Finished! (almost)

Sorry about disappearing like that! I have been knitting away (and reading of course) and yesterday afternoon I finished my latest big project. 

But first I wanted to show you my latest little project! I finished this cute little sweater in two afternoons! It isn't perfect by any means, but I like it so much! I showed my hand holding it so you could see how little and cute it is.



The big project I finished is the Citron Grande shawl. It was originally published in the on-line magazine Knitty as "Citron." Knitty magazine is amazing! It comes out 6 times a year and is just stuffed with interesting patterns, and did I mention, it is free!? You can find the pattern here. All the back issues are on line. I found the Citron Grande modification on Ravelry.

So here it is:

 

(I waited too long this morning to get someone to take a picture of me modeling it, so we will have to do with pictures of it draped on the porch.)

Here is the beginning. You start with 3 stitches cast on, at the center top, and then it grows, and grows.

 

To make the ruched detail, you double the stitches in your row for 6 rows, and then halve the number again. There are 10 sections of alternating smooth and ruched rows, and then you come to the ruffled edge. There are over 1000 (yes, one thousand) stitches in the last 11 rows and cast off edge!

 

The yarn I used is Jaggerspun Zephyr: 50% wool and 50% silk from the Webs store at Yarn.com. It came on a cone:



I was a little worried when the cone arrived, the way it was on the cone it had no give to it at all, it felt hard and stiff. I needn't have worried though, the knitted fabric feels like a cloud in your hand. This yarn is sold by the ounce, with a minimum of 4 ounces. After some math, I decided I should have enough with 5 ounces (which made it very affordable, by the way). Originally, this cone had at least 1/2 an inch of yarn on it (I should mention this is lace weight, so a little goes a long way). Now you can see the cardboard cone through the yarn. I had more than 1,500 yards of yarn, and I never really worried about running out; but there isn't a lot extra.

I would use this yarn again in a minute! (I am thinking of a white shawl with a Lily of the Valley motif? I think I saw a pattern for that in a Piecework magazine.)

The reason I said it is almost finished is because I have the ends to sew in: the beginning and the end. All that length was in 1 piece!

DD2 asked what I was going to start next. I have 3 WIPs that I should get to, and then I have a shawl pattern and yarn that I bought last year at the Fiber Fest in Grey's Lake. We went again this year and I got 2 more kits... and I started another temari SAL.

Next week I start teaching a knitting/crochet class for kids. So far I have 1 sign-up, a little girl about C's age. I have to find out what her favorite color is.