Tag: mohair

Knitting

The Tuesday Night Wrap

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handknit lace scarf in two-toned gold yarn draped on a wooden hanger

A mystery knit-along (MKAL) requires confidence in the designer that your time and (more importantly) your precious yarn will not be wasted.  As I was very pleased with my version of The Aquarelle Shawl (an April 2022 MKAL), I cast on The Tuesday Night Wrap the very afternoon the first clue dropped. 

The early details alerted the 100s knitting along that the pattern would be released in four parts, create a rectangular wrap in two sizes (either scarf or larger shawl), and require two different yarns (one fingering and the other a lace weight mohair) best if undertaken in complimentary colors.  With Miss Marple serving as the pattern inspiration, lace work was a must as her character is always adorned in lace – lace collars, lace gloves, even lace wound in her hair.

With finished dimensions of 16 inches by 67 inches, this scarf is wider than I would normally feature.  Although the softness of this lovely merino fingering yarn, hand-dyed by Heather Best at Sew Happy Jane, will wrap nicely for squishy, cuddly warmth.

Librarian’s bibliographic note:  Miss Marple, Agatha Christie’s popular knitting sleuth, was introduced to readers in a short story published in 1927 and entitled:  The Tuesday Night Club. 

Knitting

Filling the time ‘till testing

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hand knit light green lacy cowl
hand knit triangular green and purple shawl draped on wooden hanger

My knitting time during these deep winter months (January into March) has focused on small, quick-to-complete projects while I await participation in my first test knit.  The sage colored cowl uses yarn I hand-dyed with Kool-Aid as part of a class with Heather Best and I did a stash dive for the wool, alpaca, mohair, silk blend that resulted in the soft, squishy cable bordered shawl.

The pattern I volunteered to test is currently in the making by Jennifer Berg, Native Knitter.  While her projects often incorporate geometric images in contrasting colors reminiscent of Acoma pottery or Navajo blankets, a first glimpse of her new design reflects the dramatic colors the raw southwestern landscape.  Proceeds from the sale of this soon-to-be released pattern will benefit MMIW – Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.

Knitting

Three to Get Ready

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While my Ravelry project page certainly records sweaters, specifically nine before 2020, sweaters were not my go-to knitting project.  The amount of work and time required coupled with horror tales of projects gone wrong with elephantine results kept me working on lots of shawls and scarves.  Items where gauge and size were less crucial.  Then I found Marie Greene and her 4-day sweater challenge.  Admittedly, my Foxtrot took over two months to complete but I was so pleased with the results that I selected another of Marie’s patterns, Houghton, to knit a sweater for Mom using a lush English merino-mohair blend.  Then, thinking ahead to fall travels (in pre-Covid times) I knit the same cardigan for myself using the same yarn in the same color and even the same buttons.  This became the first of my 2020 sweaters.  Soundtrack, another 4-day challenge completed in 22-days, was sweater #2.

Now, just off the needles and the blocking squares is Happy Hour.  Designed around the pre-Covid memory of outings with friends for happy hour, the sweater includes a colorwork yoke with a 3 PM, 4 PM or 5 PM pattern repeat, as well as a fanciful repeat on each sleeve.  I opted for three pattern repeat with a nod to an early toast at the end of the work day.

In this very strange year when daily wear is almost exclusively comfy casual clothes with only an infrequent ZOOM meeting to show off three new sweaters I have transformed 4,397 yards into three sweaters all within 41 weeks.  My far flung Knit Camp buddies have offered encouragement and instruction making it all happen, as well as another 18 smaller projects for family, friends, and fundraising service auctions.  Happy knitting!