SUMMER SHRUG
I did finish the shrug for my son’s girlfriend. We are both very happy with it. It will be perfect with a black dress she has that has similar color butterflies on the skirt portion. She says my son needs to take her out to dinner so she can wear it! This one really showed the benefit of wet blocking. Amazing how much more even my stitches look after blocking. I tried to only “aggressively” block the 2″ of lace trim so the shrug wouldn’t be too baggy. I suspect it will stretch during wear.
SCHOONER WIPS
I cast on a third WIP for my schooner trip. I wanted something on larger needles and an alternative to knitting socks. So I cast on a shrug for me. I just love this Madelinetosh single ply and this blue teal. It will be a lace pattern, Ladybird Shrug. It’s a free, easy pattern on Ravelry, only an 8 rows pattern (and the even rows are all purls). I think this will look nice with a summer dress I plan to wear to a friend’s daughter’s beach wedding in September. Also it should look nice with a wine color cami I never wear as I don’t like so much exposed skin on me. So hopefully I’ll get more wear out of the cami.
STEPHEN WEST SPIRALING CABLES SHAWL #2
Since my two sock WIPS and my shrug WIP are intended for schooner knitting, I needed to cast-on a project to work on for the next two weeks. Next up was either a Ranunculus for me or knitting a second Stephen West Spiraling Cables shawl that my step-daughter requested. I do want to make sure I have her shawl done by Oct 1 when it will start getting chilly here. Starting the Stephen West shawl won out. It is a fun knit so I’m happy to make a second. This time I’m using a very dark color for the cables. Sadly they don’t show as well. I do have some tan yarn that is closer to what I used for my shawl. But the dark yarn is much nicer alpaca yarn and will be much drapier so I really want to use it.
Having 5 WIPS would normally stress me out but since 3 were specifically cast-on for trip knitting I’m not stressing. I will definitely spend the time after the trip finishing any WIPS that didn’t get done as well as the Stephen West shawl before casting on any new projects.
ACQUISITIONS
I made it through the week without buying yarn!! Everybody seems to be doing summer sales but I am resisting. It helps that my new LYS owner told me she does a big sale starting July 1 with some yarns marked down 75%. I may have new yarn acquisitions in next week’s post. But I did end up buying more reusable project bag tags from Katrinkles. I really like having my bags labeled with what’s inside.
That’s it for this week. I hope you have a wonderful week of crafting.
This is a year of projects (YOP) update. YOP is a Ravelry Group – make a plan for the year ahead for all your fiber activities, then update your blog each week. Plans can be calendar year (like mine) or mid-year start (like many). Following the plan is optional and creates some of the fun of posts. YOP is in it’s 11th year. It’s my second in the group. I’ve been knitting for five years.
Knitting Is So Fun 