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Aestlight (Ravelry link) came off the needles and went right onto the blocking wires.
I love this part. This is when the magic begins.
You start with a limp, shapeless piece of knitted fabric that represents hours of work, sometimes mixed with a dose of frustration. You give it a bath.
Then you use wires and pins to shape and open it up.
It's like a bud blossoming to reveal its inner beauty.
The yarn is Bertha from Dirty Water DyeWorks. Bertha is a blend of 80% Merino, 10% Cashmere, 10% Nylon. The colorway is Pixie, shades of green with occasional flecks of blue.
The blocking wires I use are HandWorks Dressing Wires. I can't recommend this company enough. Lisa, the owner, provides prompt delivery with great customer service. And part of the profits are given to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.
I usually putter around for a day or so after finishing a project, searching out my next pattern. Not so this time around. Before Aestlight was even dry I had already cast on for my next shawlette. Next up - les Abeilles.
I'm at the beginning of the end, the end of Aestlight Shawl (Ravelry link). The last couple of days I found myself with more knitting time than I had anticipated. I can handle that.
I finished the lace section in spite of some backtracking. There are times when counting to 4 can be challenging.
I admit that right now this section doesn't look like much. After a bath and a good blocking I'm sure it will look stunning.
I've moved on to the border. This is either the home stretch or the halfway point - depends on how you look at it. This design uses a knit-on border.
The stitches on the right are the border stitches that are joined to the body stitches on the left. Every other row a border stitch is knit together with a body stitch.
I have no delusions that this will be a quick and easy section. I've been here before. Sometimes knitting and attaching the border can seem to take longer than knitting the body. I have almost 250 body stitches. Remember there are 2 border rows for every body stitch. With a few extra rows to accommodate the point of the triangle that makes for over 500 border rows. Granted they are short rows. But I know that the back and forth, back and forth can be monotonous and tedious. This is where I plug into a good movie or audio book. It helps to have company crossing the border.
With the change in seasons comes a change in our menu, a change to warmer foods. I cooked up this mixture of peppers, onions, carrots, garlic and spices for a batch of black bean soup. The peppers are so colorful this time of year.
M'm! M'm! Good!
I'm still on my shawlette jag. I've ignored the fact that I have a sweater or three to finish, I'm in dire need of fingerless mitts and I had a recent request for a poncho. I had no sooner cast off Multnomah when I began searching about for my next shawlette pattern. I have a few patterns queued up in Ravelry and a list that I haven't even added to my queue.
I settled on Aestlight Shawl (Ravelry link) by Gudrun Johnston. I'd been contemplating this pattern for quite a while. No time like the present.
I debated about which yarn to use and finally chose this one.
This as-yet-unnamed colorway recently came out of the dye pot. I love the subtle shifts of green and the bits of blue that peek through every now and then.
I cast on and got right to work. This pattern starts with a center triangle and moves out to the border. In no time at all I had this to show for my efforts.
Knit, knit, knit - gotta love garter. The triangle is complete and the stitches have been picked up along the sides. I'm ready to start working out from the center. Things will probably get more complicated, and this might not be such a good traveling companion any more. But I'll give it a try as I'm anxious to watch the design unfold.
For those in the Boston area tonight is the Common Cod Fiber Guild meeting. The topic is Hyperbolic Crochet presented by Daina Taimina. I'm intrigued and looking forward to the meeting.
My color inspiration for this week is the long-awaited tomatillos from the farmers' market. It would appear that I'm stuck on green.
Green with a tinge of purple.
