Tag Archives: shawlette

Finished Moon River

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I just realized that I didn’t ever tell you guys… I finished my Moon River!

And it actually turned out pretty great!  (Massive, but pretty great, none the less.)

It’s got a good 5-foot-plus wingspan, and since it’s a half-circle, is about 2-and-a-half feet deep.  It’s light as a feather, and will be lovely and warm once winter gets here.

I think the last time I talked about this project, I was crying about losing at yarn chicken.  Well, I ripped back a significant portion, and re-knit it (a couple times actually… it was very frustrating), and eventually figured out that the only way I was going to make it to the end was if I changed the bind off I was doing.

I had been doing a 2-stitch picot edge, which made lovely, elegant points, but used up a ton of yarn.  I had to change to a less yarn-intensive bind off.  So I ripped back a couple feet (it’s a massive shawl, and I didn’t want to rip back the whole thing), and re-bound-off with a 1-stitch picot edge.You can see where I changed my bind-off technique here.  It looks a little silly if you look too closely, but I figure that once I have it on, no one will notice.

Long story short, I managed to make it to the end… but just barely.That’s literally all the yarn that was leftover… one, maybe one and a half inches.

But, I managed to weave in all the ends  and get the shawl blocked, and I couldn’t be more pleased with the result.

Now I just have to decide how I’m going to wear this massive thing!

Moon River

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So, I haven’t decided exactly what to do with my Papaya yarn yet.  I’m currently leaning toward a flowy, cozy cardigan, but I’m not sure on the details yet.

But in the meantime, while I was deciding, I pulled out some lovely blue yarn that my husband gave me for Christmas!  I’m all about stashbusting this month, it seems.

I’ve lost the label, and I forgot to take pictures before I started knitting (I guess I was too excited to get going).  But, I do know this yarn was a gradient set from Wonderland Yarns.  My best guess is that it was dyed in the “Shillings & Pence” colorway, or something close.  (I think mine’s a little darker than what’s shown on the website, so I could be wrong.)Totally pretty, right?  The yarn I have is a little thinner than that shown in this picture, too…  It’s a fingering-weight two-ply, and oh so soft and springy.  It’s a delight to knit with.

Anyway, I’ve had this yarn pinned up on my bulletin board since December, hoping that it would inspire me to make something lovely. And, since I had a little downtime (and wasn’t quite ready to jump into a whole big sweater quite yet), I decided the time was right.

I found a lovely, simple half-circle shawl.  It’s dead easy, but so gorgeous, and a great way to show off my nice gradient yarn.

Moon River Shawlette by Malabrigo TeamIt calls for Malabrigo one-ply, so mine’s turning out a little lighter than the example, but I kind of love it that way.

I’ve gone through the three lightest skeins, and just joined the fourth.  It looks like I’m going to run out of pattern before I get through my yarn, so I’m going to add some extra rows onto the edge of the shawl- I want to use every last inch of my lovely blue yarn.  My shawl is going to be nice and big when I’m done with it!

Have you ever used a set of gradient yarns before?  What did you make?

Pattern: One Row Wonder

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Weee-Ahhhhh, Weee-Ahhhh!  (That’s the “New Pattern Alarm”… couldn’t you tell?)

I came up with this project on vacation, in the back of a minivan, when I was stuck with a ball of lovely blue gradient hand-spun, a pair of needles, and no pattern.  I wanted to make a shawl, but not a normal shawl.  A shawl that was easy enough to knit in the back of a minivan while sightseeing.  Something with an interesting shape, but virtually no pattern to memorize.

Thus was born the One Row Wonder.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThe One Row Wonder Shawl might just be the perfect pattern. With only one row to memorize, you’ll have a brand new shawl with almost no effort! It can be knit at any gauge and with any yarn. It’s a perfect way to use up leftover yarn or that extra-special skein that’s been waiting in your stash (you know the one). The finished shawl has a unique shape, which wears like a scarf, but has the look of a triangle shawl. The One Row Wonder will knit up in no time and quickly become a favorite part of your wardrobe.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI made mine with a lovely, chunky yarn, but now I’m itching to work one up in fingering yarn.  How cute would it be made with stripes of leftover sock yarn?

Get the pattern for free!

One Row Wonder Shawl

EDIT 9/20/2015:  Sorry for the confusion about the “Loop Increase.”  Apparently lots of places have different definitions.  This tutorial from Knit Picks outlines how I do the Loop Increase.

Pattern Spotlight: Hitchhiker

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I’ve finally jumped on the bandwagon.  And, I kind of love it.

I’m probably the last knitter to make a Hitchhiker shawl.  (There are 17,685 projects up on Ravelry, and I’m pretty sure it’s been in the top 50 or so patterns for the last couple years.)

CIMG7885The Hitchhiker is a triangular (ish) shawl/scarf knit in garter stitch, which is my absolute favorite.  Garter is great for scarves, since it lays nice and flat.  Plus, it’s super warm and squishy.  (And it’s great for knitting while you read or watch TV, since you don’t have to worry about following complicated stitch patterns.)

The shawl is a long, skinny triangle, with a sawtooth border along one side, which is worked as you knit.  You begin at one point of the triangle, and just keep going until you run out of yarn, or get bored.  And the simple 8-row repeat is super easy to memorize, so it’s almost mindless (but still just interesting enough to be fun).20150112_122126_medium2[1]This project is super versatile.  You can use whatever yarn you have on hand, and whichever needles you like best.  The pattern calls for fingering weight yarn, but this would make an epic deep-winter scarf in worsted or bulky, and if you were to use teeny tiny needles and lace-weight yarn, you could make something lovely and delicate.

IMG_1979_medium2[1]I made mine with a skein of Knit Picks’ Stroll Tonal Sock Yarn in Thunderhead.  (I bought it to get the $50 free shipping, because free. Don’t judge me.  You know you’ve done it, too.)  It turned out lovely.  The sock yarn is wonderful and soft, and the hand-painted, monochromatic colors of the yarn looks great in a garter stitch.  (Sorry for the terrible picture.  The shawl was adopted out before I had time to find my real camera for a decent photo.)

WP_20150102_014I love how this shawl looks with semi-solids and self-striping yarn.  It’s so easy, and the results are spectacular.

DSC06485_medium2[2]Have you made a Hitchhiker?