Friday, August 22, 2014

Shawls

I took three shawls that I've completed recently outside this morning to photograph them.


I posted a different picture of this one previously, but these show the whole thing, plus close-ups of the right and wrong sides.  The top photo, of course, is the right side, although the wrong side doesn't look bad either.

The next one is an example of what to do when you have a skein of multi-color yarn that just doesn't work in any other project. Get a co-ordinating solid color yarn and make what I call my diagonal pinstripes shawl. I start at one corner with four stitches, then alternate the yarns every other row, while also increasing one stitch every other row. It is garter stitch, which is knit every row. When I run out of the multi-color yarn, I pick up stitches along the other short side and do a border of some kind. I've made several shawl like this, using various borders.

On this one, I used a very simple Yarn Over, Knit Two Together (YO, K2tog in knit speak). On the other side of the point at the bottom, I switched to Slip Slip Knit, Yarn Over (SSK, YO). I purled alternate rows. When I felt the border was wide enough, I did a few rows of garter stitch and then bound off.
I tried to show the top edge in the next picture. This is where I switched from one yarn to the other, knit three stitches and did a yarn over to increase one stitch. It doesn't matter whether you pick up the new color from in front of or behind the other one; as long as you are consistent it will give you a nice edge.

And now for shawl number three. This is the only one that is from someone else's pattern.
It is done in modules, with stitches picked up along the edges of other modules. I think my close-up of the fans is of the wrong side, but then it really doesn't matter, does it?

I haven't spent much time in my yard this summer, so I wasn't aware that I apparently have moles.
Can you see where they are traveling underground?
I guess you call this a molehill.

Friday, August 15, 2014

Knitting

I finally finished the blanket for that new great-grandson I mentioned a month ago.
This is a picture I took of it before mailing it to NJ. His name is done in shadow or illusion knitting, which only shows up at an angle. His middle and last names are on the side edges. His mommy sent two pictures of him with the blanket.

Note how the words disappear when looking straight on.

I hope he gets a lot of use out of the blanket.

My latest finished project is a basket-weave shawl knit in four shades of green. I did it first in just three shades, but it wasn't long enough when I ran out of yarn. They were all old yarns in discontinued shades, so I could not get more. Friends gave me some suggestions, but I decided in the end to completely unravel it and start over, adding a fourth shade. I'm pleased with the way it turned out.
It is about 18 inches wide and five feet long.