What's on my needles (week 56)

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY! 

Candle Flame Shawl

At The Knitting Garage

Building Blocks

I did finish block #3 for the store and it is hanging in the window.  I forgot to take a picture, but will do so next week.  Knitting the bobbles on this square caused me all kind of problems with my Gingko Shawl at home, but more about that later.

Finding the right pattern for variegated yarn

Variegated yarn looks so pretty in the skein, but some patterns get lost in the colors. Just think about all the cabling I did in one pair of socks for Tony:  http://ravel.me/Strickliese/tma
I am using the Madeline Tosh Sock yarn in the color "Stephen loves Tosh" and started off on the "Sugar and Cream Cowl",  but knew almost right away that this was not a good match.

So, what to do?  I went on ravelry and searched for the yarn "Tosh Socks".  Then I clicked on the "26563 projects" and put in "Stephen loves Tosh" in the "search inside projects".
That is how I came across a lovely shawl pattern "Lavalette" by Kirsten Kapur and very helpful project notes by "KNITTINGinHI": "I’m sure she had no clue when she purchased this skein how variegated yarn knits up. They are so pretty in the skein but knit so busy looking. I decided to knit another Lavalette, as I previously knit a very variegated skein in this pattern and it looked wonderful."
I think this will make a very stunning next store sample and the pattern is FREE to boot!  You can click on the link below the picture.

Lavalette

New Tab on The Knitting Garage blog

By the way, did you notice the new tab on The Knitting Garage blog "meet us": http://www.knittinggarage.com/new/about-us/meet-us/

At Home

This gave me the idea to add a tab on my blog:  "Contact me" with links to all the sites where you can find me :) : http://knitwithdoris.blogspot.com/p/contact-me.html

Gingko Shawl

In just one week I have gotten quite far with this shawl.  The pattern is easy to follow.
However it has one stitch which is similar to one stitch in the Building Blocks square #3.  Similar, but not the same!  To make the bobbles in the Building blocks I have to (k1, Yo, k1, Yo, k1) into the same stitch and for the Gingko shawl I have to (k1, Yo, k1) into the same stitch.  Twice I got mixed up and both times I had to take out a full four rows!
Another minor difficulty I am having now that I am in the lace section, is that my needle is not pointy enough to k3tog with ease; perhaps I should invest into a pointier lace knitting needle for these rows....one of the nice Chia Goo Lace needles we sell at the store!

Unfinished sweater getting finished

You may remember when my friend Marie passed away and we donated her yarns to the local libraries.  Well, last year an unfinished sweater was found in that stash.  She had obviously started a cardigan for her husband.  The back is done and the right front is done.  The left front is done partially and the sleeves are still missing.  There was the pattern and enough yarn in the same bag to finish it so I just started on finishing this for Jim.
I started on the partially done left front. The first problem I ran into was to not follow the pattern, but to match up the two sides.  Although she was knitting it in size large she did not do increases after the ribbed edge. At first I did the increases on the left front in the first row when taking over, but then ripped it out and re-started as I think the cardigan would look too lopsided!
I am happy to be doing this now, but just could not have done it sooner; I would rather sit next to her while we both knit.....
I am making myself work on this for one hour each day before knitting anything else.  While knitting I think of her and all the things we could have still done together, but I am grateful, too, for all the things we did do together.
I will post some pictures of my progress next week.

The pattern, finished back and finished right front