Just a quick post to let you know what I’m up to.
First: my grandma recently sent me six skeins of Bernat Kabuki, a silk/acrylic blend, in a tweedy-heathery blue. And I know what I’m doing with it.
The color’s fairly accurate on my monitor. Anyway – I’m going to get some similar yarn (a silk blend of some kind, since Kabuki is discontinued) in a matching solid color and knit myself some kind of awesome kimono thing, using the solid for the body and the Kabuki for accents on the sleeves. I’m leaning toward this for the solid, in “Aries Teal”. Will probably need two.
I plan to get this book to help with the design before I do anything (and to give me an idea on yardage). While I wait, though, I charted up a hem design and test-knit it, using the Stained Glass color combination.
On size 10 needles and 4 repeats, it’s about 20 inches around. That’s bigger than what I want, but Kabuki is thin and I’ll probably use US 5 or 6 needles. Also, see how the little one-stitch columns get sucked into the black? I’m thinking I’ll duplicate-stitch those on instead.
Second: I’m also working on a prayer shawl for a family friend. After working on US 2 and 3 needles for quite a while, the US 13′s I’m using feel like telephone poles. Also, I’m used to one ball turning out a pair of socks, or 2/3 of a scarf. So it’s a bit startling to see this:
get turned into this:
Sorry for the blurriness; gremlins reset my camera. That’s my hand in the last one, for scale. Prayer shawls are easy; you cast on enough stitches to get you approximately two feet of width, then knit your chosen stitch pattern until it’s the length of your wingspan. At the moment, unblocked, it’s roughly square-ish. The yarn I’m using is Lion Brand Homespun in “Colonial”, and I purchased three skeins. I’ll use up probably 2.5 skeins on the shawl, then the rest of the last one on fringing and maybe an edging to make it look nice. And I want to get some charms – an angel for one corner, and a cross for the other. (The woman it’s for is my brother’s godmother and my mum’s best friend. She recently lost her father to prostate cancer, and since she lives several states away, I’m sending this in lieu of myself.)
Everything else I’m knitting is either a Christmas gift or boring; I’ll spare you the pictures. For now.
I’m done. Gonna hit “Publish” on this and try to work on mum’s Christmas gift while she naps.
PSA: I will be incommunicado for 10 days starting July 30th. I’m going on a missions trip to the middle of nowhere and will not have any kind of contact with the outside world. Please keep that in mind.
