Wrapping up

This is the time of year when we want to wrap up (here in the northern hemisphere), and the Aito shawl is perfect for that. I’ve been using it in my reading chair in the living room, which is located next to a window. The window brings in welcome natural light, but also a lower temperature than the rest of the room. I love having this right there so I can continue reading in my favorite spot!
If I wrap it all around my neck like a scarf,  it looks like this:

But when it’s near freezing, this is a better way to wear it:

I really enjoyed knitting with plötulopi and am so glad that I rescued it from the giveaway table at Knitters’ Day Out a few years ago. I still have plenty left, and I’m considering a pair of mittens. Perhaps these? I noticed that the wool mittens I wear over a pair of “fleece” (the polyester kind) gloves is wearing thin, and perhaps that’s why my fingers are colder.

In other shawl-knitting news, I planned to begin the Parallelogram Scarf next. Are you familiar with this pattern? It utilizes sequence knitting (which I love) and the pattern is in Mason-Dixon Knitting Field Guide #5. This particular pattern caught my eye because it uses the very long gradient yarn dyed by Freia Fibers. I’ve had my eye on this pattern since it appeared in November 2017. I didn’t buy it because I kind of wanted the little book (in print), and I felt that it would appear in my path at some point. And finally, it did. When I was visiting my parents last month, Mom and I stopped into The Knitting Cup, where my copy of Field Guide No. 5 was waiting for me. (A beautiful mug was also waiting for me.)

Then, a couple days later in Austin, Steven and I visited Hill Country Weavers, where they stock Freia yarns. I had picked out two ombre shawl balls and was nearly ready to check out when I noticed an older put up of this yarn. Both are fingering and they come in the same colorways, but the older put up is 75 grams of a plied yarn while the newer one is 100 g of a singles yarn. Well… I had one ball of the older put up in my stash already, so I picked another older ball to go with it to make this shawl (figuring I’d adjust the cast on number, too). I was so pleased with myself – I was using something from stash AND spending less (don’t worry, I bought other stuff there, too!). Here is the new ball I bought, in colorway “lichen” (which I adore):

And here it is with the ball I already owned (which I also bought at Hill Country Weavers, many years ago):

These colors are both very “me” so I didn’t hesitate to combine them. I mean, PERSONAL PALETTE, right?

But. When I cast on and started alternating colors, I wasn’t happy at all. I think the values are too different in these balls, and I stopped knitting after just this short amount. It looks garish to me instead of beautiful:

I needed a new project (and fast), so I decided to stick with the pattern and find another yarn. Just one yarn, not two colors to alternate. I dove into my basket of handspun and came out with this semi-solid blue. I only have about 80 grams, so I reduced the pattern size quite a bit (the CO number is 49). I’m  not sure yet if this will become a clever, understated scarf, or another item for the frog pile, but time will tell. Here is how it’s coming so far:

The weird color at the bottom is a provisional cast-on. I left a long tail to be used for binding off.



Stay warm, everyone!

PS - It seems that Blogger, Google, and Open Live Writer no longer play well together. I'm not sure what that means for the future of this platform. I've had to fight to post the last two entries. Is it time to switch to WordPress or just give up?