - maybe I'll do the shawl thing - just garter stitch?

Anonymous said...

Great shawl, and love the colors! Versatile Scarves is one of my favorite go-to patterns.

Having a Knit Fitt said...

Wow, that snow is something. We are just south of all the snow. We only got rain.
And the shawl is lovely.
Cate

Anonymous said...

The shawl is beautiful--thanks for sharing your formula. I'm going to have to see if I have anything in the stash I can use to play with it.

best of luck too on the move into mattress-stitch territory!

Sarah-Hope
www.whatifknits.com

LisaW. said...

ooohh pretty pretty shawl....filing away your formula in the tips bank! Yay on the yarn scores!

Anonymous said...

Hey Barbara,

Great blog! Very inspiring and some other fun stuff. Now you need to show me how to blog!
See you Friday,

Debbie

Anonymous said...

The colors on that shawl are lovely. I thought of you over the wknd when Knitty Gritty had someone from Unwind giving a helpful hint on the episode.

Good luck with the seaming. Once you get it, everything is a lot easier. bri