Finished and Blocking!
I finished this shawl and even managed to block it right away over the weekend! It came out really well, and the pointed border I had played around with (really easy to make, just YO's and double decreases) turned out even better than I expected! I'm so pleased with this design I'm moving right along to the pattern-writing and layout stage, I'm hoping to offer this pattern for sale sometime in the very near future.
I decided to offer two sizes of this design, this full size, knit in a light fingering weight yarn, and a shawlette size, knit in thicker fingering for a quicker FO. Here's a shot of that sample:
I'm using Blue Moon's Socks that Rock in the color Tanzanite, which really looks as gorgeous as it looks in this picture. I've only knit a tiny big with STR, I think this is my second project, and I am really surprised by how much this yarn winds back up on itself as you work! The color totally makes up for it though, I'm not a huge fan of how their yarns pool and flash in sock knitting, but in something like a triangle shawl, where the stitch count keeps changing, the dye style really looks super-interesting and adds a little extra something to the pattern.
I'm much further than this with this shawlette now, might even have it done tomorrow . . . I've decided to name this design "Leila," and since coming up with a name is one of the hardest parts of designing knitting patterns for me (honest!), that bodes well for the publication date for this shawl. With any luck I could have the shawlette size done & blocked, and both photographed, and the pattern up for sale next weekend. That's my official goal anyway . . . let's see if I can keep from getting sidetracked!
Oh, and if anyone is just itching to get your hands on this pattern ASAP, and might be interested in test knitting it . . . well, leave me a comment and I just may drop an advanced copy in your inbox for your testing pleasure. I've never done that before but since so many other (better-established!) online designers are doing it, I thought I'd give it a try!
New design
I'm not quite done with the 2 secret sweaters, one of them needs 3/4 of a sleeve and the other is only half done, but I couldn't remain monogamous any longer. Last Saturday I started a new lace shawl design, and after a few false starts I am really in love with what I've come up with now:
(sorry for the crap photo, I can never seem to remember to take pictures until nighttime)
I'm using Cherry Tree Hill's sock yarn, a yarn I rarely use but actually have a decent stash of (weird how that happens). My idea was to make a triangle shawl, knit the traditional top-down way, but to have it include baby cables all over it. The first two versions had YO increases bordered by garter stitch edges, but then the AHA moment happened where I thought, "Why do I have to make the edges boring!?!? I should throw some cables in there!" and ripped and started over again. You can see in this photo that the horizontal top edge (shown on the bottom of this picture) is a cable, and the cable is repeated, then flipped over and mirrored, down the center back where the other increases are. I am pretty sure I've never seen this done in any other shawl before (please correct me if I'm wrong!), and a quick search through Ravelry didn't reveal anything to the contrary . . . so I'm pretty darn proud of myself!
I've been pretty dedicated to this shawl since I started, so much so that I'm past the half-way mark already. I have an idea of how I'm going to deal with the bottom, but I haven't worked out all the kinks yet. We'll see how much ripping out that takes, there is always a lot of that in any new design!
Unfortunately there is no way this is getting done before the wedding, so I've put it away in favor of the sweaters, which are completely mindless knitting and need to be done ASAP. I've been so stressed out the last few weeks with all these wedding issues that keep being thrown at me . . . let's just say I'm really looking forward to the honeymoon!!! Thankfully the toughest decision I have to make about THAT is what knitting to bring . . .
