Flat Stanley: Pattern you will tire of but nonetheless love

Stripe study indeed: you best be prepared to study and study those stripes because you will be spending a lot of quality time together. In fact you'll have a blooming PhD in stripes by the time you're done. However I am not going to disparage this pattern too much because when all is said and done you are left with a stunning and impressive shawl of the highest order, but what I will say is this: you will be completely emotionally done with this project way, way before you are actually indeed done with it. You dig?

The Specs:

Pattern: Stripe Study Shawl by Veera Välimäki

Yarn: madelinetosh madtosh sock in 'Tart' and 'Winter Wheat'. One skein each, no leftovers!

Needles: Size 6

Mods: Do you call stopping after 11 stripes because there is no way in hell you're winding another skein for one stripe a mod? If so, then yeah. That.

I all honesty the project was a rollicking good time for the first 6 stripes or so. It is quite fun to see the assymetricality of the stripes take shape as the short rows do their magic. The pattern is very easy once you fully get the logic of it all.

My love affair with all things madelinetosh continues, my friends. This sock yarn is a dream. And does anyone do colors the way madelinetosh? Please clue me in of you have a cheeky answer to that question, because I am all ears.

I'm going to call this pattern the Flat Stanley of WIPs because I took this pattern everywhere:

-to class when my students were taking a test:

-to a Sea Shanty party (if that's your bag you might want to join this group on Ravelry. I don't even...):

-to work to randomly knit on while waiting for advisees to show up. I got a lot done this way if you know what I mean:

-on my porch, during the 15 minutes minutes in which it's actually been pleasant to be outside:

Yeah, this project was my constant companion for about a month. And if you can believe it, I am thinking of casting on for another go-round as I need a good travel project. More on that in the next post...

Pattern you will never tire of!

Well the Shetland Triangle is the stuff of legends for a very good reason: it just WORKS, you know? It is supremely wearable and quite easily memorized. You always know exactly where you are at all times and it is done at precisely the moment you are about to be completely over it. WIN WIN WIN DING DING DING.

The Specs:

Pattern: Shetland Triangle Lace Shawl by Evelyn A. Clark

Yarn: Rowan Kid Classic in color #847. I have a lot to say about this yarn, so don't go anywhere.

Needles: Size 6

Mods: Insert NONE here

Oh Rowan Kid Classic...you are the perfect combination of 70% wool, 26% mohair and 4% nylon! You might know that I'm not a huge mohair fan as I feel it frequently is somehow in my mouth when I knit with it, to the point where I have phantom mohair mouth when I'm knitting with it. However the clever chemists at Rowan have figured out the perfect formula for mohair: keep it under 26%! Yes, at that percentage it is kept in its place (out of your mouth) because the wool is keeping it in check. And that 4% nylon seriously puts the whole operation into awesome overdrive and maybe keeps the mohair trapped somehow? Such a science-y analysis, I know. And this red is the definition of cherry red, which is one of my favorite reds. I love this yarn and see no reason to not keep hoarding it.

Shawls are really quite a gas to make and especially to give away. I made this for my friend Meredith's birthday, and being the mohair lover and hand made enthusiast that she is, she was very happy with it. I hope to see her wearing at work someday as for a knitter random, chance sightings as you well know are the very best!

Do you like my Minnesota English in the title? Nice dangling preposition, I know. I'm sure I'll be hearing about it from my mom who is a perpetual state of aghastness at the state of my locution. Eh! At least I'm not writing 'Do you wanna come with'. That REALLY sets her off...