Madelinetosh Dk – Yards of Happiness

Stitching Status: Shall I Shawl?

I realized the other day that I usually work on two projects at the same time. When one stitch pattern gets monotonous I pick up something else to shake off the boredom (you know rows of stockinette can get a bit boring). So while I’m working on a secret test knit sweater I decided to also whip up a shawl.
Untitled
I started and frogged the Dotted Rays shawl in fingering weight yarn last fall.

I didn’t love this pink color palette and the fingering weight yarn wasn’t cooperating with me. BUT since cutting off all my hair and having this cooler spring weather and crazy office cold I decided I wanted to add another shawl to my rotation to keep my neck warm. I wear my Find Your Fade shawl a lot but wanted something more neutral (shocker coming from me but everything can’t be full of color). So I decided to try the Dotted Rays shawl again but in the dk weight version. At first I was going to do several colors but I kept going back to wanting something a bit more neutral that would go with everything. So I dug into my stash and pulled out this Madelinetosh DK Twist in Cosmic Silver I bought in April 2016. I have 6 skeins and this project will probably require about 4 of them, so I’ll have enough to maybe make some fingerless mitts and/or a hat for the fall too. Whenever there is a Madelinetosh sale I typically buy a sweater quantity of yarn and I intended to make this a sweater but last year I also bought the same colorway in worsted weight and made this lovely sweater for myself and Jellybean!
Baldric and Beanie
So I decided why not use all that yarn to make a huge shawl for myself? The color pops are more subtle in the dk weight but they’re there. And this is something easy to work on when my test knit gets boring or I can’t travel with my full sweater. I’d love to do a dk weight two color brioche shawl too but I just haven’t found a pattern I love. Anybody have any suggestions?

FO: Acid Rain

Thanks for all the well wishes on Monday you guys. I’m still sick and I think this cough is going to linger for a bit but I’m hanging in there. I took the day off of work on Monday but still had class that afternoon. Fortunately for me I had a guest speaker, the Global Digital Communications Director for Christian Louboutin. I met her years ago with my old blog and we’ve always stayed in touch and when I asked her if she’d be willing to talk to my class she quickly said ‘sure!’ She gave a great talk to my students, they asked insightful questions and it was a strong finish to my series of guest lectures for the semester. And since she came all the way down from NY I knew I wanted to knit her something as a thank you for doing this for me. So I made her the Rain Outside Shawl.
Acid Rain
It’s funny, I was kind of nervous to make this for my friend. We’re internet friends who haven’t seen each other face to face for years so I don’t know her like I would my BFF Jess, but I know she’s stylish and cool but I worried she wouldn’t like it. And then my BFF Jess reminded me, everyone loves a beautiful hand knit item. And she was right. She loved it.
Acid Rain
For this shawl I did one thing different than I did before, I made a swatch. LOL The previous two came out smaller than I expected, they still work but I wanted this to be a bigger shawl and I got that but think I’m still slightly off on gauge. It’s not as big as some but this one definitely was bigger than my previous two versions (shawl one and shawl two).
Acid Rain
For the main color I used two skeins of the Madelinetosh DK Twist in Clap Your Hands I still had in my stash (I’ve got one skein left…what will it become?). And for the contrast color I went with Berroco Weekend DK in black. In my first version I loved the contrast of the metallic yarn with the matte grey yarn so I wanted to play with the matte black and vibrant rainbow of the Clap Your Hands. And with the rainbow and all of the black, it kind of makes this shawl a neutral in my book but it also has a great striking contrast so it’s still a bold accessory.
Acid Rain
I really do love this shawl and the pattern. The lace panels break up a lot of garter stitch to give it interest and it just has a unique look and feel to it. It’s not an old school shawl, it’s kind of like a work of art. I’m sure I’ll make another as a gift for someone in the future.
Acid Rain
And in the end I’m just happy I was able to give a great gift to a friend.

March 29, 2017March 28, 2017 by IamDWJ Categories: Berroco, Color, Cowls & Scarves, FO: Finished Object, Knitting, Madelinetosh, multi, neutral (black/grey/white), YarnTags: #yardsofhappiness, Christian Louboutin, knit gifts, knitting, Madelinetosh Dk, The Rain Outside Shawl, Yarn 16 Comments

FO: Graffiti Bridge

Happy Monday! Can I say I didn’t expect all of the conversation last week on my post about what motivates my knitting my post about what motivates my knitting! It’s great to hear that I am not alone in being a knitting hermit. LOL Hermits unite…virtually! I loved the conversation it sparked and hopefully we do more of that. I also heard a few folks say they’re also interested in my yarn storage and stash so I’ll try to work on more posts exploring what my knitting life is like. Today I’m sharing a finished object that flew off my needles because I loved this yarn, Madelinetosh DK Twist in Clap Your Hands. Remember I said rainbows are my neutral and this is an ultimate neutral cardigan for me, I named it Under the Graffiti Bridge after that Prince movie and album.
Graffiti bridge cardigan
The pattern is the Off-Rib cardigan, one I’ve had in my queue forever but never figured out what yarn to use. It calls for worsted weight but I ended up substituting it out for dk weight on larger needles to make a lighter sweater. I’m so glad I did it.

I also decided instead of doing a fitted cropped sleeve to bell the sleeves out (I simply replaced all the decreases with increases and this is what you get). Bell sleeves are a bit on trend right now and I haven’t knit a single sweater yet with a bell sleeve – which is a favorite of mine despite being a pain to fit into a jacket.
Graffiti bridge cardigan
My hope is that by knitting this with a dk weight yarn to create a lighter fabric plus the bell sleeves I’ll be able to wear this into the spring almost as a light jacket.

For the closures I went with small lucite toggle buttons so that they didn’t compete with the pattern the yarn made. I think it was the best choice. I also had to make crochet chains to make the loops and sew them to the inside of the cardigan, which was something new for me. I’ve got to tighten the bottom loop a bit but otherwise I love the fun opening and asymmetry to the shape of the cardigan. I wore this to brunch on Sunday and my husband even complimented it on me, he said he liked how it was different that a normal cardigan.
Graffiti bridge cardigan
I love this cardigan and am already plotting out making it in a worsted weight too just to see the difference – but that will have to wait! So I modified this pattern a bit, what types of modifications do you tend to make when knitting?