Double Scoop Shawl

Sometime last summer, my LYS had a design contest for the up-coming fiber show. After choosing the winning design, the Double Scoop Shawl (found here: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/double-scoop-3), they held a KAL that would lead up to the FiberFest.

© thinkharder
( image taken from designer  ash alberg)

I probably would have been able to finish it for that event if I had chosen to do the small version, but I wanted the big one. And some health issues contributed to slowing my knitting down. Food allergies suck, and being force to prove the allergy with the allergist was the problem that time....but I digress.

Anyway, I didn't finish on time, but I kept working on it, and as stated before in a previous blog, I almost finished it on my VKL Chicago trip, but ran short of the orange yarn. Since a picot bind-off was new to me, I did not know at that time if it would be difficult to work around the shortage or not. But after doing a bit of YouTube research (love YouTube for knitting tutorials!) I discovered it shouldn't be a problem to work around that shortage. 

So, when the new year came around, and my favourite designer announced a contest to get WIP's of her design off the needles, I thought I would take the day or two to finish this shawl up before going back to the two WIP's of her designs since they would definitely take longer than a day or two. 

I can say the "instant gratification" of finishing up a WIP in a day was amazing! 

 At first, I was going to try re-writing the picot bind-off, but a few rows in to the set-up row, I realized that I was only 8 stitches short, and with 4 rows of set-up to knit, it would be super easy to just add 2 stitches to each row.

This was my first attempt at adding 2 stitches. My favourite way to add is to M1L and M1R - picking up from the underneath the stitch to bring it up and make a stitch leaning in a certain direction. But after seeing this, I realized that that did not look nice, so I tried again.

 My second attempt was to KFBF. I also did not like the way this looked. I think it would have been fine after one row of knitting, since the set-up rows were garter stitch, but then I would have had to re work my distribution plan.

So my last attempt, which was to KFB on either side of the middle stitch. I wasn't as happy with that as I would have liked, but it blended the best. 

In hindsight, I think it would have been better to do the increase 1/3rd's and 2/3rd's along the rows, instead of in the middle, but I was not about to go back again. If I had had a lifeline just before the set-up row, I probably would have, but I decided to just live with it.

I had a "perfectionist" issue with the picot bind-off. It was the first time doing that bind-off and it took me a while to realize that I had to pull up on the needle after doing the k2tog to tighten the yarn up, otherwise I would have had so many of those loose loops along the edge and that would have driven me crazy.....

Blocking it was a new challenge for me. The shawl ended up being a bit larger than I anticipated and I would have liked another foam block to work with. 

But I love the idea I had to use my crock pot dish for the soaking part. I still don't have 

anything specific to use. I was using a large 

Rubbermaid bin, but the bottom got cracked in 

the cold weather (I'm assuming anyway) when 

I lent the bin out, so liquid doesn't stay 

in it anymore. 

The only real disappointment I have with my shawl is that it did not stay in the shape I had blocked it in. I guess I didn't leave enough extra yarn between changing colours in the multi-coloured rows because it doesn't fan out nicely. It looks like a crescent shape and actually wears better as a scarf. For now, because it is winter, I don't mind at all. I'm all bundled up in layers anyway, but I was hoping to use it in the summer as well as an actual shawl. I'll have to try steam blocking it to see if that makes a difference.

A New Year, A new Goal!

Hello All,

It is shortly into the new year, and I have decided that I am already slacking in my new goals for this year. So the solution is to get off my duff and start being more disciplined.

The new goals I have set for myself are quite simple really. Most importantly, being more disciplined in working toward my goals. The ones I have set for myself all revolve around finally starting my own business, and improving my health.

So, in order to achieve the business goal, I need to work on my blog more, learn about and start using Instagram, take a business prep course, and start designing my own knit patterns.

I also need to ask for advise from people I know who are small business owners. I have a few lined up already. One lady who does a lot of her business online, since I will probably end up going that route for the first few years, and another lady who bought into a small business in the industry I would be drawing from. I have a few other friends who sell through Etsy so I plan to pick their brains, and I have been paying attention to what my current boss does with his small businesses, and asking questions and reading the books he brings through the store.

I've already taking one small workshop about starting a small business, through the Women's Enterprise Center in Winnipeg. It was very helpful. My "fear factor" with starting a business is the business plan, and the market research. Thanks to that little workshop, I now have a better idea of how to go about doing that, and I sorely wish I could afford the 6 week course starting next week. But I can't, so I am saving up for the one that starts right after that one finishes.

And I have a better, but still pretty vague, idea of how to gather my market research. That is the next major step I hope to accomplish before taking the course. And of course having some product ready.

And for improving my health, again, that goal is very simple. Now that I know I am gluten-intolerant, but still waiting on the formal diagnoses, I want to improve my gardening skills. I would love to get to the point where I produce as much, if not all, the food I need.

I already have a friend's yard to garden in. Last year I started quite late in the season so I only used containers, but I prepped the yard for some in-ground plots in the fall. I'd love to produce a lot of potatoes, and my own corn for milling and popping. It would also be neat to grow enough tomatoes to turn into sauce. I probably could have gotten a few cans of sauce last year, but I did not take the time to learn how to can, so I need to get on that.

Anyway, that's my set of goals for 2015. Thanks for reading!