Fallen Cloud shawl

I finished the Elm Bank Cowl and thus get to start another project.  I have chosen Fallen Cloud as the pattern to knit the very pretty Blue Araucania brand yarn that I must have bought from Love Knitting last fall.

Araucania Lujoso  

50% Baby Alpaca 35% Wool 15% Silk, 3.5oz, Worsted

 So far I love the pattern and the yarn!  Very pretty.  It isn't quite mindless enough to knit while I am on the phone.....but just fine for taking to knitting....so I will probably start one more project today.

I am knitting this project on size 8 needles.  Dar looked at my project and liked it so much that she has started the same pattern in grey.  We are using entirely different yarns and different gauge.(not sure if Dar knits more loosely or is using a larger needle).  It is very interesting to see the difference as we knit at the same time.  I like the way that her light gray yarn shows the cables better.  But I like the way that my cabled edge is crisp.  I think it will be fun to compare at the end.  I believe my version will be heavy and not drape as well while her version will be lighter and a better drape.  I hope I don't forget to update this post when we finish.

I finished my project in February 2020.  I LOVE the shawl.  Carla liked it so much that she also used the pattern and made a version in green....all three are very pretty and all three are very different.  It is fun to see how different yarns and different knitters make such different shawls from the same pattern.  Dar did change her pattern so that is was less triangular and longer.  She did this by not increasing quite as often.  I am getting ready to block my shawl today.

Yarn Shop near Cleveland

Sally and Dar went to Cleveland for routine check up for Sally.  They visited River Colors Studio and both agree it is a wonderful shop.  Dar says it rivals her favorite shop in Virginia Beach.

https://www.rivercolors.com

The actual address for the shop is Lakewood, Ohio

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Iceland

I received a very nice brochure from Tauck travel company.  Moppy had used this company as had Laurie and Hank Sammons and both had liked the service that they received from Tauk.  One of the offerings they presented was a cruise in Iceland.  WOW!  I just think that I had never looked at Iceland before....REALLY looked.  In my mind it was a small to medium sized island ....not the huge island that the map in the brochure presented:



Here is a map that shows the location better:



I just checked and all 8 eight day cruises of Iceland by Tauk are sold out for this year!

But what caused me to decide to write this blog was many things.  First I listened to an interview with Stephen West on the Vogue site and Stephen said that he was knitting in Iceland.

http://vogueknitting.com/knitterviews

He said he is not in Reykjavík ...he is someplace further north.  And it seemed to me that his comment was that the isolation of the area made him slow down and affected his knitting.  I will relisten to his interview and try to clarify or reinterpret what I heard.  I think he said he is in Isafojordur.

In addition to the interview is the fact that I often sit next to our resident expert on Iceland:  Kristin Ornolfsdottir.  Kristine is our knitting groups Mitten expert!  She knits amazing mittens from Icelandic wool as quickly and as efficiently as old time knitters turned out dish cloths.





It seems crazy not to take advantage of all of these facts to actually know more about Iceland and knitting.

Two more pieces of information that I want to add to this blog post is that Stephen West is good buddies with Nancy Marchant....the lady who does the Brioche.  Nancy is a neighbor to Stephen in Amsterdam.  I bought several of Nancy's books because they are amazingly pretty!



Stephen referred to the Boneyard shawl as having  shawl started this "whole thing"....I believe he meant that his OWN design of the Boneyard shawl started him on his shawl "kick".  So, of course, I had to go to Ravelry and look at the Boneyard shawl.  I am not sure that the one that I chose was his first.  There are lots of interpretations of his original shawl.

Boneyard shawl



Here is another person's interpretation of the boneyard shawl that is very pretty:



And if you go to the Ravelry site, you can download the boneyard shawl pattern

Try a striped Boneyard Shawl with extra edge increases for an elongated wingspan. Pattern variation here!

The interview with Stephen West can be found at:

http://vogueknitting.com/knitterviews

Elm Bank Cowl

Sarah made me the Elm Bank Cowl from super bulky yarn several years ago.  I have found the perfect Fleece to wear it with and I find that I have worn it a lot this winter and received many compliments.  This photo doesn't do justice to how nicely the cowl and fleece go together.

 

So this winter I found another fleece when I was bringing fleece's out of the basement for which I had the perfect yarn on hand and made one for myself to match another fleece that I already own:



Again the photo does not do justice to how well the cowl matches the fleece.

