Ysabel

It feels good to wrap up the week with a finished project, but this shawl tested my patience to the very end.  The other day I had the incident where I lost at yarn chicken.  I recovered from that and thought it would be smooth sailing to the very end.  

Wrong.  The other night I was working the final row before the bind off. It got late, and I might have nodded off several times while working the last row.  If only I could sleep and knit at the same time.

In the morning I had a couple funky looking stitches.  I tried to fix them on the needles, but they didn't look right.  The only solution was to take out the whole row and work it again . . . all 400+ stitches.

Yesterday I plowed through most of the I-cord bind off before I was interrupted with a quick trip to the ER.  Nothing serious.  Apparently my daughter just has a nasty virus.  When I got home late last night, I was determined to get this shawl on the blocking board.

And I did.

Ysabel.

This was a fun pattern . . . mostly garter stitch interspersed with short row bobbin sections.  Overall a relaxing project with colorful stripes for entertainment.

As with most of these two and three color projects, half the fun is picking the colors.  With so many options, it's also the hardest part.

The yarn is Lillian, colorways March Sky and Inchworm.  It seems Inchworm isn't on the website yet.  An update is on my to-do list.

This week's color inspiration screams for attention.

Lobstah red.

Game On

Last night I was knitting away on my Ysabel.  Before I could call it a day, I had to reach my goal.  When I was within one row of that goal, I had to admit I might have a problem.

This is the final section with this color.  While I was working on it, I had an ongoing discussion with myself.

"No problem.  You'll have plenty of yarn."  

"This is going to be a problem.  Yarn chicken won't even be an option."  
While I have over 400 stitches now and it seems the latter is true, I haven't ruled out a game of yarn chicken.  There's nothing like a little excitement at the end of a project.

At the farmers' market this week my daughter convinced me we needed some fresh color in the house.  I'm glad she did.  This week's color inspiration . . . 

Zinnia cheer.

Equal Time

On any given week I try to rotate through my active knitting projects and give all of them a little attention.  Last week that plan didn't work.  I was on the go a lot, and my knitting was all socks, all the time.

So I'm starting the week by playing catch-up with my Ysabel. 

The ends I've created so far are all woven in.  It feels like I'm in the homestretch but maybe not.  I have 3 1/2 sections left out of 9, but the rows are getting longer and longer.  I'm motivated to empty my needles.  Maybe that will be enough to push me over the finish line.  

Now or Later

Last night at knit night a couple of us were working on shawls with numerous ends.  The discussion turned to weaving in ends.  Do you weave them in as you go, or do you weave all of them in at the end.  

If you have just a few ends, it's not an issue.  But when you have two dozen or more, it makes you think about the most efficient way to deal with all of them.  I debated this problem last summer when I was working on my Purpleplexy.  In the end I decided to follow the pattern's polite suggestion to weave in the ends as you go.  

I hadn't given it much thought when I was working on my current project, but after last night's discussion, maybe I should.

I'm halfway through my Ysabel, and there will be twice as many ends to contend with when I'm finished.  I'm going to take out my tapestry needle now.

How about you.  Do you weave in ends as you go or save them all for later?