A Shawlette For Me

Last week was about cross stitching, and so far this week seems to be all about knitting.  Yesterday I finished off my Skinny Ruffles Shawlette, using Dye-Versions Au Lait.  It hasn’t been blocked yet, but I still love it!

Skinny Ruffles Shawlette

Skinny Ruffles Shawlette

The shawlette, before blocking, measures about 96cm for the wingspan and 42cm at the widest point.

The pattern is very straightforward.  If you can do a knit stitch, yarn over (yarn forward), knit two together, and slip a stitch, then you can make this shawlette.  The only difficult bit is the increases down the centre, which are made using the backwards loop method (aka Make 1 Away).  I think mine turned out too loose, but I do sort of like the line they make down the centre.  I’m also hoping they will look better after blocking.  (You can find a bunch of great videos on different knitting increases at knittinghelp.com.)

Au Lait is a sport weight yarn that is a combination of cotton and milk fibres.  Crazy, eh?  It feels a little bit like really, really soft kitchen cotton. Not the best comparison, but I figure most people have felt kitchen cotton dishcloths and can use that as a reference point.  Now, it is soft and the colours are lovely, but I don’t think I would buy this yarn again.  Unfortunately, parts of one of the balls had sections where the yarn was plied together much more tightly than the other sections.  I’m not sure if the second ball is like this too, since I only used able 35% of it (yay for scales to do calculations).

I was also a little concerned to discover that the tips of my fingers have taken on the slightest purple cast.  It seems to be washing off fine, except on my stitching/knitting finger, and this is probably due to my inability to keep a callus on that finger and the fact that it is very soft, new skin there.  (Ewww!  Sorry for sharing TMI.)  I’m just about to go soak the shawlette, and I hope that I won’t lose too much of the colour.  Hopefully I will have a lovely, well blocked, still colourful, dry shawlette in the next day or so.  (Cotton takes forever to dry!)

Next on the needles: that Christmas gift I’ve been working for the past couple of months.  I’m on the home stetch.  There are also a couple more Christmas gifts in the queue, and maybe a hat for Baby Man to match the scarf I made the other week.

As for cross stitch, I’m aiming to get the backstitching on Baby Man’s stocking done before next weekend.  I’m also planning on thinking about starting TW’s Tropical Dream if I can find some 20 count fabric.  (Seriously, why 20 count?)  And there is a wedding piece I should be working on, and I should start my stocking (TW’s of course), and all those Christmas ornaments, and, and, and. So, what am I going to do this afternoon?  Why, start Lizzie*Kate’s Peace, Love and a Cure just because I want to.

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One Response to A Shawlette For Me

  1. Giovanna says:

    Oh my, that’s a lovely shawl! Congrats on the finish, and thanks for the link, I’m keeping this flagged.
    .-= Giovanna´s last blog ..Thank you, Anne! =-.