knitting neels

The one thing I love about studying and working as an accompanist is the variety of work. For example, I’ve got competitions and concerts coming up for violin, flute, bassoon, choir, and singers. It sounds a bit much but really, it makes for an interesting working day and a decent amount of knitting time. The only problem I have found so far is that my available time to show things here has diminished. It’s not all bad because when I do get the chance to, I have lots to show.

First up, there’s the Multnomah shawl which has been keeping me snug since.

Pattern: Multnomah… there’s a link to the free pattern download on that page somewhere.

Needles: 3.5mm Knitpicks.

Yarn: Wollmeise sock yarn that I got from Clare about a year ago. Yummy!

Modifications: I got a bit carried away with the garter stitch bit at the beginning and ended up with about a hundred extra stitches than I needed – about 350 if I remember correctly. Anyway, I took out the extra stitches at each edge and in the middle as specified in the pattern and then fiddled my numbers a bit to get a stitch count that worked with the stitch pattern. I fudged it a bit but the colours are so busy, you’d never tell.

I love how the garter stitch runs right through the border pattern. It really shows off the colours of the yarn without pooling getting in the way. The other thing I love is how the feather-and-fan pattern affects the garter stitch body of the shawl. Kind of like a ripple effect.

This was perfect mindless knitting and I will probably knit another again some time.

Since I finished that up, I have been working on Liesl.

I actually finished it off last night. I knitted the 34″ size because there’s no 36″ size offered in the pattern and most of the notes I read on Ravelry about it said that it stretched out when they blocked it. So, I knitted it about an inch shorter in the body and sleeves in the hope that this does happen. Even if it doesn’t, I have an extra ball of wool left over and it was knit from the top down so I can remedy if I need to.

The only problem with finishing off fun, frivolous knits like those guys is that it’s back to the goat knitting. I am still cranking out that second sleeve. I am seriously beginning to think that the people who wrote about praying for strength and patience were definitely knitters.