Needlework Tuesday - On Wednesday

Needlework Tuesday is an occasional post detailing my needlework and/or crafting projects.

This week I concentrated most of my knitting efforts into continuing the rainbow shawl (Celadon from ravelry.com.) I'm glad to report that I finished it. Yippee!!! I wasn't sure I was going to have enough yarn to continue my symmetrical pattern, but I luckily I did. Here's a shot of the finished piece:

This thing is massive compared to other shawls I've made. If I don't wrap it around myself, it goes down to my knees.  I wasn't sure if I was going to like it because it's so different from the original pattern and colouring, but it's growing on me.  Even though it's cotton, I think it's going to keep me warm on those cool spring/fall/winter nights. I still have some yarn leftover to make a small scarf, hat and/or fingerless mitts. Maybe all three!

After I finished the wrap, I worked on the May project, a "fashion" scarf, from the Mary Maxim's Knit Club of the Month. After "practicing" (as Heather would say) the first 6 rows a dozen times or so, I finally made some headway on it. Instead of trying to figure out the "selvage" stitch, I just did a slip stitch at the beginning of the right-side row. I think it's working out. Here's what it looks like so far:

The yarn isn't as bad to work with as I first thought. It's still slipping on the plastic needles, but so far I've been able to keep it under control.   I mentioned last week that I haven't worked with tape-type yarns all that much, but since this one is quite narrow and the needles are quite large (12mm), I'm not too worried about twisting the tape.  It's knitting up pretty much like any other loosely knit, bulky yarn would. That's a good thing.

I made one mistake in the piece, but instead of ripping back a number of rows, I knitted to the spot, ripped out the one stitch all the way down, fixed the problem, then knit it back up. A yarn over (yo) was involved, so it was a little more tricky than just knitting or purling. It was the first time I attempted something like this and in the end it was quite easy to do. Go me!

Even though it's a simple enough pattern, it's not that well written. Since the company is based in Germany, I think it might be a translation thing. I wouldn't recommend it for beginners.

Lastly, my local yarn store may or may not have had a continuation of their sidewalk sale....50% off! And I may or may not have spent another pile of money on some more luxurious (i.e. expensive) yarn. My husband may or may not have aided and abetted me by picking out some more sock yarn. Next week, I may or may not post some photos. ;)

This week coming week I'm going to continue to work on the scarf from Mary Maxim.

Needlework Tuesday is hosted by Heather over at Books and Quilts.    If you'd done any crafting this week that you'd like to share with others, please head over to Heather's blog and use the Mr. Linky to link up your post, so others can enjoy your creations.