Shawl Tryout

I'm glad I took the precaution of leaving the yarn attached while I blocked the shawl. Although it's 17 inches long, I think I'd like it to be longer. I tinked back the cast off edge. For the record, it's pretty easy to do for the cast off I used: k2tog tbl, place stitch on left needle, continue. The additional rows are slow going, because I've still been too busy to sit down and knit.

Blocking and Casting On

My Bigfoot shawl is blocking! So far, it's 17 inches long at the back neck and looks to be about 120 inches circumference. I haven't cut the yarn and woven in the ends yet. Although I think it will stretch to the size I'm after. For the record, that's 11 repeats of the main pattern. I cast off using a size 11 needle, and the k1, *slip back on the left needle, k2tog tbl* bind off.

Pattern: Bigfoot Shawl from Alison Hyde
Yarn: KnitPicks Gloss Lace in Aegean I used about 1.5 skeins
Needles: Options size 8


Then I cast on for a pair of socks using my new Cat Bordhi book.
Yarn: Trekking XXL
Needles: KnitPicks Options size 1
Pattern: Riverbed architecture not sure about the stitch pattern yet.

Knit One, Tink Two

Done with dithering, I cast on for Bigfoot, using Knit Picks gloss lace and options needles size 8. I put a lifeline in at 96 stitches thankfully. Because I needed to rip back to it when I got to row 10. Made it to the first purl row of the yoke and had to tink most of the row. Now I've done a few rows without mishap and will work on developing a rhythm. Lace is humbling.

It's a Wrap

I finished the lace stole for Grandma's Christmas present today. It was hard to find a cast off method that worked. I tried the Russian bind off, P1 slip back on left needle and P2tog, repeat. That was too tight, even thought it's supposed to be loose. Finally I used the sewn cast off from EZ. That might be a little too loose, but I think it will block out fine. I enjoyed this project and will definitely look for another opportunity to knit something in lace.

I'm In!

Ravelry, that is. What a cool idea for a web community. Two people from the UDBB have contacted me. The two biggest eaters of my surfing time will be ravelry and the UDBB. If only we had high speed internet. Oh well.

And, I should be working on Christmas activities. I did block the shawl for Grandma. It is 15"x 45". I think I'd like it to be 48 inches long. Still plenty of time for finishing. We put up the tree this morning and that will be easy to decorate tonight. Tomorrow I'll bake some cookies with Cheri and Jacey. So I'm not too far behind.