Yesterday I blocked my Diamonds and Pearls Shawl and today it is off the board and ready to wear.
I am quite pleased with how it turned out, although I’m not sure I blocked the shoulder shaping correctly. And I did have trouble with the bind off, as many other people have had.
I sent an e-mail to Knitter’s Review asking about the bind off because I couldn’t figure it out, but got impatient to finish, so I used the crochet bind off some people on Ravelry recommended.
I should have held off, though, because Clara Parkes, the author of A Knitter’s Book of Yarn and editor of Knitter’s Review very graciously answered my e-mail yesterday. She sent me a close up picture of the edging and walked through the pattern instructions step by step. I couldn’t believe she took the time to do that!
I will definitely try this shawl again, and will try the pattern bind off with some scrap yarn following Clara’s instructions and picture to get it right first.
I’m not sure if I’ll use this yarn, though. I bought the Artyarns Silk Rhapsody to try out with this one-skein project, and while it is gorgeous yarn, it does have a strong raw silk odor to it, which did not diminish with soaking in a Eucalan bath before blocking as I had hoped. I’m going store it with a lavender sachet and maybe that will help.
There’s a larger piece I want to make with this yarn, but I’m going to hold off for a while and see if the odor goes away. It’s not terrible, but I would not have expected it with a yarn as expensive as Silk Rhapsody.
While Diamonds and Pearls was on the blocking board I started two small projects:
A pair of simple k3,p1 rib socks for John with one of the skeins of Tiny Toes yarn I got at the Pagosa Springs Fiber Festival Sunday from Interlacements.
As usual, my camera shows these colors bluer than they are. The blue in the yarn is a deep purplish blue–sort of cobalt–rather than the bright blue the picture shows;
and a Branching Out lace scarf with some sage colored lace weight alpaca yarn I picked up out of the mix and match basket at Victory Ranch in Mora.
I don’t have to think much while knitting the socks, while the scarf provides a little more challenge, and since they’re both small they’re good projects to carry me through the next couple of weeks as we begin to pack for our move back to Virginia.
My plan for today is to try to finish my May Take It Further Challenge project.
