It’s true. Santa arrives on a red sailboat, not a sleigh. This is the annual arrival of Santa during The Children’s Christmas Party at Sequoia Yacht Club. There was a lot of flour and sugar thrown around (cookie making), and giggles (magician), and squeals (Santa’s arrival) to be had. And those were from the adults.
Sorry for the long absence, but we’ve been plagued with awful nasty bugs. I spent the entire Thanksgiving week in bed. If I never see another bowl of chicken soup, it’s too soon. No, not really. I love the stuff, but when it’s the only thing on the menu for 2 weeks, you get a little tired. Because as soon as I finished, Martin came down with the stomach version of the ickies.
But, I have been working on fibery stuff. I finally finished the triangle shawl that I started back in September. The yarn is superwash merino handspun thick and thin singles (rovings and spun yarn).
I originally intended this shawl for Sue, during her chemo treatment. And when Sue passed away, I just couldn’t face the shawl anymore. This past week, I picked it up and took another look at it. I realized that it was just the right size for me as it was, so I bound off using an i-cord bind-off. The shawl is about 5′ across the top, unblocked. I decided to leave it as it, for maximum fluff and air pockets for warmth. I wore it yesterday, and it’s nice and toasty. The point ends just before my butt, which means that I can sit down without sitting on it.
I like the way that the handpainted stripes are diagonal intead of side to side or straight up and down. And the plain garter stitch makes it really toasty.
Basic Shawl Recipe (below)
I used the following basic triangle shawl recipe:
- cast on 3 sts
- first/setup row: k1, inc 1, pm, k1, pm, k1
- second and all even rows: k1, inc 1, k to marker, slip marker, inc 1, k1, slip marker, inc 1, k to end.
- third and all odd rows: k1, inc 1, k to marker, slip marker, k1, slip marker, k to end.
General guidelines:
- knit every row if you want garter stitch fabric. Garter stitch makes an isosceles right triangle shawl, as well as a reversible shawl (both sides look alike). Stockinette stitch will produce a definite right and wrong side. And the stockinette stitch fabric will not produce the same triangle. It will be slightly skewed due to the stockinette stitch. Don’t make me think about what the triangle will actually look like, because it’s too early on a Monday morning. And I’m still slightly hung over from the mulled wine I made to help the adults through the Christmas Party. Wendy‘s Spirit Trail Shawl is one of these.
- inc 1 st at each edge. If you are making the shawl in garter st, then keep your sanity, and just inc at the beginning of each row. Then you don’t have to think about whether this is an increase row or not. You don’t have this problem with st st, because you just increase on the “right” side.
- inc 1 st on each side of center st. I actually don’t use markers. After a few rows, the center st is easy to spot. It’s the one between the eyelets created by the yarn overs. And you can easily tell whether it’s an increase row or not by looking at the st on either side of the center. Was it a yarn over? Then this is not an increase row.
- continue until the shawl is as large as you’d like
- embellish the edging as you wish. I chose an i-cord cast off, but you can dress it up with a picot or lace edging. This is a great way to try out something new. Just make sure you leave enough yarn to finish the shawl edging of your choice.