This week will be a week of posts, as tomorrow I am off to my favourite LYS, Purlescence, to do a workshop on Continental Knitting and Norwegian purl!  So I’ll write about that soon.

However, right now I want to update on a couple of other things.  First, in this post I want to let you know what I’ve been upto.  Plugging away slowly I have managed to finish a crochet shawl, and a knit shawl and start on another small project.

First up I finished my recuerdos de la niebla shawl.  This seemed to take forever, as I am used to crocheting much faster than my hands currently let me.  That and the never ending ball of yarn.  Seriously, the pattern said use about 50% before starting the border.  I used 75%.  Then I did three rows of border.  You are supposed to get 7 rows of border total, so I weighed how much I used in row 4 – 4grams – and I had 23 grams left. 20/4 is 5 rows plus a little bit left over.  I got 11 rows.  And another 2 rows of SC across the top edge before giving up with another 4grms of yarn left.  Not entirely sure how that works, but that is why my beads aren’t on the last row of the edging, but 2 rows in.  I think it worked out pretty well!

After that marathon, and my hands being a pain, I wanted a project that was quick, that was knit and that used up some of the yarn that I had been gifted in the last 12 months. After lots of fussing and indecision I went with the beautiful ‘the age of brass and steam kerchief’ (a free pattern on Ravelry), done in the gorgeous DK weight Debbie Bliss Andes.  I had been gifted 2 skiens last year for my birthday in a lovely deep, dark red.  The beaded sections were a bit of pain (literally) but easy enough – particularly if you decide to knit together and *then* bead the resulting stitch.  My first beaded row I tried a pass2, pass 1 over, bead the stitch and then knit it.  It worked, but not as well.

Once blocked the yarn bloomed slightly, softened even more and is just the right size to sit in the V of a coat and give lovely warmth.  The yarn has lovely stitch definition as well, and it was such a joy to work with I picked up some more in chocolate at the Ally Pally show.

Delighted with having a ‘fast’ project (a little under two weeks all told) I wanted another one.  I have some gorgeous yarn staring at me, and a hankering for some cabled fingerless mitts, but I’m not quite there yet, so instead I broke out another gift.

I was given some beautiful handspun last July, and have been dreaming of the perfect project.  I wanted something that I could use both yarns together, and something that would show off the yarn. The grey is a thicker, bulky type weight and the cream a much finer closer to 4ply weight.  A pair of 6mm needles, and a bit of ‘constructive swatching’ (known to others as ‘that’s not right, I’ll start again’) I’ve started a cowl.

I’m doubling the cream yarn to give a little weight so it’s similar to the grey, and I’ll go as long as I can before using a kitchner stitch bind off to have a seamless loop (hence the odd green bit at the bottom.  It’s lovely and soft, and has a sort of ‘rustic’ look which goes lovely with my new full length wax jacket!  If this goes well I think I might look at working some cabled mitts over a longer period of time!