Things Treasured

It's finally finished. And I might add, I am damn proud of myself for finishing this. I started this shawl on September 14th and finished binding it off on November 23rd. However, it finished blocking and drying today, November 26th. It's stunning! I learned a lot on the process of making this.

1. I learned how to do the magic loop method of starting a circle... Learned How... not Mastered How. But it is fun and I think I will be doing it again in the future.

2. Life Lines are the savior of knitting! I didn't use them in the beginning and at one point during the bleeding heart section, had to rip completely back to the beginning. Near the end during the fagot lave section, I got complacent about them and lost 12 rows of the never ending (yo, k2tog). USE LIFELINES.

3. Never ever again will I spend all day knitting along happily and then try to bind of a large project. The rows near the end of Shipwreck are quite substantial. I managed to get my speed down to about 45 minutes a row. Binding off took me 2 and a half hours. From what I understand, I made good time. I should have waited until the following day.

4. Blocking is my best friend in knitting. When I finished the shawl I was disappointed with it's size. I wanted a large shawl. I had the option to knit a few extra rows onto it and I decided not to because I wanted to finish in time for Thanksgiving. It barely wrapped around my shoulders and just covered my back. So I blocked it. I am happy to say I can cover my head with it now and it still touches the backs of my knees. It wraps around me with out issue now.

5. Beaded knitting is a PAIN. The knitting part of it is a breeze. It didn't slow me down at all. Moving thousands and thousands of beads down hundreds and hundreds of yards of yarn on the other hand... I found the best way to do this is to unravel the whole ball or hank, space the beads out along the entire length then wind it up.

6. Hubby's are invaluable to a big project. Not only did my hubby take it upon himself to space out my beads for me so I could keep knitting and finish in time, he also used his ingenuity to make us a swift out of k'nex since buying one is not in the budget. Hubby's - never leave home without one.

What it comes down to, is I am smitten with this shawl.

This was my first big knitting project. When I started it, I had never done lace before, never used a life line, never used a stitch marker, never used magic loop. I had never done anything then short rows of Knit and Purl. I was a complete novice. This was one of the most fun and rewarding projects I have ever done. Don't be afraid to try it!

I finally was able to edit my blog layout. As a result, on the right hand side, you will see widget that shows off my projects for Ravelry. You have to be a member to look at the projects over there and while membership is free, people who don't knit or crochet probably have no interest in being a member. So my projects can be seen there. I try and post updates here when I do them. Sometimes when it's a project I am squeezing in under the wire for HPKCHC, I might forget. So enjoy!

I am knitting away on my Shipwreck shawl and I am still trying to finish by Thanksgiving. I should have no problem finish by the end of the month but I need to do at least one more project. So I would really like to have it done by Thanksgiving. Here are pics at just over 75%

Okay wth... not only will blogger not let me update my layout... now it will not let me post pictures!?

Well I finally got that part fixed...

I have some things I wold like to add to the blog as far as layout goes. However, for DAYS now the layout function has not been working. Blogger say they are aware of the issue that anyone having custom content is not able to use their layout feature right now. AGGRAVATING.

There has been no update on the blog so as far as I know there hasn't been any progress. Naturally, I leave my setup alone for ages at a time. When I finally found someone to help me add a function I have been looking for, blogger decides to not work.

Grrr

There is a contest going on over at the HPKCHC on Ravelry. Care of Magical creatures was one of the choices for the OWL exam this term and they need a badge for completion. Here is my submission!

So you may remember that I have been bitten by the yarn bug. :) I've been working very diligently on a shawl I plan to have finished by the end of next month. However, I have managed to make a few smaller things in the mean time. These have all been made for the HPKCHC on Ravelry. You need to be a member there to look at my project pages though. (It's free) So here are pictures of my snails, turtle, and a couple new pictures of my scarf.

(Yup, that's a beer bottle. Don't you know a fantastic way to get snails and slugs out of your garden is to put a little dish of beer in the garden. It's true!)

(We had to knit our animagus. I chose a cute little turtle. I'm not 100% sure if I were to have an animagus that I would be a turtle.. but I wanted her. So here she is!)


(And here is that shawl again. Since I presented it it for Divination and pointed out how it represented my zodiac sign Aquarius, I have it pouring out of my glass water jug and across the table in waves.)

So this is the scarf I have been working on to wear to Andy and Sandy's wedding. I am really loving the way it has come out. It is sooo soft and it drapes beautifully. I am also going to be submitting it for one of the classes on the HPKCHC forum, but I haven't written the submission up yet. When I do I'll update the post with the write up. The pictures of the scarf blocking are on my mothers camera. When I get those I will add them here also. But here it is finished!

I thought I would take a moment today to share my progress on the Shipwreck Shawl. I am absolutely loving this knit. Yes it's tricky and parts are difficult, but I love it anyway. I had to tear back progress to a lifeline the other night so that was discouraging. But I am making progress again which feels wonderful. I had to take a break from it for a little over a week while I completed a project I intend to wear at Andy and Sandy's wedding. However it is still blocking and drying. When it's finished I'll make a post about that.

So I have some pictures for you. The first one shows my progress before I had to rip out, and the second one shows after. They both represent the same place in the pattern I think though. It's really lovely so far. It's just hard to show in photos because of it being a circle. There isn't a good way to spread it out. That of course will change when it is finished and I can block it all.