Needlework Tuesday - On Wednesday - Knitting and Blocking

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

This week I worked on a couple of projects.

Last week, I had started another baby hat to use up the remaining yarn from the stuffed Rabbit project. If you remember, I also made a small baby blanket and a hat for a 12-month old. This new hat is supposed to be for a toddler. However, I think it might be a wee bit short, but only by a few rows. I was running out of yarn and may have stretched it a little to get to the desired length before starting the decrease rows for the crown on the hat. I think it'll be okay, though. I like the orange stripe. Here it is:

Anyway, I have about 5 yards of the yarn leftover. Probably just enough to make a pompom tail for the rabbit, which I totally forgot about.

I'm also blocking a shawl I made months ago. It's the first one, Waiting for Rain, in this post. I haven't done a lot of blocking, but a fellow knitter/salesperson at my local yarn store suggested blocking wires.

It looks a bit wonky, but it's the best I could do. It took quite awhile to get the wires threaded and the shawl pinned down. I measured it several times in an attempt to get the sides somewhat symmetrical. I'd measure, move the pins, measure, move the pins, measure....repeat several more times. It wasn't that much fun and being down on the floor for that long hurt my back and hip. I finally said good enough and left it. My main goal was to open up the lace and have it lie flat. I'll let you know how it works out once it's dry.

As for the wires, I've used them a few times now and they seem to be working out. (I consulted Google on how to use them). However, since I haven't done a lot of blocking, I'm not sure. Have you used blocking wires?

And lastly,  I started another shawl called Jette from Drops Design, a free pattern on ravelry.com. This particular version caught my eye. It's beautiful AND uses yarn that I already have leftover from other projects.

A word about the colour: It's medium green and dark rose.  I would have definitely picked different colours had I not been determined to use up some of the yarn in my stash. I had limited options and this was the best colour combination I could come up with.  All week I've been telling myself to think "rose garden" rather than "Christmas".

Here's what I have so far:

It's an asymmetrical shawl that's essentially knit in two parts. After knitting this part, stitches are picked up along the edge with the stitch markers and it's continued from there. My shaping is backwards because of the whole old left-handed, right-handed thing, but I'm hoping it's going to work out regardless.

This week I'm going to continue to work on this shawl. Also, another project from Mary Maxim's Knit Club of the Month should be showing up any day, so I'll probably take a look at that.

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.