Finishing the Forest Shawl

The forest shawl is finished!

Check out my blog post about it and to see more photographs.

a mother lode of acrylic

I went to Glen Ellyn for the first time a few days ago, because the only dealer for knitting machines for hours around lives there (more on that later!).  Stopped by the LYS (of course), String Theory.  Cute shop founded after 9/11, sells a lot of yarns with eco-friendly and people-friendly labels.  For example, they were featuring some Afghanistan cashmere that was really nice.  Soft and light, like the usual cashmere;  but with a bit more rugged feel.  Would have totally picked some up, except the cost was $24/skein, and 3 skeins required for just a pair of fingerless gloves.  Yikes.

Next door was an awesome vintage store.  I picked up a couple of watercolors for less than $10.  They had a shelf in the back that was full of crocheted and quilted afghans!  

i've a lot of affection for this color

This is 3 skeins of gorgeous sock yarn twisted together.  This booth at Stitches had a bunch of colors pre-selected to do the Color Affection shawl, and this is the one that Pat selected.  Yummy!!  Can't wait to see this knitted up!

Weaving the Forest Shawl

Finally, the weaving begins! Two photos and a few words can be found in this blog entry.

The Forest Shawl Continues

In which I discuss planning the Forest Shawl.

Planning the warp design.

Beginning the Forest Shawl

I’m writing up the process of making a woven shawl on my new blog, so I thought I should post a link here so everyone can find it. This is not a fancy weave: just something simple to practice basic skills and to use up some stash.

Selecting yarns is a tricky process.

 After much searching, I chose a hand-painted sock yarn and three Knit Picks Palette yarns to coordinate. The sock yarn was supposed to become a Clapotis shawl, but once it was out of the skein I didn’t like it. Plus, when I bought it, I forgot that Clapotis calls for worsted weight yarn. (Still haven’t knit a Clapotis.)

The Knit Picks yarn was supposed to be shadow-knit pillows. I love shadow-knits, but I quickly discovered that I hate knitting them. Especially in DK-weight yarn.

Exhaustive detail about planning this can be found in the post “Planning the Forest Shawl”. I will continue to cross-post here.

a walk down memory wire

I've got my beading stuff spread out (there really is no need for a formal dining table anyway).   Found a little group of number beads, which I'd intended to make into a nursing bracelet for a deserving friend or relative.  But of course I didn't have any memory wire (which is stiff-ish wire to make bracelets that don't need clasps) ... and of course that required an online visit to firemountaingems.com.   All in the name of finishing a project, right?  It's a dangerous site, because they are a bit expensive, until you buy a certain quantity.  at 15 items, there is a price break.  at 50 items, another price break, and so on...

Well, at least the package came on my birthday, so it was kind of like a birthday present to me.  :)

I've only worked with memory wire once before, because I remember it being a royal pain in the kiester to manipulate.  This wire was awesome and very easy - perhaps because I must have fortuitously chosen a smaller gauge / diameter.

The way this bracelet works is that every bead represents 15 minutes, and you take the little lobster claw charm (which is hanging down towards the bottom right corner here) and move it to represent the time at which you last fed your babe.  if you're breastfeeding, you move the bracelet to the side that you  last fed on or the one you will need to feed on next (as long as you remember which it was).  so for example, this bracelet is set to reflect 8:30.

The pink and purple beads are from my neighbor's vintage collection.  I threw in the variegated brown ones to try and modulate the loudness of the colors a bit.  I fear it is too pink for the intended recipient.  I figure that I'm not a pink person at all, but I kind of like this hot pink.  So I hope she likes it.