A Week of FOs: Eyeblink

A week ago, it was my mother's birthday.  She has been wanting something in pink for a while now, and although we differ on what is a good shade of pink for a shawl, she did like this one that Rocket and I picked out. This is a cherry blossom pink, pale pink, and lilac hand paint called Mermaid's Glory that I picked up from a dyer in Kentucky: Mary Lamb Nehring of Colors to Dye For.  The yarn is a lace weight 70% sea cell (sea weed) / 30% silk.  It was a dream to knit with, and it worked up into this Eyeblink shawl (I WILL be making one of these crescent shawls for myself, though I might change up the lace edging).

I totally recommend this pattern!  The shawl knit up very quickly, and the lace, of course took a bit longer to do, but I knit the whole thing, blocked it, and photographed it in about 9 days.  And by the by, this fiber combination blocks amazingly well.  I expected it to be a pain because of the silk content, but not at all--totally holds its shape.

A Week of FOs: More Jekyll & Hyde Socks

This week's blog posts are going to be focused on finished objects.  I have so many light-weight projects partly finished and a few middle-weight projects, as well, and darn it if I am not going to just hunker down and get some done this week!

So first up are the socks.  Sometime early in the summer, I dyed the Pop Star color way for my Rocket Sock line.  This colorway originated with and was supervised by my, then, 10 year-old daughter.  It is a medley of fuchsia, pale pink, grape, and ultra-violet (Blogger is making these socks a little brighter than they actually are in person).  It took her a bit to settle on a pattern, and we finally went with Jekyll & Hyde, which I liked the first time through but found tedious on the second go-around.  Needless to say, instead of my usual 8-day turn-around for a pair of socks, these have taken me at least 3 months to get done. And here they are, ready on the morning of the hardest frost so far this Autumn (26 deg. F. this morning).  The frost was such a hard one that when I first looked out the window this morning, I thought it had snowed!

SOOOOO happy to be done with these and able to start a pair for myself ... right after I finish something else. 

The Everdene Wrap

It's been a year since Knit Picks published my Everdene Wrap in their bulky collection, and the rights just reverted back to me (yeah!).  So, let's take a minute to re-introduce this quick-knit, easy cabled and ruffled wrap.

The wrap is knit flat in a single piece on US 13 needles with bulky weight WOTA. The center is herringbone stitch, so this is one very cozy wrap!  Both edges of the central fabric are flanked by giant, closely connected trophy cables that are worked the entire length of the wrap.

The ends of the wrap naturally ruffle, and then there are also buttons to hold the wrap around your torso.

Unfortunately, the pictures don't include the wrap being worn correctly--there is an additional "invisible" button that secures the end hanging down in the pictures to the underside of the wrap to give the wrap a poncho feature.  That's how I'd wear it, anyway.

If you are new to cabling or even to knitting in general, this is a great first cabling project.  I could even see this being worked up in tonal or kettle-dyed yarn, as well as the solid color.  If you were just that kind of determined, you could also work the cabled edges in an intarsia fashion and do the edging in a different color than the body.

Anyway, if you are so inclined, the pattern can be purchased here:  Everdene on Knit Picks.