It's the Traveling Woman Shawl by Liz Abinante. The yarn is Blue Sky Alpacas 100% Alpaca Sport Weight. I know the bright pink of my blocking mats tends to distort colors but that's pretty close to what the blue actually looks like. The pattern calls for fingering weight yarn but I wanted to make a bigger shawl so I chose a bigger yarn and needles rather than adding more repeats. I ended up using about 2.5 hanks of yarn but I wouldn't have had enough to do another repeat.
This was my first time working with 100% Alpaca yarn and I love the way it drapes--perfect for a lace shawl. It really didn't bother my hands to work with at all, but when I wrap the finished project around my neck it feels so itchy. I washed it in Soak before I blocked it so I think it's just that Alpaca and I don't get along.
Now here's where the would-be-funny part comes in. I started this project on my size 6 Harmony straights (sometimes I like working on straights) and two days after my Knit Picks package arrived with my new size 7s, I step on one of the sixes and break it. Grrrr... I'm a disaster when it comes to Harmony needles, but I love them so much! I finished the project on my circular 6s but I have a new shopping cart going at Knit Picks as I debate whether or not to place another order.
I have no idea what I'm going to do with the other project that I recently finished. I made it on a whim to use up some half balls of yarn I had lying around. It's a baby sweater.
The pattern is Helena from a back issue of Knitty.com. Again, the pattern called for smaller yarn that I used. The pattern calls for DK weight but I used worsted because that what I wanted to use up. I followed the instructions for the 3 mo. size but it came out more like 12 mo. because of my gauge. It doesn't really matter since I don't have a recipient in mind.
This is what it looked like in progress. I worked the body and both sleeves at the same time to make sure the stripes were even. The yarn is what was left over from my Knit Picks Montavilla Market Tote. I only made one of the bags... Not a bad pattern, I just don't have an inclination to knit it again... I had about half a ball of each of the colors of Simply Cotton Worsted left so I jumped into this hoping that there would be enough to finish. It's technically been done for a while but I just bought the button and attached it today.
I've been adding a few stitches here and there to other projects but these have had most of my attention for the past few days.
Sorry the photos are so bad this time. This semester my brother is taking a digital design class and he needs and digital camera, which he doesn't have, so he borrowed mine. These pictures are all from my cellphone.
Wow, your cell phone takes some pretty sweet pictures! The thing I find about alpaca is that although it's soft to the touch because it doesn't have the scales that wool does, it can still feel a little scratchy when you wear it because the fibers themselves are pretty straight and the ends tend to poke you... no fun.
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