Summer Knitting

I don't show a lot on knitting-in-progress, though I usually have at least 2 projects going at any one time. I think that looking at unfinished knitting is akin to watching paint dry, but finished knitting is like looking at toys or candy. Here is a display of a few projects I finished over the summer.

The first is Splash, a vest pattern by Wendy Bernard. It has a clever construction--the shoulder is seamless. You make a provisional cast-on, and then knit down the back to the bottom of the arm holes. Then you pick up the stitches from the cast-on edge, and knit down the front to the bottom of the harm holes, join front and back, and knit the body to the hem.

Designers are very big these days on garments that don't need any seaming, and I think a lot of newer knitters have an unreasoned fear of seams that makes these patterns popular. I don't mind seaming, and I think they often lend garments structure, but this was a fairly quick knit and made a cute vest. The body is meant to hang straight from the bust, but I made mine A-line, which suits me better. The yarn was recylced from a thrift store sweater that I unwound. It's 100% wool tweed, and the color is very cheerful.


I also knit a Shalom vest, which is a free pattern by Meghan Mc Farlane. It's also knit seamlessly from the top down. All the yarn for this vest was bought at the thrift store. It's unusual to find sweater quantities of yarn second hand, but I did score this discontinued Patons acrylic-wool blend in a bulky weight in the exact quantity I needed. Some days the recycling gods send you a small gift. Of course the buttons cost me twice as much as the yarn, but that's the way it goes.


I get to knit even in summer because it never gets hot in this coastal climate, and this year has been unusually foggy. Small knit projects are also great for travel, and I knit most of this Feather and Fan Comfort Shawl , a free pattern by Sarah Bradberry, on a trip. I made great progress on this shawl when I got stuck overnight at the San Francisco airport when trying to get home from Albuquerque. Note to self: pack lots of knitting for plane trips.

This shawl was knit from one ball of sock yarn: Deborah Norville's Premier Serenity Sock Yarn, which is a blend of wool, bamboo and nylon. I knit it on a U.S. size 10 needle, and before binding off knitted every stitch twice so the edge would been extra stretchy. I blocked it aggressively to open the lace, after throwing a bit of liquid starch in the rinse water. This shawl went to Michael's daughter for her birthday.

I'm finishing the second sleeve of a cardigan that I hope to show soon, then I think I'm going to cast on a massive shawl and use up some coned wool I've got stashed. There are some nice small shawl patterns I've been eyeing, and I'll probably mix in a few of those too. This will be the Fall of the shawl.