Finished Objects

Right, then.  I finished the KAL shawls and here--with no ado at all-- they are:

The lighter blue is the fingering weight shawl in Tosh Sock.  It is very springy and squooshy and will be a pleasure to wear around the neck, although not one that I will personally experience because it is a gift and I'm giving it away.  Though maybe not right this minute.

The darker blue is made from Dream in Color Baby, which is more of a lace-almost-fingering-weight.  The shawl is not quite as squooshy, but is quite a bit bigger and drapes just right around the neck.  I know because I do get to keep this one and I took it out for a test run this morning when I took the boys out for pancakes before school.  Can you see where this is going?  Not to worry, though:  I think the yarn --or maybe the pattern itself-- has magical food repelling properties.  It is true that I ordered my usual blueberry pancakes and also that I doused them in syrup.  But when my fork slipped mid-cut--as anyone could have predicted it would-- the spattered syrup landed everywhere except the shawl.  This means that I will be washing three coats and my fleece sweatshirt (and that small children were inexplicably drawn to me this morning), but I will not have to wash and re-block my shawl.  Flying syrup notwithstanding, it was so worth wearing the shawl to breakfast;  the waitress caught sight of it and gushed over it in just the right way.  I gave her an extra good tip for being able to ignore the dripping  syrup and focus on what was really important.

Both shawls are just a smidge smaller than the pattern called for.  I was worried about running out of yarn and all of my obsessive weighing and recalculation failed to prove that there was no need to worry, so I eliminated the last few short rows to make sure I had enough yarn to knit the final bead section around the top.  In the dark blue shawl, I also decided to do beads instead of nupps with the short rows and I'm not sorry.  I like the extra bling  and the way the beads click against each other and I was getting pretty weary of nupping.

I had planned to spend most of my time off cleaning out the basement, but the job is overwhelming and I haven't made much progress.  Instead, the knitting frenzy continues with a quick Abernathy sweater for Matty:

Abernathy Sweater for Matty

Detail of the cable, which looks a little funky to me,
even though I'm sure I followed the pattern.

I had to make some adjustments because I ordered worsted weight yarn and the pattern (DUH!!!!) called for DK. It's moving right along though.  I am almost done with the body, so just the sleeves and the collar left to go.  Although, now that I look at the pictures, I'm wondering if I should run the cables all the way down through the ribbing.  Hmmmm . . . .

A Little Time Out

I'm still here.  I'm off work for a little bit which means that (1) I'm not parked at the lap top all day and (2) I've been cleaning a lot.  Probably not cleaning 'a lot' by most measures, but certainly a lot compared to how much I usually clean, which is not very much at all.  In any case, it's nothing to write home (or blog) about and so I haven't been blogging.

I have been keeping up with my knit along stuff.  The last clue should be out this weekend, so there should be some knitting to post about soon.  The projects are coming out nicely and I'm pretty sure I have enough yarn to finish both of them.

I have also finished my bonus project from last month.  This is the Bandana Cowl.

It was quick and easy and makes a great scarf substitute.

I'm not sure I could have picked a better project for that random skein of Malabrigo Worsted, and now I know for sure that I have to learn how to spin a decent worsted weight singles so I can have more and more of this kind of yarn to work with.

It even matches our bird feeder friend, Mr. Cardinal.

He's quite a sight on a dreary winter day, isn't he?