Om Shawl | I Love a Good Yarn

June 9, 2017
by SusanK 1 Comment

A flurry of finished objects – part two

The next two FOs are both Andrea Mowry designs. The first is the Om Shawl, a versatile little number that’s sure to get lots of use once the weather turns chill again this fall. It’s a rectangular shawl with buttons along the bottom and about half way up one side that allow for a wide variety of configurations.

I started it last November but had to put it aside both for Christmas knitting and my Swirl sweater knit-along that started in January. So, I’m sure pleased to have finally gotten this one from WIP to FO status. I also enjoyed trying my luck with two-handed stranded knitting in the blended color sections. It’s a fun technique and one that I’m really keen to get more practice on.

Next is another shawl, the now ubiquitous Find Your Fade. It’s a wildly popular pattern, and for good reason. It’s flexible enough to have some fun, with the eyelet and color melting sections making things interesting just when you might be getting a little bored with the garter stitch sections.

They’re so colorful, you can really wear these shawls with just about anything.

And, as with the Om Shawl, the Find Your Fade can be a shawl, a scarf, a throw – it’s up to you how you want to use it.

The next and final installment of “Flurry of finished objects” – the Swirl sweater!

March 31, 2017
by SusanK Leave a comment

Naknicromo day 31: End results/thoughts

The knitting is finished on both the projects I wanted to have completed by today, but neither are done, done and done. The Om Shawl above needs to have ends woven in, blocking, and 19 buttons sewn on, so still a good amount of work before I can wear it. And I ran out of grey yarn at the very end, hence the blue edge on the final two rows and bind off. That’s the button hole edge, so I think the extra strip of color will actually look kinda cool.

The Swirl has been languishing for almost a week. Still much seaming to be done, and then the braided tassels for the left front lapel. I think it will look great when it’s done, and I will be keeping my eye out for a nice shawl pin, which it needs if I want to wear it closed. All in all, I’m pleased with what I accomplished this month, even if I didn’t bring either project to the finish line by today.

This setting of deadlines for my knitting is not something I want to make a habit of. I love knitting, I love how relaxing it is. I have deadlines at my job, I have chores that tug at me and can’t be ignored, and I have other obligations that demand my time. I don’t want to subject things I otherwise enjoy to deadlines, and I don’t want to turn them into chores, so I doubt I would ever do another one of these challenges again. I may actually be more productive when I’m not racing against the clock.

And the same goes for blogging. I don’t want it to ever feel like a assignment or another task I have to check off my list. The knowledge that I had to post every day sort of robbed it of its fun. I like challenging myself, but I’d rather the challenge here be quality instead of just quantity.

Happy weekend to everyone!

March 7, 2017
by SusanK 2 Comments

Naknicromo day 7: Share your progress!

My Swirl had been coming along wonderfully – but then I ran out of yarn in one of my colorways. My local yarn shop where I’m doing the knit-along doesn’t have any more, and the producer is out as well, so I’m left with a conundrum: wait until my LYS can get more once the producer has completed the new dye lots? Or find a skein elsewhere online and order it so as to keep the momentum going. Regardless, I won’t get a skein in the same dye lot I’ve been using, but it’s really more a matter of timing. I wanted to get this sweater done by the end of the month. I think I’ll check today with my LYS to see if there’s any estimate as to how long it will take.

The good and bad news is that the yarn is from Malabrigo. It’s bad news, as they do extremely small dye lots, and there tends to be a lot of variation between the lots. But, the good news is that, even within dye lots, there’s a lot of variation, so my Swirl is already quite vivid (the pattern is called Coat of Many Colors, so I almost can’t go wrong). Using another skein from the same colorway but a different dye lot probably won’t produce a startling result. And I’ve loved working with this yarn (Malabrigo Rios superwash merino).

I’m on welt 45 of a 61 welt sweater (five rows per welt), and the rest involves a lot of decreases, so I’m actually well over 3/4 of the way there.

I can always take care of weaving in some of the tail spaghetti to keep me busy until I can get that last skein.

And I also have my Om Shawl to work on. Last night I started on the second section of color work. After viewing some videos on two-handed stranded color work, I started using this technique, which is much more efficient than constantly stopping to slide the working yarn under the ball of yarn I’d just worked to get that twist in the two colors to avoid gaps. I’m very clumsy with the stitches knit English style, but I’m sure with practice, that will get faster and the stitches will be more uniform.

It was hard to get good photos today, as it’s a typical early March day in New York – cold, dreary and rainy. But I shouldn’t complain. The overnight low this coming Friday is forecast for 8 degrees Fahrenheit! Ah, March … but more on that later.

February 9, 2017
by SusanK Leave a comment

Snow day! … kinda

There are so many great things about working from home: zero commute time and cost, changing from jammies into street clothes optional, anytime can be snack time, and when the job makes me nuts, I can take a break and play with my cats.

But for those of us who work from home, there is no such thing as a snow day. Today we had a fabulous snow – probably around a foot, with wind and cold temps. This is exactly what winter in the mid-Hudson Valley should be. If I weren’t a work-from-home person, I’d have been so excited to spend the day with my knitting, hot cups of tea, and my furry companions. But the winds didn’t knock out my internet connection, so the work day went on as usual.

But with it now being too dark to shovel again, the wind can toss that newly fallen snow and I’ll stay inside where it’s warm and cozy (my clanging wind chimes are a constant reminder that I should stick with this plan). With a looming deadline for my knit-along project, which I want to cover in an upcoming post all about the “create”-along phenomenon, I’ve unfortunately had to set aside my Om Shawl WIP.

I can’t wait to get back to this, as I think it’s going to be a beautiful and versatile piece. The pattern is by Andrea Mowry, who has some stunning designs that are well worth a look. I found the pattern through the O-Wool site, where I also purchased the yarn as a kit for the project. It’s the first time I’ve attempted any kind of color work other than simple stripes, and I’ve been really pleased with how it’s turned out so far. The combination of the modern knit design and O-Wool’s environmentally responsible approach is further evidence that knitting today is a wonderful mix of tradition and innovation.