Lately my knitting has been mostly about prayer shawls. (I am still knitting on Palindrome and it is growing, slowly but surely. Only 20 inches left to go!)
I've finished knitting my friend's Hamamelis Shawl. I bound off, using this method, but it was still too tight for as much as I wanted to block it. So I "unbound" the whole thing and am now using a sewn bind off. This is much stretchier and matches the other shawl edge well. But it's taking me forever! I've left a really long tail with which to sew and it takes time to pull the whole tail through the loops. I'm sure there is a better way to get a stretchy bind off (suggestions?) but I'm glad I found something that does work.
This is the prayer shawl that probably will not be. I really like how it looks and I love the color combo but it will take too long to finish this by Easter. I'm using the Scrappy Lengthwise Scarf pattern and it may end up being a scarf after all.
So today I started a ripple shawl, using a modification of Debbie Bliss's Zig Zag Stripes scarf from Scarf Style. The color changes will be at the ends and the middle will be a solid color. I'm still playing with the colors. I've cast on for a rainbow progression at each end (because I have lots of different colors of yarn) but I'm not wild about rainbows. (I love real rainbows but don't really like using all those colors at once.) I may just end up choosing a few colors for the ends that complement the green I have available for the middle. To be honest, I'm not wild about the ripple pattern either. But I've seen several projects that turned out beautifully so I'm hoping I'll be happy with this when it's done.
Have you been watching the Olympics? I've watched new sports (to me) and old sports but I think my favorite right now is short track. It could be because I like watching Apolo Anton Ohno skate. He seems like such a nice guy and boy can he skate!
I can't wait to see your Hamamelis!
Posted by: Carole | February 24, 2010 at 04:58 PM
"Jiayou" on the bind off, you can do it! btw, jiayou is Chinese for "add oil" or to refuel or cheers to spur one on :)
I love love love your scrappy lengthwise - what yarn are you using? Or are you combining yarn to get that wonderful combination?
I've knitted the chevron scarf before, love the pattern :) and I think your idea of having colours at the ends sounds like fun. Can't wait to see your colur combos.
ooohh, HOW do you manage to multitask on so many projects at one time?
I really enjoyed reading this post so much today. Thanks for the pleasure Beth.
Posted by: erin | February 24, 2010 at 09:04 PM
Wow...you've picked some great patterns. Love the colorway you're using on the scrappy scarf.
Posted by: km | February 24, 2010 at 11:53 PM
u r creative in many ways.
nice to see u busy with awesome projects.
enjoy a beautiful evening!
Posted by: jingle | February 25, 2010 at 11:06 PM
Love the prayer shawls you created. I have some free patterns for more on my blog. I haven't made any in a few years. Your patterns and colors are beautiful. Thanks for the inspiration. It's such a good thing to do.
Posted by: Jennifer | February 26, 2010 at 11:05 AM
http://jingleyanqiu.wordpress.com/2010/02/26/more-happy-award-among-friendship-circle/
Happy Friday!
Posted by: jingle | February 26, 2010 at 12:37 PM
I found your site on Google and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you.
Posted by: Shabbat | May 08, 2012 at 09:23 AM