Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Shawl from sock yarn







I have begun and frogged several shawls. I just wasn't happy with them after a few inches of knitting, primairly because I selected the wrong yarn.

This time it's different!

I chose Trekking sock yarn in color 108 which is a lovely combination of shades of blue/turquoise/rust/dark yellow/ brown/lavender. Might sound like an odd color combination but I think it is truly lovely. I Bought the yarn from Molly at Knitters Underground in Centre Hall, PA...she recently began carrying a large selection of colors and all are gorgeous. I bought 5 skeins without a shawl pattern in mind and no plans to begin knitting one in 90-plus degree heat. Well, the fingers got itchy to begin and I wanted to try Trekking. I love the feel and it knits beautifully!

During the drive home from the yarn shop I tried to make a decision on what shawl to knit...had to make up my mind quickly because I only live 4 blocks from Molly's shop. Went to the bookshelf and pulled out the always reliable Folk Shawls book. I started leafing through the pages drooling at the lovely shawl...triangular and oblong. Then I saw it! The Kimono Shawl...that was it. The pattern has a garter stitch border around the outside and the lace repeat is an easy one...a 24-row repeat done 25 times or for as long as you want your shawl to be when finished. The pattern in the book shows it knitted in a lovely off-white yarn but I decided to use my self-striping sock yarn. I think I am going to like the patterned yarn. I am committed to it.

I don't have a lot of spare time for knitting these days but wanted to have the first repeat finishing before I took it to the yarn shop for inspection by Molly and Billie. Today was its unveiling and they really liked it. Whew! Molly will block it for me when I am finished ... hopefully for fall wearing.

Back to work and then to school board meetings tonight. Might not be able to knit until tomorrow. Keep watching for its progress.

5 comments:

barbp said...

Kim it looks very pretty!

Anonymous said...

The yarn is gorgeous - your shawl will be wonderful.

Denise in PA said...

Centre Hall? Ohhh, me loves that area (I'm about 90 minutes north west of State College). Do you know of any other knitting/yarn stores in/near State College? I'd so love to do some seriuos yarn shopping (not craft store yarn) when I take my kid school-clothes-shopping!

Kim said...

Denise -- Email me at luvsockknitting@hotmail.com and I will tell you about a great shop. I can't find a way to respond back to you privately so hope you see this note. I can help you do serious yarn shopping! Kim

LaurieM said...

I really like Trekking a lot, but I never, ever would have thought to use it for a shawl.

I did make a pair of fish mittens with Trekking though.