Saturday, November 21, 2009

hibiscus

It has been a couple weeks since I have knit anything. I guess I needed a little break after the flurry of knitting I've done recently. During my knitting lull, I did manage to finish a spinning project. This skein of yarn is merino & soysilk and is soft and lustrous and gorgeous. The roving was dyed by the talented Pigeonroof Studios. It is part of their "luminosity project," which I was a little obsessed with for a while (and still am, but I am taking a break from buying spinning fiber). The colors are really deep and intense and I love yarn that has subtle variegations but is mostly a solid color.

I generally don't wear much pink and I'm racking my brain trying to figure out what I should knit with this very pink yarn. It really is beautiful though, with all the different shades of pink, and I have enough yarn (the skein is about 4 ounces, 457 yards) for a scarf or shawl or other medium-sized project. When I was pregnant with Levi, I went through a major pink phase as some weird response to finding out I was having a boy. Maybe I should hold onto this skein in case I find myself in a similar situation one of these days!

Sunday, November 8, 2009

ishbel

I've never had a triangular shawl before, but somewhere along the line three shawl patterns ended up on my "must knit" list. I like that small shawls can be worn like scarves and that they usually only take one skein of yarn. This shawl pattern is Ishbel, and I made it with a skein of green Malabrigo lace that I have had for a while. I had started knitting a scarf with it, but hadn't knit a single stitch on that scarf in over 2 years, so it was ripped out in favor of this project.

I have to say (now that I have my first triangular shawl) that I actually prefer the triangle shape to the typical long rectangular scarf. For some reason, to me it seems more versatile. My favorite things about this particular shawl are the scalloped edge and the amazing yarn. It is so soft and fine and I love the subtle variegations in the yarn. It feels really light around my neck and I didn't want to take it off after photographing it today, even though it was 60 degrees outside.

This was a really great fun pattern, a little addictive (my family did a lot of groaning as I ignored them to work on this one), and I'm really happy with the outcome. There is definitely more shawl knitting on my schedule for this winter!