Sunday 17 August 2014

A Summer Shawl's Tale

Hello again!

Remember I started this Summer Shawl on Thursday night? Well this is what it looked like after I spent quite a long time working on it during Friday. It didn't seem to grow much!!! I was using a fine yarn (Ezra) and my trusted 3mm hook.

Summer Shawl Version 1


Then I decided to try out a different yarn. I dug through my stash and came across this Flamingo Pink (!) Extra Soft Merino Cotton by SMC Select (70% Pure New Wool, 30% Cotton), recommended hook size: 3-4 mm. Ok, let's try this with a size 5mm hook! By Friday evening I had hooked up a similar size triangle with 4 pattern repeats (instead of 7).

Version 1 (Blue) vs Version 2 (Pink)
This close up shows the difference in stitch size better
And here's one I made earlier!

Well, I know, that is not a shawl! It is a WIP! I had started knitting a neckwarmer in Spring in 3 colours, but I lost interest due to the fact I got annoyed with winding the different colour yarn after each round. Well, I thanked my earlier self because this meant I could recover the 3 balls of yarn all in one long string, as it had not been cut! So I got busy with my wool winder...
Progress on Saturday morning
Saturday was busy. On our travels out we found the perfect little table for our balcony. Just big enough to put down a drink and my crochet. Purple and perfect!!
Sitting outside on the balcony enjoying the evening sunshine!
I also bought some bamboo sticks for my plants. My little sunflowers needed a bit of support! And Jasper is relaxing in his favourite spot!

Jasper loves sunflowers, too!
 Here are the bigger sunflowers, the front one had gotten bent and damaged, so I'm hoping now it might recover. Still waiting for them to start flowering. Nothing like a bit of (tiny) yarnbombing!
The larger sunflower plants - spot the yarn!
 This is what 2 x 50g yarn looks like!
Sunday morning Shawl
Meanwhile I am nearly finished with the 3rd ball of yarn. The pattern calls for a total of 4x50 g Crochet Cotton (1 of them for the contrast coloured border - you might just see this in the photo above with the book in the background). I have a feeling I will be using more. I am pondering the following questions: How large should I make this? How about using the Orange Mango coloured yarn for the top and the Blackcurrant one for the border? I only got one more ball of Pink left. It measures now 138 (of 155cm) wide and 85 of 95 cm measured on each side.

I showed you this to illustrate that sometimes, even if you are trying to follow a pattern, things do not always turn out as expected. And I am pleased with myself that I had the nerve to undo my knitting! There is no time like the present! (However, I can assure you, I still got plenty of WIP left) I don't regret it, the yarn I gained is really lovely, soft and squishy to the touch. Everything is a learning curve!



9 comments:

  1. If I were you I'd make the shawl as big as you can with what yarn you have. Obviously not ridicuously big but I don't think you have enough yarn to make it ridicuously big. Sometimes I finish off a shawl because I think it's big enough and IO just want to be finished! But later I wish I'd made it bigger.

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    1. Hi Gillian!
      Thanks for your advice! Today I went into Antwerp and was lucky to find one more ball of the pink, so I'm gonna keep going! :) xx

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  2. Hi I found you over at Little Woolie. Amanda x

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    1. Hi there Amanda,

      Thanks for coming over! Do you enjoy crocheting too?
      Take care! Ingrid xx

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  4. I like Jasper (very much) your pink and blue shawls (the blue one even better) and your purple little table.
    Seems a vey nice place to work in the evening sunlight!

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    1. Hi Brigitte!

      Thanks for your kind words! Haha, it seems like I'm always using Jasper as my model! In fact we do have 3 cats, as I said before, just the other two are usually somewhere else. The table is wonderful, but now it seems to rain such a lot, so I can't sit outside, just typical! Yes, the blue-green yarn is really nice, I am very fond of variegated yarns! I have used it before for some other projects (still WIP), so I will show them when they are ready. I just finished making a cowl tonight and have posted about it! xx

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  5. I like both of your shawls very much, the blue one is just going to be finer, but you could always use a larger hook to make it more lace like. I start a sock weight shawl and am using a size I, 5.5 mm hook and it is still working up fast and looks lovely. Your yarns are so bright and fun.
    Hugs,
    Meredith

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  6. Hi again Meredith!
    Thanks for that suggestion, great idea! I might have to shelf it for now because the weather here is truly getting much cooler and I'm starting to move towards warmer things. Yesterday I started on knitting a wool scarf, after doing only crochet for the last 5 months!

    Yes, I love my colours, for me it's a bit like painting with yarn! :)
    Ingrid xx

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