Shawl FO

I sometimes lurk in the Free Pattern Testers group on Ravelry to see what's being offered. The idea to knit a beautiful pattern before it becomes public is very enticing. I like the challenge of knitting and finding any errors or typos (usually very minor) that might have found their way into the written pattern or the charts.

 

About a  month ago I came across a pattern for a shawl that had some beads in it. I just loved the look of that shawl. I thought that this would be a good time to try this new-to-me beading technique.
 

Ignorance is bliss they say...well ya...it is.
 

It would take me an hour and a half to knit only one small repeat. This section is 24 rows of 42 stitches but it has 51 beads! I needed to knit 23 repeats in total. That's almost 1200 beads.

WHAT WAS I THINKING!!!!

 

 

If it had not been for the dealine on this test knit (and my pride) I'm sure I would have put the shawl away till the urge to knit in more beads would have come again (and we know such urges never do surface again). So my plan was to knit at least one repeat per evening and some days I might start on a second one.

 

Once the band was done (32 hours of knitting), I picked up quite a few stitches, proceeded to do some short-row knitting and just two evenings later, the shawl that I thought would never see daylight was completed.
 

WHOA! Am I ever happy with myself! I just love my new shawl. It's for sure the nicest thing I've ever knitted.

 

The yarn is Madelinetosh Tosh lace in the Oxblood colourway. Once knitted up, I see more pinks and plums than before...wonderful colour.

Matches with my rock completely ;o)

This is the Large version of this shawl. It's not huge, measuring 16'' deep and 94'' along the bottom edge.

I would order beads online next time instead of getting them at the big box store...the beads are not all the same size and many ended up being thrown away but in the end it doesn't really show.

 There's this wonderful little double cable all along and it's just too cute!

The pattern is Everdeen by Jessica Myers.
You should knit one too!

October days

Yesterday, the sun came out for a bit and I met my daughter and grandchildren at the park for a little bit of playtime. The wind was surprinsingly warm by the lake.

The children wore the Pumpkin hats I made them for Thanksgiving.

 

Back home

Wow! We drove back home on Sunday in a constant downpour of rain. They were predicting 40 to 50 mm of rainfall and I believe they were right.

 

We had a wonderful weekend. Visiting our son is always a pleasure. He's a fine young man making us proud. I'm coming to accept that he's going to live his life 'down south'. But it's not so far that we can't visit regularly and catch up with each other.

 

Of course, the highlight of the weekend (for me at least) was the Woodstock Fleece Festival. This is a somewhat smaller scale gathering of vendors but I was so impressed with the high level of quality and mostly with the creativity of some of the vendors.

When you work in isolation, it's refreshing to see other people's work. I came back home very inspired.

Of course, I did do some shopping but showed great restraint again this time.

 Little things, gadgets that I've been meaning to get for quite some time.
A pom-pom maker in two sizes, some T-pins and stitch markers in many sizes. But I was mostly happy about the Wonder Knitter. I'll be able to show O how to use it. She's 3 and really wants to knit with me. This might be something she'll enjoy.

 Even though I make lots of soap, I loved this one with the felted roving around it. Perfect for Christmas (which is just around the corner by the way!).

 Some fun stuff to add to my batts. The hand dyed firestar on the left is really sparkly and a little will go a long way. The Sari silk and fun yarn can be added to the crazy batts I want to make again and the gold cotton/metallic thread will be used to ply those crazy yarns I want to make.

 And of course, some lovely fibre.
I'm mostly proud of myself for not buying the usual green/blue blends that I always reach for.

I'm planning on making this outing a annual thing. I really enjoyed it.

Fleece Festival and more

Woodstock...

getting ready for a little weekend away from home,

to spend some time visiting our son,

to do a little shopping at the Fleece Festival happening in Woodstock, Ontario.

 

The hours of driving are left to hubby while I'll happily knit beside him.

 

Car knitting is definitely one of my favorite things to do.

I'll bring projects that don't require too much concentration, so that I can take in the scenery and chat away with hubby. (More on this at the end of this post.)

Speaking of scenery, I was blown away by the beautiful sunrise earlier this week.

 

 The Muskoka chairs are still out on the deck so I bundled up and enjoyed the sunrise with coffee in hand.

And yesterday, sun and rain with a bit of freezing rain thrown in gave a bright rainbow against the dark clouds.
Even at my age, rainbows are still magical.

Still knitting away on my beaded shawl. It's slow going but progress is being made. I only knit one hour or so at a time on the shawl because it demands quite a bit of concentration.
I now have 15 of the pattern repeats done with only 8 more to go. Then I'll pick up close to 300 stitches to knit the top part.

 

Christmas craft show season is coming soon. I've only signed up for one show this year. I've been adding some handspun hand dyed bulky merino yarns accessories to the bins of stuff I'll bring.

This hat is a quick knit and fits great.

Big fat stitches are a nice change to the beaded lace weight knitting.

This hat with earflaps and tassels is made in hand dyed, handspun merino/silk yarn.

I'll be knitting more of these in the car this weekend along with the cowl I've hinted at a few weeks ago.

What is your knitting all about this week? 

Last call

The farmer's market is on for the last weekend this year! I'll be there from 8am till 1pm.
Stop in my booth and say Hi if you're in the area!

 

 O and her grandfather heading to the pasture, food in hand to feed the alpacas.
(photo intense)

 The alpacas follow close behind.

The trees are in full colour glory!

Almost there.

O loves to help out. We love spending time with her. She's growing so fast.

Fernando posing.

Tenellie.

Curious Carmella.

I'm not a big fan of the autumn but I've been enjoying the change of colours so much this year...surely has something to do with the sunny weather we've had so far.

I'm working on a beaded knitted shawl. Very labor intense with about 1200 beads to knit all along the edge of the shawl. Once this is done, I'll pick up stitches and knit the top of the shawl.

The pattern is not published yet, I'm test knitting it for CraftyChaos on Ravelry.

Tomorrow is the beginning of the canadian Thanksgiving weekend.
Enjoy yours with family, friends or your knititng!