Sublime - cashmere, silk and wool

Voila

I took it off the needles late this morning and I've been twirling around in it.  There's just that little bit of sparkle, and a lot of great drape. The out-of-focus rows you see is the result of the tulle yarn with the lurex inside.  It adds a really distinctive lacy, dressy accent to the whiteness.

More whites from the in progress bag

2012 has been a year of white exploration.  I found the dreamy nylon tube with a shiny strand inside at Wonderful Things in Great Barrington, MA and have mixed it here with white white cotton (not creamy or gray) and a totally glitzy yarn with gold sequins.   The glitzy yarn is a strong cotton thread, and gives a very noticable lacy effect at even intervals. The rib stitch keeps it from curling at the edges and lends a fascinating vertical line to counter the strong horizontal row lines.  YUM.  

The big needles give it a very lacy texture, and I keep thinking of weddings and evenings out, or really any time you feel like some slinky drama in white. It is a triangle shawl so that it can be tossed around in a million different ways for many different effects. It can even be worn as a big glittery babushka.

Cotton ribbon shawl bigger, in different light

I worked last night for a couple hours and added about 8 inches to the shawl. This is the way the ribs will go when the shawl is worn - I thought it would be interesting to give the ribs a horizontal orientation.

cotton ribbon shawl

This also came out of the old in-progress bag and I'm loving it once more.  I am using a cotton ribbon yarn and making a very large shawl.  The needles are size 10 and they are plastic - something I haven't used in awhile.  I've made a two-stitch selvedge of garter stitch, and then made widely spaced ribs with a reverse stockinette background.  I am knitting the short rows so the ribs will actually form horizontal lines once the shawl is complete.  I found this yarn on sale at Common Thread in Saratoga Springs, NY the last time I visited there in early December.

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Silk and wool blend capelet

I've been going back to the old in-progress bag ( a HUGE bag made in Viet Nam) and found this delightful capelet in Venezia yarn.  I love the way it feels going through my fingers!  I'm making this capelet on a size 8 cable needle.  I'm tempted to but applique things on it, so I'm contemplating what that might end up being as I knit.  Plain? Fancy?  There are zillions of possibilities.

I mistakenly described it as alpaca and wool at first, but just corrected it today, Dec. 27, 2012

Brushed alpaca capelet

This is a feather light capelet worked in Lang Yarns brushed alpaca Degrade.  I have enjoyed the muted colors and I have two more balls!  I see a scarf in my near future.  I used a size 9 cable needle and worked from the bottom up in a wide rib, beginning with a rib every ten stitches, then decreasing to a rib every four stitches at the top.

Thanks to my friend Lauren of Colorful Stitches for the recommendation to try this yarn.

Silks and mohair shawl

I pulled this out of the work in progress bin yesterday and have become enamored of it all over again.  I got the yarns last summer in Tivoli, New York at a shop called Fabulous Yarns.  I found out about the shop through their website, fabulousyarns.com  The teal mohair is BeSweet brushed medium mohair, the black silk  is probably either ArtYarn or Tili Thomas and the cone of fine silk tweed  with teal and black is Habu.  Once I discovered that the teal in the silk tweed and the brushed mohair is the same, I decided i had to try to make a fabric encorporating both of them, and so voila!  The black takes everything down a shade, which makes it more serious than frivolous.

I'm alternating rows a  b a c  with the Habu as the a.  It's seed stich, so the rows blend in an interesting way and in certain lights you can't see that there are rows.  I'm using a size 4 needle, which makes the going a bit slow.

Catching up - a fall of knitting

So here's a retrospective look at my fall knitting from this year.  I took two months off due to moving to a new home, and when I got revved up again I recalled all the joys of a huge work in progress bin!!

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The completed whites shawl - now at LOCAL in Lenox MA

A lovely cotton and linen fine guage triangle scarf/shawl

This is why I love seed stitch - it's a large shawl that is now at LOCAL in Lenox, MA

exploring cables, something I haven't done much

I love these cowls - they are throwbacks to my old "barbarian" style

This is  beautifully soft organic wool yarn from Germany

This is kid-lin, a strand of kid mohair loosely spun together with a strand of linen.  Great Adirondack did this fabulous dye job, making the linen strand red and the kid mohair strand a variegated black with other deep colors.

I rarely knit with yellow, and so this was a joy.

This green cashmere makes my fingers warm when I knit with it.

This is a huge cotton wide scarf.

These different black yarns are my score at Fabulous Yarns in Tivoli, New York and on the web.  The shop is tiny, but the yarns are dreamy.

Organic cotton chevron stitch.  I decided to finally try this classic stitch for my second baby blanket.

A nice grayed teal in wool with bamboo

I have so many white yarns that I wanted to do some more chevron stitch with them in a large shawl

I completed the wool and nettles blend at last!  This has ended up as a gift for a good friend.

More delicious cotton tape.  It's a pleasure to knit and I like this wide rib stitch for a very big shawl.

I've been trying things from the eyelets and lace book, and this is a six-row pattern that is lovely in the gray-pink silk and mohair.

The amazing technicolor dream shawl is getting done!!!!  I have about 20 more inches to knit - I'm hoping to get it done over the holiday break this year.

Shawl, mixed fibers - wool, mohair, nylon, silk; woven stitch, size 4 wood cable needle, 24 inches.

Previous entries:

December 2011

http://thatknittingblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/shawl-mixed-fibers-wool-mohair-nylon.html

March 2009

http://thatknittingblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/in-studio-lightweight-linen-stitch.html

September 2008

http://thatknittingblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/in-studio-woven.html

More from the eyelets and lace book - Debbie Bliss's Rialto chunky, which is a merino that is an absolute pleasure going through my fingers.

I got this angora and wool blend a few years ago and like the way it shows the subtle lace panels.

My trip to Habu Textiles in New York City bolstered my stash of exquisite silks and mohairs - two silk yarns and a linen paper yarn make up this fine guage fabric.

Lang yarns has developed this wonderfully soft brushed alpaca.  It's another yarn that makes my fingers warm as I knit.  That's nice now that the weather is cool.

Even though I get annoyed at the boucle loops with my needle tips get stuck in them, I like this frothy mohair yarn by Be Sweet.