Honest, I Really Have Been Knitting

What with the overdose of knitting I did in Vancouver and the resultant break from knitting that I had to give my tendinitis afterward, the knitting progress has been slow. Plus my Woodland Shawl had to be totally frogged and turned into a much-narrower scarf when I found that the 2nd skein I'd planned to use was too different a shade; in the skein it looked nearly identical. As written and knitted, the one skein measured about 14x42, far too short for a shawl or even a scarf. Arghh! DH told me that I should be comforted that I got more knitting fun from the same skein of very nice yarn - yep, he's become a Knitter's Spouse.

Yesterday in a burst of energy, I washed and blocked two lacy FOs (and DH's Rockport Vest and a pair of socks). For the first time I used blocking wires, courtesy of the friendly guys at the local welding shop - 3ft lengths of stainless steel, in size 3/32 of an inch diameter, 15 in a pound for $16. Neither lace project has points, so I'm not sure that weaving the wires through the edges saved any significant amount of time compared to using just T-pins, but there was less fiddling around to get the edge really straight.

So - herewith the FOs. Both are patterns from the so-talented Cindy Guggemos, aka BaxterKnits, and the triangular shawl is the 'test knit' that I started weeks and weeks ago.

The shawl is her Hudson River Triangle, knitted with one skein of Dream in Color Smooshy sock yarn, color Blue Lagoon. Unblocked, this measured 46x23; as blocked, it's 64x32.

I made one major modification to the final pattern; at the top edge, I knitted several rows of stockinette and then a row of yo, k2tog before binding off. I think this matches the yarnovers on the edges of the shawl nicely, though even blocked, the stockinette rows make the top edge tend to roll a bit. Cindy's pattern is written to have a nearly-invisible edging on the triangular and top edgings both. But I couldn't resist twiddling with the pattern.

The scarf is Cindy's Dazed and Confused Zigzag Scarf, knitted with 2 skeins of KnitPick's Gloss yarn in Burgundy. I didn't block this as severely as the shawl, since it was already rather long. Blocked, it's 88x11.

Both of these patterns are excellent ones for a traveling project, since the patterns are easily memorized. Cindy's patterns are well-written and she's really good about answering any questions you may have.

BTW, I was having the devil of a time trying to get good color today, so the closeup of the top edging of the Hudson River shawl is closer to the real color, and the Zigzag Scarf is a much deeper brownish burgundy. Please - click on the photos to see them better - the lace is much prettier than you can tell from the small pictures.