On the Spice Market Shawl from Blazing Needles -- Done!

Done!

This is as gorgeous a piece as I’d hoped it would be.  I love the dramatic graphics and the lush, rich colors.  You know you love a shawl when you immediately start planning which tops and dresses go with it, or you get the urge to go shop for more.  As I’ve said before, people often remark that I have a shawl for every outfit, but the truth is I have an outfit for every shawl.  Quick, somebody host me for a book signing so I can wear this beauty in public!

The texture is perfect for Chicago’s finicky weather.  50’s one day, 70’s the next.  Or for those of us who bring our own “personal summers” with us wherever we go thanks to finicky hormones.  It’s got enough heft to offer warmth, but not so much that you can’t throw it over your shoulders to keep off summer air conditioning.

One bit of advice: I do wish I’d adopted the strategy I did for the Leftie shawl and wove in the gazillion ends as I went.  With all these color changes, it took me nearly two hours to weave in the ends.  It was tempting to get sloppy as I neared the end, but I dug in my heels (or, in this case, my craft needle and scissors) and kept at it.

All in all, a truly exquisite piece, and one I’ll wear as often as I can. Thanks, Blazing Needles, for one of my favorite new shawls this year! 

On the Spice Market Shawl from Blazing Needles - Day 2

Flying colors...

Ah, the colors!  For someone who can’t put colors together, I sure love to watch how brilliantly other people do it.  The interplay of hue and design in this piece is nothing short of stunning—even at this early stage.

The construction is no slouch, either.  German short rows are a technique I’d heard of, but never tried.  The unique treatment of the pivot stitch gets rid of that pesky space that always shows up in other short rows.  It’s nearly invisible in this shawl.  

It’s a technique worth learning, but one that is best acquired in video.  I’d read the written instructions twice, but couldn’t quite picture how the pivot stitch was “pulled up” on top of the needle…until I managed to find a video.  After that “Aha! So that’s what they mean” moment, it was smooth sailing, and I grinned with satisfaction of having added another tool to my knitter’s toolbox.

There are a lot of colors involved, but the nice thing about this project is that you’re only really working with two colors at a time, so the project—at least for now—is still nicely portable.  That’s good, because I’m traveling this week.  You don’t want to be near me if I have to travel without my knitting, but I don’t want to be lugging a big bag of yarn around, either.

Yes, the rows are getting longer, but I don’t yet mind.  The stripes and nifty little starry polkadots of this section are too delightful to let me care.

On the Spice Market Shawl from Blazing Needles - Day 1

Checking all the boxes...

I love kits.

Especially on projects where color—or more exactly color combinations—are crucial. God has given me many skills in life, but putting colors together has never been one of them.  

Pick out a yarn, a single yarn, and I’m great.  I know exactly what I want when I see it.  Tell me I have to combine that yarn with others, and it’s a crime to leave me unsupervised.  It will not end well, I assure you.

So when you take a shawl that dramatically combines six different colors, you can bet I’m not going into that alone.  I drooled over this shawl when I saw it on the wall at Blazing Needles. I was near giddy when owner Cynthia Mills said I could have the kit as my Knit-Along project.  A stunning array of Shibui Stacatto in colors perfect for me, eye-catching in the way I love shawls to be, a generous size, funky and artistic but not fussy. This shawl pretty much embodies my check-list for the perfect knitted accessory.

It has only one flaw—if you can even call it a flaw.  A full-sized shawl on size 2.5 needles means a lot of stitches. Sure, most of them are garter, but there are some luscious color changes and ingenious German short rows to entertain me. And yes...the rows get longer as you go.  You already know how I don't deal with that well. 

Still, I'm absolutely in love the interplay of colors so far.

Happy Easter and Passover, DestiKNITters!

The Clincher Bandana Scarf from Ewe-Nique Yarns - Day 2

Colorplay...

The colors.

I can’t get over the colors.  In honesty, I wasn't too thrilled about the green at the beginning.  It felt way too close to the color of my Brassica shawl to be exciting.  Oh, but when it started to change—wow! The photo doesn't do it justice, trust me.  I kept stopping knitting just to stare at it.  If all the color changes I can see in the cake are as luscious as the ones I’ve seen so far, this is going to be one gorgeous shawl.  Between these and the clever i-cord trim, I bet this is going to be one that gets people stopping me on the street (I love that).

This week has been a travel week for me, and my knitting is always close to my heart (literally and figuratively) when I travel.  Nothing else ever softens the blows of travel—airport lines, long flights, endless waits or delays, all that standing around—like knitting.  It never fails to start up a conversation when I take out my knitting.  Either a fellow knitter wants to “talk shop,” or someone tells me a story about their grandmother or aunt or mom who knit them something.  It makes connections.  Even before I began deliberately seeking out yarn shops for DestiKNITions, I have always treasured the way knitting connects perfect strangers.  

Round two of travel starts tomorrow, so I’ll have more treasures in store—and hopefully more breathtaking color changes.

Blurred Lines Bandana Style Shawlette from Yarn & Stitches--Day 5

For Whom?

It’s not hard to see where this is going.  The sections are repeating themselves.  In many ways, that’s good—familiar territory makes for stress free knitting.  I’m at a conference, absorbing new material, pausing here and there to write down important notes and ideas, and I like an easy knitting task for this situation.  I like that everyone knows I’ll be knitting—nay, expects me to be knitting—in a lecture setting.  I break out my old lines: 

“Knitting is socially acceptable fidgeting.”

“I’m not knitting because you are boring me—I’m knitting so I can pay better attention to you.”

Everyone here gets it.  Still, I am a speaker/author by profession, and I take extra care to let the person at the podium know I’m connecting with him or her.  Smiles, nods, taking notes—all these things are how a well-mannered knitter lets her teacher know attention is indeed being paid.

I like the pattern.  It’s just the right balance between intriguing new stitches and repetition—engaging, but not overwhelming; simple, but not boring.  I can see there’s a brand new stitch coming at the end, and I’m looking forward to it as a gratifying finale.  The yarn has a nice spring and a pleasant texture.

But I’ll be perfectly honest:  I can’t get past the colorway.  Not many things in life feel “too young” for me, but this project will likely find its way to a little girl in my life.  I like pink, but I definitely skew toward the lighter, more pastel pinks.  And I do like rich, vibrant purples.  I just can’t get myself to embrace the combination here.

Thats the thing about knitting, however--I don’t have to.  My knitting never has to be all about me.  I can enjoy the process even if the product doesn't turn out to be my cup of tea.  

Sure, this may never grace my neck (although, to be fair, I refuse to pass judgement until this is blocked), I have NO doubt whatsoever that life will shortly introduce me to someone for whom it is absolutely perfect.  It happened with my whimsical cow bag.  It’s happened numerous times.

So for now, I just keep stitching in happy anticipation of discovering who that someone will be.