8.26.2009

Froggie

I knitted this Froggie towel from Noni as a sample for the shop. The pattern came to us hot off the presses so I have the privilege of being one of the first to knit it. The towel is knit from Peaches and Cream cotton so not only is it incredibly affordable, but it will hold up to many bath times. It is a fairly easy knit and great for the beginner who likes to do a lot of garter stitch (seriously, this thing is almost nothing but garter stitch so if you hate garter stitch, move on.) It is going to hang out in the shop until all of the kits are gone and then this cute little guy is going to live with a friend who's son will be just the right size for the small towel.

In other news, for the last several months I have been trying to buy the out-of-print Dale of Norway booklet that contains the Lappland sweater pattern with no success. I found the pattern on Ravelry last Spring when I was looking for a Christmas sweater for my dad. If you know my dad, you know that this sweater screams his name and once I saw it, there could be no substitute. Finally, I contacted the company and they agreed to send me a photocopy of the out-of-print pattern as long as I bought Dale yarn to knit it. Yesterday I placed the order for 40 balls of their Falk yarn to knit the sweater and hopefully the yarn and the pattern should arrive sometime late next week.

8.16.2009

Quick project pic

Here is the Porom that I knitted for a hat swap on Ravelry. I plan on knitting another one of these for myself at a later date.

8.13.2009

Shawls

Sarah went on vacation last week so I was at the shop non-stop. I decided to try to block the two shawls I finished months ago in the back room during shop hours. I wasn't sure if this would work since I am used to blocking at home with a proper wash basin and using the spin cycle of my washing machine to remove the water. At the shop, we don't have running water, but we have access to water from the restaurant

First up is the Swallowtail Shawl from the Fall 2006 issue of Interweave Knits (now available as a free download.) If you have never attempted lace before, this would be an excellent place to start, the pattern is easy to read and quick to memorize. I knitted mine out of some seacell sock base that I dyed especially for this shawl. I used 396 yards of the yarn which made more of a shawlette sized shawl.

My second shawl is the Fountain Pen Shawl from the Spring 2009 issue of Interweave Knits. Originally, I knit this to give as a gift, but I really like the size and the weight of the shawl so I might be keeping it for myself. Again this is a handdyed yarn, actually I dyed two colorways for the Swallowtail because I couldn't decide what I wanted for that one. This was a fingering weight superwash base yarn that we sell at the shop and in the end, I much preferred this yarn and shawl to the yarn I used for the Swallowtail and I plan on dyeing more in the future.

That is all for now, but hopefully I will have a few more projects to share later in the week.