Happy Mother’s Day, Mom!

She’s an amazing mom, and also one of my best friends. I’m a lucky girl.

After my brief fling with the shawl, I started work again on my sexually transmitted knitting project. There had to have been a better name out there than Clapotis.

(This should make you proud, Mom. Look up ‘caught the clap’ on Google. Guess whose webpage is #1?)

I’m just about done with the third repeat of the middle section. Nine repeats to go, which might turn into more because it doesn’t seem very big.

I’ve started the drop stitches, which is kind of fun in an ‘oh my god this is against everything I’ve ever been taught in knitting before dropping stitches is baaaaad!!!’ sort of way.

Reason would suggest that knitters are a dedicated, loyal bunch.

An average sock contains over 20,000 stitches. You’d have to be either barking mad or truly head-over-heals to create something you could buy at a store for a couple dollars for many times that amount when you figure not only the cost of the yarn but the hours and hours of labor each sock takes.

But deep down in every knitter, including myself, monogamy is a struggle. So many patterns, so many yarns, so many temptations to lead you astray.

And I beg your forgiveness because the reason it’s been a week between posts is because, well . . .

There was this knit-along I helped create and I couldn’t not cast on when everyone else was.

Yes, another Shetland Triangle. I adore this pattern.

I used Ball and Skein Artisan Merino and Silk. I found this yarn when searching for something similar to Sundara’s Aran Silky Merino, which is hard to come by. On the site it said the yarn was DK weight, but it’s not. It’s fingering.

When I realized the (rather large) discrepancy in weight I about choked. I had my heart set on doing this shawl with a heavier yarn, and I was afraid if I doubled the strands I wouldn’t have enough yardage. I went for it anyways, and I ended up with enough and a little to spare.

The end result is gorgeous. The color of the yarn and the pattern remind me of a wheat field. I used size 7 needles and the same number of repeats the pattern called for. I did the Brooklyn Tweed modification so my edges wouldn’t be pointy.

Last month I wrote about the Blue Moon Fiber Arts color Alina. To sum it up, I found out about Blue Moon in December, after Alina had already been discontinued. Shortly after I saw a pair of socks made out of that color, fell in love with it, and since then have been able to acquire a few skeins on Ravelry. Two of those are being knitted into a Clapotis, a shawl pattern from Knitty.
I love this yarn. So. Much. Here are several gratuitous photos of it:

Front.

Back.

Ball band.

On the winder.

From the top.

From the side.

As you can see, the skeins aren’t exactly alike. This is really common for hand dyed yarns. To make sure the shawl looks even colorwise, I’m working one skein for two rows, then the other skein for the next two, and so on. The way this pattern is written makes this very, very easy.

Maybe if I had taken less pictures I would have gotten farther on my knitting.

Andy thinks he’s hiding.

How nice it is to finish a project, and to just be done with it. No blocking, just two ends to weave in.

Who spotted the Andy leg?

I just want to clarify from my last post that this scarf isn’t actually for my brother. Hot pink is so not his color.

It would clash with his tattoos.

Noro Kureyon color 95, two skeins. Knit on size 8 needles. Cast on 28 stitches, and it ended up being 41.5 inches long.

One of my favorite memories of my brother is from when I was six. He’s ten years older than me and, as you can guess, one of the last things a 16 year old wants to do is spend his free time with his kid sister. I wanted to hang out with him in his bedroom, and he told me I could - but only if I sat underneath his desk with the chair pushed in. I happily agreed.

That, I think, is a good indication of our relationship. Thankfully he’s much more tolerant about spending time with me now.

This week my family faced a horrifying, unimaginable crisis with my brother. Through it I’ve been working on this scarf.

Usually when I knit it is pure pleasure. This has been all about keeping my mind busy.

Every stitch has been a thought about my brother. Every stitch says I love you. And every stitch says you are worth fighting for.

I think I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking on this one.

I could not be happier with how this shawl turned out.

Kauni Effektgarn 8/2, approximately 3/4 of a skein.

Started April 4th.

Finished April 19th.

Used size 2 Knitpicks Options Harmony Wood needles.

Worth every second I put into it.

Everyone needs a rainbow in their life.

Finished. Finito. Done.

Unblocked.

Blocking. I knew this shawl was going to turn out big, so to cut the size down a bit I changed the pattern so it doesn’t have a scalloped edge.

Close up of the border.

Leftover yarn. The purple was just starting to turn red.

Finished pictures tomorrow.

No, my Swallowtail Shawl isn’t finished yet. The first three days of this week were a knitting bust because of work, and I didn’t get a single row completed. To make up for it I spent a good part of yesterday and today knitting my little fingers to the bone, and I have 10 rows left. Tomorrow it will be done.

I’m guessing I’ll be into the purple before it’s finished. I could not be happier with how this project has turned out.

At the beginning of March I ordered a skein of this same Kauni yarn. I knew it was backordered, but didn’t mind waiting. March turned into April, and I got impatient and ordered somewhere else. The backordered skein arrived in my mailbox today.

The skein I’m using started with green, blue and then purple. This skein is exactly the opposite: purple, blue green. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it yet. Maybe just set it on a shelf and tell it how pretty it is.

My ball of Kauni yarn started with green, then went to blue, purple, red, orange, and yellow, which is the bit I’m working on now. I had thought after the yellow the order reserved itself, and next up would be orange, red, purple, etc.

But instead of the yellow fading into orange, the two colors were joined together - there was no gradually shifting color change. The final color in the ball was yellow, and before that green. So I undid the join between yellow and orange, found what seems to be the correct place where the yarn I’m working with now can blend in with the yarn at the end of the ball, and with a little jiggery pokery, came up with this:

I wound the ball into a cake, and now my yellow will transition back into green.

The shawl is getting so big now it’s pretty impossible to make out in a picture where in the pattern I am. Last night I started on the first of the three border patterns. It calls for a knitting technique I’d never heard of before called nupps, where you take one stitch and make 6 stitches out of it. Then on the next row, you purl 5 of the 6 stitches together, which I’m pretty sure is going to be like pulling teeth. Thank goodness my Knitpicks needles are sharp.

If I were going along exactly with the Swallowtail Shawl pattern I would be finished. But my incarnation would have been smaller than I wanted, so I’m still working on the inside lace pattern. I probably have about 12 rows to go before I start on the outside lace pattern.

The red is already fading into orange.