The Rose Garden Shawl/Scarf thingy is finally done, stitches dropped, washed and blocked. Even though it has been hot here, knitting knows no pain! All to give you a modeled shot of this latest shawl du jour.
Project: Hattie's Rose Garden by Christy M. Roosien of Briar Rose Fibers
Yarn: Hot Foot from Village Spinning and Weaving, 1 skein
Needles: Knit Picks Options US size 8
Start: June 7th in honor of our knitting group's Solvang yarn crawl
Finish: June 25th
Thoughts: This is one of those wonderful easy to remember patterns that's fun, fast, and engaging if you're using variegated yarn. Just enough interest to keep you from getting bored but easy enough for social knitting. The Hot Foot superwash wool from Village Spinning and Weaving really made this project. No pooling, the color variegation was evenly distributed to create a beautiful look to the fabric. When you got to the point where you dropped passed a slipped stitch, it was so fun to see the contrasting colors. So fun, in fact that I looked forward to the chartreuse that I got to pass over; it soon became my favorite, while passing a same color slipped stitch was a bit of a disappointment. Who knew knitting with variegated yarn could be so fun!
But wait, there's more! After doing umpteen kazillion repeats, it was time to drop the stitches. Yep, that's right. Drop the stitches, a la Clapotis. I reached that point at knitting group and it was a bit of a to-do. I even shared the dropped stitch love with Madgik who was on the edge of her seat, like Pam and me.
Before dropped stitches
After dropped stitches
Since it's superwash wool, I tossed it into the washer with some Soak and set it for hand wash. I hung it over a hanger to dry, since I wanted a bit more length on it, and the result was a super soft, long scarf, long enough to double it and wear it like the Parisiennes.
Crazy woman wearing wool scarf thingy in the 90 degree heat; AND it doesn't even go with her outfit!
I followed Erika's mods, so I'd have a garter stitch border at the top and bottom that wasn't interrupted by the dropped stitches, and I'm so glad I did. They were great tips! Of course, I didn't have the foresight at the beginning to weigh the amount of yarn needed for the garter stitch and bind off, so I eyeballed it with four times each row and the bind off and tied a little bow, so I would know when it was time to drop stitches and start the garter rows. Here are the leftovers. It's so nice when it works out with just a little bit of effort.
A leeeetle bit of leftover yarn
I love this shawl/scarf thingy and will probably give it away as a gift. That means I'll have to start another up for me at the end of summer... maybe with the autumn colored Hot Foot last December. I definitely recommend this pattern. Even though it says the pattern is free on Ravelry, you have to email Briar Rose Fibers to ask for it. It's a pattern that's free with the purchase of their yarn, but Chris was kind enough to send it. It's definitely worth the email to make this beautiful shawl that will keep you engaged with the color changes.
Since Rose Garden was done, I had to find an easy knitting project for Sweetie Boy's soccer tourney this past weekend. We would be out of town, so I knew I had to pack the project and hope it was easy enough to do on the soccer field. I'd been jonesing to start the Razor Cami and since I scored the cotton on the Solvang trip, this was the perfect time. I made a bit of progress.
This cotton is quite rough on the hands to knit with, but I'm holding it loosely enough where I'm not getting tender spots or callouses. So far, it doesn't seem to have the stretch that the pattern is purported to have, two to four inches of negative easy. The unstretchiness of cotton at fault here. Who knows if it will stretch over my big head. I don't think I'll know for a several more inches, but if not, I'll make Sweetie Girl wear it as a dress. She still loves to play dress up! Stay cool!
