Thursday, July 26, 2007

I love it when a plan comes together

A little while ago (Alright, it was probably months, I am bad at keeping track of these things...) bets, over at the Elann chat center asked us what patterns we had made that worked well, were not too complex, and that we would make again and again - our standbys.

Well, I finally found one, and I am mucho proud, because I have a FINISHED OJECT! (Aside from socks, when was the last time I finished something? And the aforementioned bets has made, like, a dozen sweaters and seventeen accessories since then?)

Can you possibly guess what pattern this is?









If you guessed Wisp (Which can be found in the summer 07 issue of Knitty.com but which for some reason refused repeatedly to be a workable link) congratulations!

Of course it looks very different in Knitty. There, it is made with one ball of laceweight mohair, and it is ethereal to the max. However, I had very little time to do this, and made it for a friend who was going in for surgery. I wanted her to have a Woobie, one she could use as a teddy bear, or a pillow, or a shawl, as she happened to see fit at any moment. I wanted one her family could not felt in the washing machine. And we all know I have a deep, deep fear of blocking, so it had to be at least acceptable right off the needles.

Benne told me years ago that she had made a number of shawls from Lion Brand Homespun and that they had survived the wars, so to speak, and it comes in a plethora of interesting colors, available very conveniently in the nearest AC Moore, with coupon. (I have a ton of this in my very own basement, but Feltdemort could not bear the thought of my cracking open the stash and letting God alone knows what OUT, so he told me to just buy some more...Well, ok, Break MY arm...)

I must now extole the virtues of this combination, and they are many...

I cast on 48 stitches. Somewhere along the line I lost two. I kept going on 46. You can't tell.

I had numerous times during the very quick-time-pressured knitting of this shawl where I found myself one or two short or over, and I made it up by adding one or two where I thought it wouldn't be noticeable, or leaving out a knit two together, or I threw in a yarn over where I thought it wouldn't hurt - between the end four stitches and the lace part on the first row of a lace section. You can't tell.

The pattern is incredibly simple, memorized in about 22 seconds, so you don't need to carry it with you. To make it even simpler, I left out the buttonholes on the sides, figuring if I dedided to add buttons I could also add some way to button them, later. I did not add buttons.

This dark blue shawl was all over the couch, the floor, the car, my son, etc. while being knit. You can't tell.

It was not prohibitively expensive to knit. I used less than two skeins. With a coupon or two, this is less than ten dollars.

It does not look cheesy. It looks very pretty.

It can be almost any length. I stopped when I ran out of time, and it is long enough to wear with a shawl pin. I could have kept going with the yarn in the second skein, which I used less than half of, and had a luxuriously long shawl. If I had reduced the number of stitches I cast on, I could have made it shorter, with buttons, like the original.




I did not try killing it, because I did not have time to test a swatch and see whether I liked it that way or not, but I am planning such an experiment for the future.

I think my friend liked it. She is the sort of person who gives handmade gifts, so she was likely to, and she seemed to. I was not going to be able to visit her in the hospital, so I felt like I was sending a hug along. And I was able to avoid the post office.

Win, Win, Win, Win, Win. I will be making this again, and in other yarns.

PS. It is reported that all went well.

13 comments:

Amknitty International said...

It's lovely, you should be proud of yourself! I too love knitting that 'forgives' the fact I'm not a perfect knitter.

benne said...

T, that looks terrific! The thing I like about the Homespun is that it is so soft, is machine wash and dry, and it it starts to get little pills or loose strands they can just be pulled off without structural damage. It's a good comfort, wad-me-up and snuggle yarn. I like how you rolled with the flow on the pattern. It's very, very pretty.

Grace said...

T its beautiful, i need to look up the pattern

Michelle said...

Sounds like a great project!

Joan said...

Gorgeous color!! Must check out the pattern. Disappearing & reappearing sts? Sounds like me every day. ;-p

My little 11 yr old knitting buddy knit herself a tote bag a year or 2 ago with Homespun and she brought it over today filled with scrapbooking supplies and it still looks good.

How was your HP weekend? Surely a post with all the details?

junior_goddess said...

I think it's beautimous for many reasons-

1) it's blue
2)knit as a woobie
3) idiot proof
4) pretty
5)finished!

SooZ said...

Thats so pretty, and the color of choice is striking. Your post is a fun read. I'll be back!

Gryffinitter said...

Having made this once, I am now very tempted to make it with the Crystal Palace yarn I got in Philly last year... space-dyed in brown/yellow for my friend who is woodsy, in other colors for the others...watch it be a real pita by comparison, but I will not be able to help myself, I think. I also want to try it in plain old yarn yarn and see how it looks...

Even though it is lace, honestly, there is very little to the lace pattern, and I don't think I'll miss too much by having it in a variegated yarn...

LisaW. said...

wow, i just went to the Knitty pattern and would NEVER in a gajillion years believe it was the same one. I have a preggo friend (or two! ha!) and think that a nursing shawl is an awesome idea and a nice complement for mom to the lil' sweaters and booty action that is status quo. Thanks for the grand idea T!

smariek said...

Very nice. I hadn't thought of using Homespun for something like this. I still have 2 skeins leftover for 2.5 yrs ago that I don't know what to do with. But you've given me ideas...

Andrea said...

Wow! That looks beautiful! I haven't been by in a while and decided to drop in and this is what you're up to! :-D Awesome!

inukshuk71 said...

I'm sure your friend felt the hug and is in love with this beautiful shawl. A+ on being creative with stitches on a tight schedule.

Billie said...

T, I see you haven't posted since July...holidays, maybe?? I'm trying to track you down, so please check your email that you use for HUGe. Thanks