Sometimes Weekends Are For Knitting

It’s not often that I get weekends off but sometimes weekends are for knitting. I was home and my work was caught up so I took the weekend off and did lots of knitting. It was wonderful!

Knitting Saltarello

I will get to my current knitting projects that I began this weekend in a moment, but first let me share my finished Saltarello (Ravelry project page) with you. I cast off on Friday morning and took some before and after blocking pictures. The transformation is always so amazing!

I am thrilled with how it came out! I used 160g of Classic Merino Superwash Sock yarn in color Obsidian. That calculates to about 690 yards. I used size 5 US needles. I measured it the day after I took it off the blocking pins, and the relaxed size is 72″ x 31″. So, mine is a bit smaller than Dee’s sample. She notes in the pattern that hers is 75″ x 35″.

I think I want to wear this in my booth this coming weekend at SAFF. It is a good size for me and I am excited to show it off. I hope it will be an inspiration for knitters to want to make it. I just love lace knitting. It is fun and interesting to make and looks so elegant.

New Knitting Projects

Mingling Daisies

Speaking of interesting knitting, I decided to go with the Sea Coral for my Mingling Daisies shawl (Ravelry project page). It is definitely interesting to knit. I had a rough start, which is mainly due to the inflexibility of the I-Cord edging I think. I started 3 times before I got everything going right.

Once I got past the setup and worked it bit of length it started to get easier. The daisy stitch is fun now but I hated it in the first rows. I am also used to working pattern stitches and lace from charts. This is not charted, but it’s pretty easy to memorize so it’s not too big a deal. I am adjusting and using my progress keeping app (Row Counter) to chart my place in the pattern. I really like how it is looking so far and it is fun to work on now.

Knitting the Geogradient MKAL 2023

This is an impulse project that I cast on this weekend along with the above. I can’t explain why I felt compelled to knit this shawl (Ravelry project page). I have never done a Westknits MKAL for several reasons.

• I don’t generally like surprises in my knitting.
• Despite his obvious gift for designing, I am rarely tempted to knit them. They are not typically to my taste.
• I don’t care for garter shawls in lots of colors, but here I am making one. Who knows why?

I think what intrigued me was the colors. I have been watching and even helping some of my customers pick out the colors for theirs and it just seemed like such a fun knit. I dragged out almost every color I have in my Classic Merino Superwash sock yarn and started playing with sets.

I took dozens of pictures and looked at them in gray scale. I narrowed the sets down to three. The greens and the blues/teals fit the gradient criteria the best. It should come as no surprise that I settled on the greens. I love green.

I have completed a bit less than half of Clue 1. I am not going to stress about the time table. I am not concerned much if I fall behind or see clues before I get there. I got started a bit late anyway. I just hope I like where it goes and plan to have fun with it.