Thanksgiving Includes Knitting

The Thanksgiving holiday is a good time to take a few days and turn inwards. For me, this means time with family and knitting. I planned to finish knitting my purple Chevron sweater, attend The Point’s Post-Thanksgiving Sale, and have a few friends over to knit and enjoy some holiday baking while we appreciated having Friday off.

 

This year, we made our first thanksgiving dinner. Since I haven’t ever made a thanksgiving dinner, I used the holiday as an excuse to bake. I made two apple breads, two ginger pumpkin pies (starting with two sugar pumpkins), apple crisp (since I don’t like apple pie) and a fruit compote. I left the turkey and vegetables to my husband. My mother brought her cornbread pudding which substituted for stuffing.

 

I got to The Point’s Post Thanksgiving Sale in time to take advantage of their 30% off discount. I was surprised to find that the store was relatively quiet when I arrived. It gave me time to think about my purchase. Despite my desire for some gold colored Brooklyn Handspun, I was persuaded that it was a poor color choice for my skin tone. I could hear my mother’s famous code words “I’ve seen you look better in clothes” in my head. As a result, I bought two skeins of reddish Brooklyn Handspun to make a shawl for me.

 

Later Friday afternoon, several of my knitting buddies stopped by to knit, drink and enjoyed apple bread and pumpkin pie. It was a lovely way to spend the afternoon away from the Black Friday rush.

Luna Moth Shawl Completed & Blocked

Due to the warmth of the furry angora, I decided to make my Luna Moth Shawl smaller than suggested by the pattern. I wanted a shawl that would cover my shoulders or to wrap over a winter coat. Therefore, I knitted a total of four pattern repeats rather than the six recommended in the pattern. I used four balls of angora (122 yards each) which yielded a shawl of 60 inches at its widest.

Like the Shetland Triangle Shawl, the Luna Moth Shawl had little bumps in the woolly mass. As suggested, I soaked it for over a hlf hour. Since I’ve developed my allergy to lanolin, I’ve been adding hair conditioner to the water to help soften the wool.

Now that it’s pinned in place and blocking, I’m proud of it. During the knitting, my knitting buddies had great fun petting the balls of angora.

Luna Moth Shawl Pinned and Blocked

 

Lace Detail from Luna Moth Shawl

Another Knitted Lace of Estonia Fan!

I just bought the only copy of Nancy Bush’s Knitted Lace of Estonia based on Grumperina’s enthusiastic post about it. I love it! As with other Interweave Books, it gives the reader more than a collection of patterns. It includes explanation as to the history and how Estonia knitters create their shawls including diagrams to understand the basics of how to put them together. In addition, there is a stitch dictionary of Estonia lace stitches complete with explanations at the back.

I have started the Raha Scarf. It’s a short piece of work focused on one major lace pattern. I am using the blue alpaca fingering weight leftover from the Cross Your Heart Sweater which is just enough for this delicate lace. I plan to give it to a special someone.

Raha Scarf from Lace Knitting of Estonia - One pattern repeat

As you can see, I’m knitting on straight needles since my other size 4 needles are in use!

Luna Moth Shawl

Bitten by the lace bug, I was pursuing Ravelry in search of a new project and I discovered the Luna Moth Shawl. Despite my library of knitting books including a number of lace favorites, I wanted to see what the knitting community viewed as popular.  This wonderful pattern which creates a deep shawl is available from Elann.

Having been watching the color trends in the stores on Fifth Avenue, I’ve been longing for a scarf in a pumkin orange that has popped up as an accent color earlier this fall. I was planning to purchase some new yarn for the project until I discovered that the angora yarn in my stash marked “rust” was close to the color for which I was looking. Further, I had 17 balls of it, way more than I needed for a shawl or another project!

Despite reading several posts about the shawl on Ravelry, I made the same mistakes! It definately pays to read about the pattern first. The interest of the lace is that the repeats face the center and change direction  half way through the pattern.

I must admit that this angora has been sitting in my stash for over two years hidden away in a plastic bag out of sight waiting for just the right project. I had bought it in January 2006 at a Joan Vass Sample Sale when I was enticed by the color.

Tiber New Angora in Rust for Luna Moth Shawl

Dad’s Birthday Present – Classic Ribbed Pullover

For my dad’s birthday on November 18th, I decided to make him a sweater since he’s lost a lot of weight and many of his clothes hang on him including the Noro Vest that I made him last year.  I decided to make him the Classic Ribbed Pullover from Sally Melville’s The Knitting Experience-Book 2: Purl Stitch which is a great book for beginners as well as more experienced knitters.  This is the fourth time that I’m knitting this pattern for an important man in my life.  The others were my youngest nephew, my brother and my husband (for our first Valentine’s Day!)

For my dad, I am making the sweater with the cross over V neck. I am using an Italian wool blend in a brown flecked with light blue. I bought six cones of this wool in two different weights at Silk City Fibers in December 2006.

I am using the thicker yarn for the 1×1 rib for the edging, cuffs and collar. The blue is more blended in the thicker of the two yarns. I am using the thinner yarn doubled for the main body and sleeve areas.

Italian Wool Blend Double Stranded From Silk City Fibers

Sample of Dad's Classic Ribbed Pullover in Italian Wool Blend

 

While I realize that I probably won’t finish this sweater in time for my dad’s birthday, I should be able to get through the back. I plan to pack up whatever’s done to give to him.