August 13, 2014

I’ve had way too many projects languishing on needles for far too long. So I thought about it and came up with this new column, In stitches, where I’ll be showcasing these projects, in the hope of finishing them. Or maybe I’ll just show you something new that I’ve been working on. We’ll see how it goes.

Today’s stitches are from a project I started about a year ago I think, if not longer. I actually posted about it. It’s the post about designing my own shawl pattern. I finally worked out the actual design part, on graph paper, and I have about half of the shawl finished. I’m using cheap yarn just to see how it will look, and will most likely make it again with a different yarn.

Knitting from a pattern like this takes time, as you have to mark off each row you’ve completed and also make sure you’ve counted correctly. And the pattern has a lot of cables. While I love cables and working with cables, they can be tedious after a while. I may even decide to scrap this design and redo it, so the cables are wider and not so spread out.
But at this point, I like the shawl. In a lighter-weight yarn it will drape better than this purple acrylic I’ve chosen. I hope to finalize the pattern after I see how it all comes together at the end.

I haven’t worked on it in a few months. I tend to do that a lot. I start something, I’m all excited about it, then I put it down and get excited about something else. And I forget about it.

I have baskets filled with forgotten excitement.

The good thing, though, is that because I have forgotten about them, I get to experience the excitement of the project all over again when I start it back up. Or maybe I’ll see how I can make a change and make it better.

This will be my first shawl, so I would love to finish it. Shawls are a huge part of knitwear, and I’d love to have a shawl pattern to add to my collection.