Here's a close-up of my latest prayer shawl.
This morning, before I head out to cover a political rally for the papers, I thought I'd get a post in about what I've been knitting the last few weeks while I have been sharing news about knitterati. My friend, Felicia, says she likes to follow bloggers who write about what they make, and I always remember her when I feel compelled to write about my projects.
My new fingerless mitts go with almost all my pink-toned sweaters, as well as my parka.
I did not knit gift bags at VKL. Somehow, I managed to get them out of my system before it started, and I decided to make myself another pair of fingerless mitts instead. This turned out to be a lovely choice, as I find myself wearing fingerless mitts all the time really needed a pair to go with my pink clothes. I made them in Simply Soft Heather and used the pattern I made up for my original pair, although I added a few rows to see if I'd like them longer.
I really love the new mitts and wear them a lot with the new pink turtleneck, the Marie sweater, the Harlequin sweater and the Diminishing Rib cardigan (same color).
In fact, I wore them to my first day of video training at the Asbury Park Press and lost one. I was heartbroken and looked everywhere for it, but I couldn't find it. So the second day of training, I came back with some yarn and needles and started a replacement glove. However, in the afternoon, I happened upon the lost glove when I went to visit my page layout guru in the Design Studio, which made me very happy. By that time, I had the replacement glove about half done, so I decided to finish it and make a pair for a friend. And that's what I did. I mailed the pair out yesterday.
Last weekend, I came across a post on Ravelry from a designer, Laura Ayler, who wanted someone to test knit her Woodsmoke pattern in a plus size. I looked at her photo of the sweater in one of the standard sizes and saw why nobody had volunteered: it is too tight around the midriff. I pointed this out to her and explained that if I made it, I'd have to add stitches. She thought this was okay, so I am test-knitting it. I'm doing this for two reasons: 1. to add the stitches, and 2. to finally learn how to do the top-down set-in sleeves that Barbara Walker invented.
I'm test-knitting a new sweater pattern for Laura Ayler.
I've put myself on a strict yarn diet this year, so I wasn't going to buy yarn for this project and Laura isn't providing any. I went up to the attic, which was mercifully warmer last weekend than this, and I had a lot of fun shopping my stash. The yarn calls for sport-weight yarn, and it turns out I have about 30 skeins of Red Heart Designer Sport from a clearance sale at Michaels several years ago. I didn't have quite enough of the tan to make it the main color, so I'm doing the sweater in mostly turquois with gray accents. I'm looking forward to having some quiet time tomorrow to just focus on it because I'll need that level of concentration to get the neck and the shoulders done.
And between the mitts and the test knitting, I've managed to finish Jean's shawl, which I will give her tomorrow. It's a little narrower than I wanted it to be, but I think as the yarn relaxes, it will get wider.
Here's another shot of my latest prayer-shawl-in-progress.
Then, on Wednesday, the prayer shawl group had its annual sabbath meeting, when we are completely silent, knitting and praying together. It started at 4:30 and I couldn't leave work until about 4:45, so I got there about halfway through the meeting, but it was a lovely, quiet time.
Because I had just finished Jean's shawl, I had to start another one, so I brought with me some Lion Brand Homespun in a discontinued color, Country, which is a lovely dark forest green. Jung had bought the yarn originally and really doesn't like working with it, so she donated it to the group and I snapped it up to make one of my Leaves of the Tree shawls. It's been sitting in my bedroom for at least 3 years. I have been saving it for something special, but I decided that I should start using it. After all, I didn't want to climb up to the cold attic again. So I started a new Leaves of the Tree shawl, the same pattern as the one for Jean, but a little wider. I discovered it's a little difficult to work on in bad lighting, but I do like the way it's coming out. The shawl is going to be big enough for a man, and although it's got open work, I don't think a man will mind because it's leaves and very dark. Rather than put it into the prayer shawl group's stash of shawls, I think I will keep it on hand for a special need that I come across.
The Prayer Shawl Knitters and Crocheters group on Ravelry is going to start its annual 40-Shawls-in-40-Days for Lent. The idea is to get members to pledge to do a shawl or two during Lent as their discipline for the season. As a Christian Scientist, I don't really observe Lent, per se, but I have always enjoyed the comraderie of this project, and we do allow people to start early if they don't think they can finish before Easter any other way. So this new green shawl will be my shawl for the 40-in-40 project, and I'm one of the 30 or so people who will be making shawls during Lent.
I still want to start Deborah Newton's Lace Leaf cardigan, and I still want to finish the Swirl. I just don't seem to have gotten to them yet. They'll probably have to wait now until after the test-knitting project. Or maybe not...
