FO: Pretty in Pink

Happy Friday!  Once again you are spared any Vampire Diaries talk because the show is still on hiatus until next week, leaving me to do what we fangirls do best -- forget absolutely everything that happened until right before the new episode when suddenly we feel every emotion possible.  It's the only coping mechanism I know.  Last night instead of watching tv I got myself almost stranded on the way home from zumba when my car came *thiiiiiis* close to running out of gas.  There was lots of yelling.  And wondering if I had enough yarn to survive the wait until Chris left work (he's not allowed a phone) and could come find me.  But I made it to a gas station, and then there was a Bowie album review on NPR and all was right with the world.

This week's FO took me about a month to knit and is currently (of course) my most favorite knit item ever.  Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Pretty in Pink.

Pretty in Pink modeled over Jaded Milkmaid

This is the Merging Ripples Shawl from Knitscene, Winter 2012.  My entire concept going into this project was to focus attention on the orangey color, Duckie from Unwind Yarn Company on her Journey Sock base.  I know I have mentioned it several times, but in case you missed it this yarn was dyed to match Duckie's outfit when he is singing -- my favorite moment from any John Hughes movie.

The pink contrast stripes are Seacoast Handpainted Panda in the color Berry, which I received in a swap from a very lovely person.  I have worn the shawl to work almost every day since its completion and have had loads of compliments that start out with "I wouldn't think those colors would work together but . . ."  Which means I have succeeded in my goal to stretch my color limits.

The pattern itself is quite lovely.  It is worked bottom up, so the cast-on is a ridiculous number of stitches, but then the repeats gradually get shorter and the short rows more addictive.  I really enjoyed this variation on the two-color shawl, giving each color more depth and room to play out in texture and tonality.  Plus I am really in love with large shawls and this is a great way to get one without losing your mind in either stitch patterns or repetitive stripes.  Every stripe is just a little different, but not so different that I could not read while I knit, which is a big plus these days when reading time is at a premium for me.

If you would like to see some more finished knitting, please check out the links over at Tami's Amis.  There is always great fun to be had.

FO: Andrea in Paris

My roommate Andrea's favorite place in the entire world is Paris.  Or New York City.  But there wasn't a shawl pattern for a famous NYC landmark so we're going to say Paris.  Back in November I asked her if I knit Natalie Servant's Eiffel Tower Shawl if she would wear it.  She said yes and so here we are.  Happy Birthday!  In July.  Finally done.  Eight months late.

In my defense I thought it would be much more difficult than it actually was.  This lovely pattern was actually pretty straight forward.  The only real difficulty I had was when I got to the third chart.  It's pretty readable if you aren't trying to read the chart, knit in a dark yarn, and watch the last four episodes Game of Thrones.  It is a laceweight pattern too, so it's not even effective for hiding behind because you can see through it.  Note to self, never knit laceweight when watching HBO.

I knit this out of Knit Picks Shadow in the colorway Midnight.  It's a black with undertones of blue and green.  Just like the planet.

FO: Oceanfront Daybreak

I know, two FO posts in two days.  The world will certainly end now.

I swear until last month I did not see the appeal of Daybreak.  It was a pretty pattern, but it was yet another shawl and totally not worth the insane obsession that has spawned quite a fan base.  But then Miss Kalendar of the Brass Needles podcast hosted a knitalong and there was a coupon code and I was really frustrated with the socks I was trying to knit and well . . .

I totally fell in love with the construction of this shawl.  I was a little confused about the placement of increases, but the further along I got the more I saw the magic.  None of the segments are the same size, which is not obvious when glancing at photos, but really is the unique and fun part of this pattern.  Give me one more project and I'll be a card-carrying member of the cult of Stephen West.

We took these pictures out in the neighborhood by my apartment complex.  I'm in love with the area.  There are a ton of hills and families, but right across the street is the city.  Despite the name of this project, I'm not missing the coast at all.

This sign really confused me because it faced the pond in front of my apartment.  I guess we are well protected from a duck invasion.

The Story of the Fairytale Princess Shawl

This is a story of success. It's a story of frustration and near-failure, of improvisation, and of conquering the odds. It is also a cautionary tale of why you never commit to knitting something to wear anywhere, to anything, until after it is already finished.

You all know my boyfriend Chris. He's made an appearance in this blog on several occasions, usually as the cause of some misguided hatred for gloves. Well, this weekend his friend Matt got married to a lovely girl named Justine. Matt and Chris were roommates when Chris and I started dating in college. Not long after Chris and I started dating, Matt had an encounter with Justine and they became the obnoxiously cute couple of the apartment. So when Chris told me that Matt and Justine were getting married and that he was in the wedding, I knew I needed to find something new and different to wear (mostly because I've never had a real date to a wedding before. Though going with my mom and trying not to make jokes about flowers or color schemes is always fun -- not that we've mocked any flowers or colors in any of the many weddings we have attended together. Those have all been quite beautiful and all tears have been of joy, not laughter or suffocation).

