posts tagged: shawl

aranami shawl

pepperknit | aranami shawl

I’ve always loved this shawl, ever since Olga first released it. But I never had the right yarns in my stash, and I knew I wanted something perfect. It took years before I found it! At VK LIVE this year, Tania and I were browsing booths together and the shawl came up—turns out we’ve both been itching to make it. So we started looking at yarns in the booths with it in mind specifically, and what did we find but Neighborhood Fiber Co’s ombre kits. We debated colors, debated the shades within colors, and ultimately decided to split this batch of teals. I took the yarn home with me because I knew I’d likely tackle it first, but I had no idea how fast I’d complete it!

Since each scallop is a single motif (you pick up stitches for each one), this shawl breaks up into small components and is thus entirely addictive. Eventually I timed how long it took to knit one scallop, and I clocked in at something like 28 minutes. Which means it was so easy to say “oh, just one more.”

pepperknit | aranami shawl

I didn’t weave in the ends as I went, because the method I was using didn’t seem to be creating the cleanest results. But every few days I’d weave in ends instead of knitting another scallop, and so in the end I didn’t have too many to deal with. I’ve never been so responsible about ends on a project before! But I was savoring every minute working on this shawl. I loved the yarn, and I was sad to be done with it when I finished.

pepperknit | aranami shawl

Mine seems to have come out on the small side, height-wise, but it plenty wide. I’m actually not even sure what size needle the pattern calls for—I basically grabbed what seemed right for the yarn and forged ahead. I think it’s perfect.

I shot the shawl on an absolutely freezing, wind-battered Cape Code shore in February, which is part of why the pictures are so random and not very good. I could barely feel my hands and was trying to move quickly! That is ice, and frozen froth, around the shawl. It was a gorgeous landscape, though, and me, Caro, Pam, and Specs took photos (Pam even did an FO shoot for a sweater! She took off her coat!) before dashing back to the car and the fireplace in our rental house.

frozen cape cod beach

frozen cape cod beach

frozen cape cod beach

color affection

color affection shawl

When I bound off my Color Affection the other day, I did it with loathing. I had been working on this pattern since March of last year. Every row was a small torture—the final length is something like 7 feet long!! Now that it’s done, though, I must objectively admire its beauty. The colors are just what I wanted.

color affection

But I’m ambivalent. It’s a million miles long, so it can be wrapped around and around, which I like to do with scarves, but it’s unwieldy. I don’t understand how to wrap it successfully like a shawl. What have I done??

color affection shawl

 

color affection shawl

I kind of can’t believe I knit something so enormous; it’s no surprise it took so long. I know I went too far with the first color and decided not to rip, so I actually made it longer than the pattern expects. Despite my lack of affection for it, I’ll tell you that I saw so many Color Affections in the aisles of the Vogue Knitting LIVE Marketplace this past weekend, and every time I did I thought to myself “I made that too!” It made me feel as if we were all in some club, like those who’ve climbed Mt. Everest or survived a harrowing experience together. We’re the war-worn, the triumphant, the ones who made it to the end. And for that, I do feel pride and kinship. (Don’t even tell me how much you adored knitting it and disagree with it being a torture, ok? Let me pretend we all feel the same way.)

color affection shawl

Details: Light gray is Hazel Knits Artisan Sock yarn, which I bought at Twisted in Portland. Dark gray is Periwinkle Sheep sock from Rhinebeck, always my first stop at New York Sheep & Wool. Green is Sweet Georgia Tough Love Sock that Felicia kindly gave to me when I told her my whole whiny story about choosing a third color (my first color, a mustard yellow, turned bumblebee with the grays and I hated the look, so I frogged). I used a size 6 needle (though I wish I’d used 5s). This was technically cast on in June; the one I started in March did not use any of the recommended methods you’ll find on Rav to make the edges looser (ultimately I wrapped the first stitch twice, which made a huge positive difference), and I was unhappy with the color. So it took about six months in all, with a ton of breaks.

Photos taken by the fantastic Kriegs, on a walk we took down to the Verrazano Bridge to see—or, rather, not see—it in the fog.

reversible rib shawl

This pattern is a real blast from the past for me. I remember seeing both Rachel and Laura‘s versions six and seven years ago. I want to refer to them as if you’ve all seen them, but that’s probably not likely, is it? Just because that time of my life is vivid in my mind doesn’t make it so for everyone else. It’s not as if I can say “you know that pattern that everyone is knitting?” anymore. They did it years and years ago. Neither of them even blogs anymore! I’m the one who’s super late to the game. I even started knitting this shawl a year or more ago; in some ways I’m late even to my own game!

But let’s ignore all that because this is just a really pretty pattern, and I finished it, and I wore it, so it’s time to blog it. Lily Chin’s Reversible Cabled Rib Shawl, from Vogue Knitting’s Winter 1999–2000 issue. (I must point out that it’s my friends’ photos that are used as the project photos for that pattern on Ravelry. It’s not as if they were tiny blips in the history of this pattern.) It’s most magical when viewed through sunlight, I think.

I had the perfect yarn (Mango Moon’s Capra, in fog) and no real deadline, so I started knitting it last summer, just to have something on the needles and a potential shawl to wear to an event if one came up. It was great mindless knitting, perfect for working on at lunch at work. Other projects took priority, so it sat around, but wasn’t far from my mind. Then we got the invite to go to San Francisco for a friend’s wedding, and where else do you need a nice warm wrap, ideally in a color called “fog”?

In the week before we left I pulled it out, worked on it for a few more hours, and got it to an acceptable length so I could bind it off and bring it along (I never measured it, just wrapped it around me with the needles in). I got to block it with a real steamer while on a photo shoot, which was a nice bonus, as I’m not sure my iron could have handled it. I did modify the pattern, casting on one fewer repeat across to make it narrower because I didn’t want it to completely overwhelm me.

Jason and I headed out onto the pier behind the Embarcadero, where the reception was held, to do this quick photo shoot. It was downright COLD out there! Having the shawl was entirely necessary. The rest of the weekend I wore a jacket and even my Stripe Study, it was so chilly. Perfect weather for a really perfect weekend. It was Jason’s first visit to SF, which I’ve been to dozens of times, and it was fun to be touristy and see all the sights. We are eager to go back for more tacos and more visits with friends!

another study in stripes

another stripe study

Last spring I knit a Stripe Study, and I followed it shortly thereafter with a Different Lines, both patterns by garter-row genius Veera. I knew it would not be the last time I knit either pattern. In fact, since then, nearly every yarn purchase has been made with Stripe Study vaguely in mind (“Do these two colors coordinate well?”) Recently on Twitter it came to light that some friends were all going to knit SS, so I wound up some yarn and joined in!

first family wedding of the summer

dewpoint_preview2

This is the summer/year of weddings! Back in July we went to the first for my family, out in Jersey. It was the Friday after the wedding weekend in Boulder, which meant two weddings in less than a week. That is too much wedding for any sane person, let me tell you! But luckily this one was closer to home, and we could take a train there. The weather was iffy so I actually knit a shrug for the first time in my life, to toss over my dress “just in case.” I’m glad I had it, too, as it was rainy and on the chilly side for early July.