Mona's Knitting Room

I'm enjoying my fun and relaxing time camping with the kids in North Conway, NH. Our campsite is on the banks of the Saco river and I've got my comfy, folding chair set up next to the campfire ring where I can see the river flowing by and the mountains in the distance. Here's the view from my chair:


I started my spiral petal shawl, previously posted. Here's a picture of my progress on the first morning:


I really like the way the yarn seems to glow in the sunlight. The fabric is very soft and plush.

I'm on a lace shawl kick right now. With the end in sight for my Shapely Shawlette, I started thinking about knitting another shawl. I was at Woolcott & Co. in Cambridge, MA, and they were holding a stash reduction sale -- $1/pattern! I went through the accessories bin as I was chatting with my friend, Paula, who works in the shop. I stumbled across a pattern that caught my eye, Oat Couture's Spiral Petal Shawl:


I couldn't resist the pattern and bought five skeins of Reynolds Fusion (bulky weight, 64% mohair/27% acrylic/9% wool) in the Sunset colorway of fuschia, orange and grey:



I'm taking the kids camping in North Conway, NH, this weekend and I'm going to start this project while we're there.

I spent the week of spring school vacation with my family in Williamsburg, Virginia. What a wonderfully historic and picturesque area of the country! While there, I visited Knitting Sisters shop in Williamsburg. I cannot compliment the shop staff enough; they were so pleasant and helpful! I wasn't shopping for anything in particular but was hoping to find something pretty to make as a keepsake memory of our time in Williamsburg. I had purchased a copy of Judy Pascale's Shapely Shawlette a couple of weeks earlier and sure enough, a yarn in the shop "spoke" to me. It is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport (100% superwash wool) in the colorway #42, Cool.


Since I knit loosely, I dropped down one size from that recommended in the pattern and am knitting the shawlette on an Addi Turbo circular needle in size US#8. I've gotten through the first garter ridge.

After completing the sampler from Jackie Fee's Sweater Workshop book with the yahoo! knit-along, I decided to take the next step with the knit-along group and make a sweater. The Sweater Workshop book walks you through the process of designing and knitting a seamless sweater from the bottom up using the principles originally taught by Elizabeth Zimmerman. Since the group referred to the sampler project as a "thing," we've dubbed the follow on sweater project "son of thing."

My son of thing is a sweater for my husband following the principles in the book. I selected Peruvian Collection Highland Wool in a dark indigo heather color from elann and am using Addi Turbo needles in size US #5 for the body and sleeves and US #4 for the welts. I decided to try my hand at designing a sweater and created a garter rib pattern in varying widths using a Fibonacci series to determine the number of ribs to use at each width. Here's a photo of the back of the sweater body; the design shows well but the color, a heathered denim, is off.



I jazzed up the front a bit by substituting a horseshoe cable pattern for the center rib.


On to the sleeves next!