Silk Moon Crescent shawl from KnitCircus - Done!

Silk Moon Success!

This one was a challenge to block. Without blocking wires, it would have been hard to achieve the tension needed to really stretch this fiber out while keeping the arc of the crescent smooth.

But oh, look at it. The colors, the lovely light weight that blocking brought out of the yarn, the perfect accent of the eyelets. 

It’s a beautiful piece just as at home gracing a winter turtleneck as it will be draping over my shoulders in a future summer breeze. When I wear it out tonight, I’m sure to get plenty of compliments. I’m delighted!

Thanks, KnitCircus, for a splendid knitting experience!

Silk Moon Crescent shawl from KnitCircus - Day 5

Bound(off) to please...

I know I keep repeating myself, but oh, the color. 

And not just the color, but the color progression. KnitCircus does color gradients like no one else—gorgeous! 

It makes me wish that I had a huge, generous shawl of this to wrap around myself instead of a shawlette.  But then, of course, who knows how long those final rows would be? As it was, that bind off took me the entire 2-hour premiere of this season’s Agents of Shield to complete. Granted, it was Jenny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off, which is always extra work but always 100% worth it. Jenny’s is my bind off of choice these days, no matter what the project.

I’m curious to see how much this increases with blocking. Sometimes these things stretch out quite a bit, other times not so much.  I’d like it if it spread out and became a bit lighter in weight, but considering how lovely it is at the moment, I expect I’ll be pleased with any result.

Silk Moon Crescent shawl from KnitCircus - Day 4

Oops...

You knew it would happen, didn’t you?

Before I could decide on a tactic, my cake burped up its insides all over my lap like a child who ate too much at the circus. Without warning, the issue of the collapsing cake forced itself upon me. Literally.

My most immediate option to solve this tangle of yarn was also the simplest: find the outside end and start winding. Not even with my fancy ball winder, but the good old-fashioned-by-hand way. That worked for a while as I wound down the outside of the cake, but when I approached the “burped” insides, things got tricky.  With both ends fixed—one on the needles and the other in the cake—it was slow and tedious going. 

It took me an exasperating hour of passing the ball through loops and twists before I could resume knitting.

So now I’m back on track, happily stitching my ever-increasing rows toward the completion of my project.

Silk Moon Crescent shawl from KnitCircus - Day 3

A new problem...

I’ll admit, the rows are getting longer. I know this is heading toward row=effort instead of row=progress, but I can’t say that I mind…yet.

The second color change—while subtler— was as delightful as the first. Some of joy comes from the fact that it didn’t take quite so long to get there, but most of the pleasure comes from the pure satisfaction of meeting a sub-goal. I love the ability to wave to a milestone as you pass it by, rather like when you enter a new state on a road trip.  Nothing substantial changes—you are still driving (or, in this case, knitting), but it feels different. If you’re the sort of person who loves the gratification of crossing items off your to do list (and I sure am), color changes give the same rush in a long stretch of garter stitch knitting. 

The eyelet rows do the same thing. I’d have been bored stiff through the long blue portion of this project without those eyelet stitches. Had the first pattern directions read “garter stitch for 100 rows” or such, I might have passed this beautiful piece up. That would have been a shame.

Ah, but here’s a new problem: the collapsing center pull cake. Because the color went from dark to light, I wanted to start with the blue in the center.  I know lots of knitters who prefer the stability of center pull, so you’re not continually watching the cake roll and tilt as you unwind. Only now I’ve gotten to the point where the cake doesn’t have enough center to hold the edges up.  It’s going to fall in on itself any minute, and I’m on the hunt for coping mechanisms.  If you’ve got any, please share?

Silk Moon Crescent shawl from KnitCircus - Day 2

Ch-ch-ch-changes...

Cue the David Bowie.

The color change I've been waiting for has arrived!

The steady increase of rows is fine, the regular appearance of eyelet increase rows helps break things up into manageable subgoals, but let’s face it: we were all waiting for the color change.  I thought it would appear around row 57—the 5th eyelet increase row—but it took all the way until the 80th row for that hue to shift.

The color change isn’t particularly sudden—you do see hints of it showing up for a few rows and I found I couldn’t exactly pinpoint when blue became purple. It’s not a slow gradient, either—the shift completes in one or two rows.  In a smaller piece, the change might be more subtle, but in these long rows it happens in a perfect rhythm. I get the marvelous sensation that this fiber and pattern were made for each other. Because they were.

It’s a lovely piece, and I’m enjoying myself immensely. I’ve got a holiday party December 8, and I’ve already decided this will be my accessory of choice.  Will I get it done in time? You’ll just have to wait and see.

Silk Moon Crescent shawl from KnitCircus - Day 1

Feelin' good...

This is what I love about knitting. 

When the color is so rich it goes straight to your soul. When the yarn is so soft it takes your pulse down just by touching it. 

When even my dastardly nemesis the garter tab start can’t diminish my enjoyment of launching a new project. 

Delightful beauty. If knitting could be chocolate cake (oh, the very idea!!), this would be the chocolate cake with buttercream frosting of knitting.

I’m in the early, small row stages when progress feels easy and satisfying.  Oh, I know there are behemoth rows ahead of me, rows that take forever to finish, but today is not that day. 

Today the stresses of my life melt away under the gratifying accumulation of soft and pretty stitches. Rows of eyelets pop their eyes to say “Hello! It’s not all garter—we show up every once in a while, too, just to keep things interesting.”

This is “feel-good knitting.” 

Don’t get me wrong—I like “accomplishment knitting,” too.  I welcome projects that up my skill level or challenge me in new ways.

But there is always a place in my heart—and my knitting bag—for the knitting that just feels wonderful. And this is one of those.