The latest washing and blocking event included a cowl and a couple of hats that had been long awaiting this process.
The pattern of this first hat was supposed to swirl, but for some reason it didn't work out that way. Even so, it turned out to be a fairly nice hat.
This is one of my favorite hat patterns. It is simple, but interesting to make. The goal of this project was to use up some yarn I had left from another hat, so with the hope that the hat would turn out slouchy, I kept going on the pattern until the yarn was mostly used up. I like the way this pattern looks on me, but will have to do a different color. As much as I love this color orange, it isn't something I would wear.
This cowl pattern actually called for a heavier yarn, but I wanted to see how it would do in a lighter weight. I really like the texture of this pattern and the way the lighter yarn made it drape.
Needing more room in my wooly garment box, I sent these projects plus some others with my daughter to give as gifts. She lives in a much colder clime than I, so hopefully they will warm some heads and necks along with hearts.
I have finally gotten around to washing and blocking several of my projects which means I finally have pictures to show. First up is a shawl pattern by a favorite designer of mine--Jared Flood. The pattern is called Terra, and the yarn color I used is Black Cherry. Therefore I present to you Cherry Terra:
The yarn is actually a darker red with a hint of black in it (the iPhone camera is not the best in capturing color). The shawl is large, and just the thing to throw over my shoulders when I need a bit of extra warmth. Going through my yarn stash, I found that I have enough yarn in several basic colors to make myself some more large shawls (happy me!), and have gotten one started since.
Knitting and beads--what a lovely result! The shawl I made to wear to my niece's wedding came off the needles about three days before her wedding--just enough time to get it washed and blocked. The name of this shawl is Dusk, and the combination of the yarn color and beads had the effect I hoped for--stars just coming out in the evening:
One of my husband's sisters really like it and requested a shawl for herself. Because I thought this pattern didn't really fit her style, I sent her a link for another pattern from my Ravelry queue. She approved, and over the holidays I will take some yarn and beads from my stash that I think will work well. That will be my next shawl project after my current one. Doesn't look like my needles will be idle any time soon.
