What Is The Status All Up In Here

It's been a while since I've had a status update, and that's mostly because all I've been doing is working on the blanket. The wedding was two weekends ago, and I'm still working on the blanket. I finally caved in and bought them a small gift from etsy, so the pressure is off - although I do want to finish this afghan before their one year anniversary!

So while the afghan was going along, I kind of took a major detour. You saw the first Swallowtail...but there's a new and improved Swallowtail V2.0:

Yep, I took time away from the blanket to [selfishly] knit myself another shawl, but this time I did it up right! I'm still confused as to why mine seems So Much smaller than some of the others on Ravelry, but I know it has to do with needles and yarn and blocking, and anyway I'm very happy with it.

Swallowtail Shawl

pattern: Swallowtail Shawl by Evelyn A. Clark
yarn: knitpicks shimmer in turquoise splendor
needles: size 5 addi lace needles

What has two thumbs and binds off too tightly? This girl.

Aside from the issues with the scallops, this was a beautiful knit - I plan on doing it again with different yarn and/or smaller needles (the project requires size 4 needles). I will also bind off with my biggest needles or something. Someone please tell me how and why this was so f*ing difficult. The shawl is lovely, it's not the shawl's problem - but I am full of the rage when I look at that unscalloped border.

Grow, Little Shawl, Grow!

The Paisley Lace Shawl, she grows!

I am on the 8th repeat of the pattern (each time you repeat the pattern, it grows by one eyelet. So repeat one has one eyelet, repeat 2 has 2, repeat 3 has 3, and so forth. Thus, being 8 repeats into 13 is not exactly...a whole lot. It's actually rather pathetic).

I will never finish this before the Knitting Olympics (and the real Olympics) are over. To be fair, I was excessively lazy about this. But I don't think 16 days is reasonable in terms of finishing a whole lace shawl. Not for me. I mean, I'm a decent knitter, but I'm not great. And even though there is already one mistake on this particular version of the shawl (oh yes, this is V2.0), and I'm not going to rip it back, it's more important to me to have a correct shawl than to have a "finished" shawl. So I'm going ot take my time. If I don't get a "gold medal," then I don't. At least I'll have finished my first piece of real lace knitting (I don't think Branching Out really counts...)

I am so proud of this piece of knitting right now. It's my baby.

Seaweed Poncho

For the seaweed poncho, which is somewhat (mostly) my own design, I used generic homespun yarn on size 15 and 19 needles.

Using size 15 needles, CO 59 sts. Do a seed stitch for four rows, or one inch.

Knit one row, then switch to bigger needles.

k1, *yo k2tog*, rep from* until piece measures 10 1/2 or 11 inches.

switch to smaller needles, knit one row.

Seed stitch four rows, bind off loosely.

Repeat this for second piece, block, then sew together, lining the left corner of one piece to the right corner of another piece such that you have a triangle (the book I used as inspiration for the design had a diagram and formula for piecing together ponchos that's pretty basic and universal, though I have trouble explaining it. You can sort of see the seam in my picture).

I did not block this. But I should have. And still should. Especially if it's going to be a gift.