I’m super excited to have an actual legitimate reason to write today. I finished my lovely 5190 Miles. It is the only thing I knitted while pregnant, so I am going to take some photos of it with Joey and keep it as a keepsake for her… But I plan to knit an identical one for a beloved colleague of mine who loves this color combo.
I love the yarn, which is Bumblebirch Glen+ . The color saturation reminds me of Wollmeise or Madelinetosh in the best ways. It didn’t bleed on blocking, which is super imperative for this pattern. 20% silk helps make this yarn enjoyable to knit and gives it enough shine to make the fabric feel luxurious. I am really pleased with it.
I started this project back in January during a trip to Colorado. It really got off the ground when we were stalled in the airport for 8+ hours on the way home! I didn’t have anywhere else to be, and I had no other knitting projects with me. On my first shell dip stitch row, I was completely at a loss for how to actually do the stitch. Several Youtubes and a bunch of written project notes later, I finally figured it out. I should do my own video describing exactly what needs to happen there, because it was pretty confusing for slow/pregnant me.
I screwed up the increases somewhere along the way and ended up with an extra 20 (!!!) stitches per row in the green section. The overall shape of the shawl didn’t seem to be affected, so I kept on going. Unfortunately, by the time I got to the end, I was supposed to bind off with the green for a last row of shell stitches, and I was out of green yarn! I just bound off with the purple, skipping the shell row, and called it a day… And then I realized I’d also added an extra row of shell stitches in my final green motif. What I’m trying to say is that I failed to thoroughly read the directions. I messed up all sorts of things, many times. And it still looks amazing, so who’s the real winner here?
I tried to style the shawl several ways when taking these photos to show how versatile it is. I normally wear my shawls with point and tails forward-facing, but I am really enjoying the idea of wearing it more traditionally and securing it with a wood shawl pin that I picked up at Rhinebeck a few years ago. (See below)
So onward, onward to my Rhinebeck sweater, which is going to be a fast, bulky wonder this year. I’m trying to get through it and work on the kids’ sweaters so they’ll be done for the trip. I think I have a fighting chance if I keep on top of things. My big question is whether to do another lovely Thom sweater for baby Joey, or if I will mix up the pattern. It will have pink and charcoal stripes (see the yarn from Inner Loop Dyeworks here), so the pattern needs to be simple enough to handle that type of pattern.