Almost Wrapped Up

Great progress on the wrap sweater front (front! ha-ha!) this weekend! I finished the border--which seemed to take forever because the rows were quite long--at SnB yesterday, and blocked it last night. So it's finally un-squished, and photographable.


Thinking and Blocking

Normally I would not block this much (this is the second time!), but I'm still thinking about how to keep it closed, and I want to know how it will behave. The longer I think about miles of i-cord or seed stitch ties, the more appealing scotch tape seems, but I'll try to do better than that. Currently, I'm contemplating some kind of frog out of i-cord, because I think seed stitch ties might seem wimpy and last minute compared to the weight of the borders. I don't think I have enough yarn left over for double knit ties (or enough patience).

In the mean time, I've started a garter stitch shawl out of 2 kinds of handspun plus one skein of Christmas yarn from my friend Molly. The bluer ones are the handspun and the silvery-brown with purple flecks is the present.


Tangled Up in Blue

I'm essentially making the triangular shawl where you start with seven or so at the back of the neck, then increase one on each end and two in the center, except that I started with more stitches so my center increases are ten stitches apart. Kind of a top-down Faroese shawl, but without the shoulder shaping. Clear as mud, right? For some reason I was feeling anit-point when I started, but still basically wanted a triangle. I have a half circular shawl at work and I kind of miss having tie-able ends.

I started with the darker blue, and was going to use the gray blue next, then the tweedy one, but looking at the colors in the picture I wonder if the tweedy one should go in the middle (that would also mean the tweedy band could be wider... since that's the one I have the least of, putting it at the bottom where the rows are longest may not a be a good idea).

Hmmm... either way, right now it's just a blue blob. Kind of a big blob, actually, because I'm using size 10 needles, and it feels like it's zipping along.

In between, I'm still contemplating what kind of vest to use my other handspun for, and inching towards needing to make a decision about the legs and cuffs of my current socks (the redish, orangeish ones). For socks I tend to pick a stitch pattern and stick with it, but I think this pattern might want to evolve into something slightly different as it moves up the leg. Or maybe not--it's hard to tell with stitch patterns.