Fast-forward to summer. I'm in Pittsburgh, trying hard to be grateful for the experience I'm gaining and the potential benefits for my character, blah blah blah. My mom sends me a package, because that's just the kind of nice person that she is. Inside, along with some other very nice gifts, is the latest issue of Vogue Knitting (Early Fall 2010). As I flip through I'm struck, as always, by how odd the pieces are. Then I go back through and fall in love with about 70 percent (as it turns out, though they are not as practical, I seem to actually read and make items from Vogue as opposed to the more wearable Interweave). I blame the late hour, the insane heat, and the need to have something to knit while marathoning Doctor Who for my decision to knit the lace stole (#24) by Erica Schlueter. It's a beautiful piece, don't get me wrong, but it's gigantic and billed as "very easy" (which in Vogue is sometimes questionable, but not in this case).

So I immediately cast it on. Giving only passing thought to the fact that my yarn is verigated rather than the single color in the pattern (which, now that I think about it, is purple, and totally the reason I was drawn to that page). Also, my laceweight yarn (Knit Picks Shimmer Hand Dyed) is not alpaca as the pattern calls. But who cares? I was knitting, and that's all that mattered.

A few weeks later, I was still knitting away. See, this pattern has a 5 row repeat that gets repeated . . . wait for it . . . 100 times. Yeah, you read that right. But I was working away, knitting along, thinking about wearing it as a nice light scarf come fall and still wondering what I was going to wear to the wedding. Only then I made a mistake. I took it to knitting at Knit One one night and when asked about it, said I was making it to wear to a wedding in August. Yes, I know. Big mistake. Suddenly the clock was ticking and I was doomed.

So I knit it. I knit it all the time. And nothing seemed to change. It grew, but it never seemed to have more rows (or at least not enough for the amount of time I spent on it). I knit it all the way home from Pittsburgh to North Carolina, to the point that my hands hurt. I knit it every day I was at home. I knit it at Panther practice. Finally, I knit it on the way to Washington DC a mere five days before the wedding. By the time we got to the hotel I was feeling a little frantic. The next day I determined to finish the repeat I was currently working on and then bind off. So I made it 78 rows, then did one repeat of the edging chart, instead of two.

And then I hit another snag. The bind off calls for another, larger-size needle. Oops! I only had the needles I was making the shawl with, not any extras. So, a few minutes later, scrambling around the hotel room looking for something, anything, to bind off the shawl, I mean I was desperate, I found a mechanical pencil. Yes, I bound off a lace shawl with a large mechanical pencil. It was a little nervwracking because I didn't want to break the yarn.

(Yes, that is Dead Like Me in the background. Thank you Netflix)

But now I'm glad I didn't go past 78 repeats, because when I tried to block the shawl it was almost longer than the bed. And the colors actually look quite nice. They remind me of the scene at the very end of Sleeping Beauty when she and the prince are dancing and she's wearing this gorgeous dress and in the corner, the good fairies keep changing the color from blue to pink and back again.

(photo courtesy of the best man's wife, the ever lovely Sophia)

I wore it to the wedding yesterday, and I'm quite happy with the look. My dress was free, the shoes were old, and the hat, which everyone seemed to love, was on sale at Belk and the perfect shade of blue. It was a lovely wedding and I had a great time with Chris' friends. The guys didn't trip, faint, or yawn, and did us proud by looking great in their tuxes while the happy couple was radiant at center stage.

Too Warm for Scarves

I'm currently holed up in my new room studying away in preparation for tomorrow's language exams. Passing is beginning to feel like a long shot, but I'm just happy to be here. I'll take whatever level in which they choose to place me.

So in lieu of any interesting stories from the past twelve hours, here are the final two projects from my finishing kick.

This is my movie theater scarf (better known as the #27 Twin-Leaf Scarf designed by Heather Carlson and published in the summer 2010 Vogue, which is sadly the last issue in my subscription). The yarn should look familiar to you by now, because this project uses the last of the NaturallyCaron.com Spa bamboo that I used in my summer beret last year and in Fetching. When I read through the magazine I fell in love with all the summer scarves. Now, obviously, living at the beach (or in Pittsburgh) does not lend itself to wearing any sort of summer neckwear if at all possible. But in the fall, when things just start to cool off . . . It quickly became one of those projects that I think of on the way to campus and then am tortured by fanatsies of all day long.

Because it is involves a pretty basic leaf chart that is easy to memorize, the scarf quickly became my way of keeping my hands busy when I went to the movies. The sometimes split threads and maybe too twisted stitches are the result of Kick-Ass, Iron Man 2 (twice), and the amazing indie film The Runaways (brilliant film) among others.

Technically not a finishing project, but a quick knit I couldn't wait to get my hands on was Saroyan by the incredibly talented Liz Abinante. This is the third pattern in her Bones collection (remember the Angela Shawl?) and it was absolutely a joy to knit (and fast!) I used a lighter weight yarn with smaller needles, and it resulted in such a soft delicate fabric. I love it.

I mean seriously, aren't those leaves stunning?

Many thanks to Mom for doing the photography on our front porch before the move.

Now I must return to studying. Though I may work another row or two of this traveling woman shawl for Taryn. She saw the pattern and didn't stop talking about them until I agreed to make it if she provided the yarn money (And she thinks she's getting a good deal. Ha! This is such a fun knit).