Then I found a fleece sweatshirt for which I had yarn on hand that I had bought from Sarah in Kanawha City a couple of years ago which was another cowl to be made.

http://marshamosesknitting.blogspot.com/2016/11/malabrigo-yarn-bought-in-kanawha-city.html

I laughed at my self as I hung the yarn on the coat hanger with the sweatshirt....but it worked and I am starting it today.  I like this Elm Bank Cowl a lot more than I like what I had originally bought the yarn for.





As I pulled it off the hanger to start, I though....WOW!  this hank is exactly the right size to knit a longer cowl.  So I measured it before I wound into a ball and it is approximately 52" to 53"

As I wound the ball, my thought is that perhaps I will like this even more with a jean jacket of coat when it is actually finished.  The colors might be good with denim look.





The pattern calls for 17 needles.  The one twist in the circle makes it lay a bit differently than a cowl that is just knit around.

Christmas project

More than a month ago, I decided to knit something for our knitting group's exchange at the Wild Ramp.  The pattern is "A Small Yarn Bowl" by Molly Conroy.  Yesterday was wild and wooly at my house with all sorts of projects going on by the twins and Eli ....and Colson visiting Eowyn!  Don't know why I thought that was a good day to make the decision about which yarn to use for the bowl.  I was determined to find something suitable in my house.  It calls for two strands of knitting worsted held together.  I decided the super wash that I had on hand wouldn't work because it might not felt.  But  a few minutes on Ravelry perusing finished projects convinced me that it was OK as several said they had used Cascade 220 which is a super wash worsted.  So I pulled out Cascade 220 that I had bought on sale at some point.



I am knitting the small bowl on size 10 and 1/2 needles with two strands held together.  I did finish the project the Sunday night before our Christmas event.  And then put it in my washing machine to felt......2 and 1/2 hours later the bowl emerged not the least bit felted....so I dryed it over a bowl of the right size...and the next day sewed in the very few ends and added iCord handles to make it a project bag instead of a bowl.  I had fun with the project.  And I enjoyed learning via a google search how to do the iCord.....funny in this day and age when everything is iPhone...ipad....etc...that the iCord was Elizabeth Zimmerman's invention before the internet stuff....she named it an idiot cord.....and hence the name.



Linda Wilkinson ended up with the project bag at the party.  We had fun!




I ended up putting a small magnetic needle Nanny on the bag that I had on hand....and in case I want to purchase another one  here is the information:

Knitting project for car

After several incidents when I wished for my knitting while sitting in the car, I decided to start a project that will STAY in the car....never going inside unless I need to fix something or figure out something new.   One of the incidents was the Wednesday evening when there were wrecks in both directions on I-64.  I started to Mom's to take some wine to her.  I think I sat in that traffic for maybe an hour.  Then because by then I was late for tennis, I turned around and headed east.  The accident East of 29th street was even worse.  It was backed up on both I-64 and on Rt 60.

The project is a kit that I bought at Rebelle in Lexington.  It was during the period when I was hyped up about Collinette yarn from wales.  This kit was perfect colors for Harper's bedroom and very pretty.  I am using the pattern that came with it called Grand Teton.  The kit contains 
1 skein of Colinette Wigwam 
1 skein of Colinette Art 
2 skeins of Colinette Hoopla 
6 skeins of Colinette Mohair (in 1 - 6 colourways) 
2 skeins of Colinette Zanziba ( in 1 or 2 colourways)

I am knitting it on size 11 needles.

A symmetricTrick

After shopping in the morning at Yellow Springs and stopping for lunch and doing some show and tell, our group decided to return to the Fiber Festival to purchase just a few more things that we had missed in the morning.  My own goal was to purchase yarn that was NOT Variegated....I wanted yarn that did a fade.  The quest was not as simple as I had thought.  I ended up in a booth where an extremely helpful lady helped me choose from her selection.  Interestingly enough, Dar, told me at a later date (Dar was not with me that day) that she actually knew this lady from her scrapbooking days.  And that the lady blogs and that Dar follows her blog in which she tells of traveling via her motor home with her dog and their various adventures.






You will notice on this last photo that there is a triangle pictured.  This gives the knitter a picture of how the gradient yarn will show up if you begin with the light green yarn ....it is the proportions of the colors.  They gave me a post card that gives a pattern for a garter tab shawl that will look like that when knitted.  I have decided that I would like a shawl that is less of a triangle.  One that has longer "wings" and shorter triangular part.  I think that I am going to try a pattern called a symmetric Trick.  It is a free download on Ravelry.




I have not yet decided what size needles to use.