Bramble Stitch Shawl

After eight months of on-again off-again knitting, I have finally finished my very first shawl.

Pattern: Bramble Stitch Lacy Shawl from The Knitter's Bible: Knitted Accessories, a gift from my friend the Cable Girl
Yarn: Farmhouse Yarn's Bo Peep's Sock Yarn
Needles: Size 11
Started way back in March of 2010 and just finished on January 17th. Yikes.

I'm not really a shawl person but thought it might be nice to have one for when I need a little something extra around my shoulders. It's better than dragging an afghan around the house. In the book they used larger needles and thinner yarn for a more wispy effect which looks quite lovely.

I bought this yarn ages ago for socks, but despite the name it's really more of a sport weight yarn. I do like Farmhouse Yarns though - my Wanida Socks are made from their Fannie's Fingering Weight and have had nary a hole after lots of wear.

This is actually a very easy pattern, which is one of the reasons why I chose it. It's easy to memorize and can be worked on while watching tv or socializing. You start at the point and increase each row so that the rows get longer and longer as you go, creating a triangle shape. My triangle has kind of swoopy-shaped sides.


Laying knitted items on the snow always looks so artful on other knitting blogs.

Perhaps better blocking could have helped the shape, but my blocking area wasn't big enough. Someday maybe I'll try again because I'd like it to be slightly larger if possible. At any rate, I'm satisfied with how it turned out and really glad that it's done!

Knitting Plan

It’s not much of a plan really, more of a progress report through which I’m hoping to shame myself into action. With the Tweed Pullover finished, I return to my three languishing projects.

First up, the sadly neglected Whisper Cardigan.


I have knit nary a stitch since this post, though I did move the project to new needles with a smoother join. (So much for my assertion that once I did so, the project would practically knit itself.) My fear now is that it’s been so long I will have to rip out and restart the project because of gauge changes and the fact that I don't know where I left off in the pattern.

Next is the Bramble Stitch Shawl, which I actually have done some work on in recent months, but it is still embarrassingly slow going.


This is also the least photogenic of the projects and I look forward to the day when it is not only completed, but blocked into wintery glory.

Most successful of my works in progress are the Glynis Socks. I’ve been burning through these and have a sock and a half! I think I can finish this sock within the week if I really try.



The plan: finish the Glynis Socks, and make substantial progress on the other two projects before rushing out and starting anything new. Beyond that, I have little planned for knitting this year. My only real knitting goal is to make one sweater that is practical and fits me well and that I will actually wear. An upcoming post will discuss this in depth, so stay tuned!

Surprise Knitting, Part 1

I cast on for two projects in the last couple of days, neither of which I had planned on and neither of which even appeared in my extensive, 4-page Ravelry queue. I’m breaking them into 2 separate posts for reasons of length and sanity.

I’ve been in a bit of a knitting rut, every project stalled at a different spot and little enthusiasm or clarity to proceed on most of them. During the week I finished the third and final iteration of the Doctor Who Hat (pics coming soon!), and the feeling of completion made me so happy I just wanted to start something new.

First, I cast on for the Bramble Stitch Shawl from The Knitter’s Bible: Knitted Accessories by Claire Crompton. Ages ago, I bought some Farmhouse Yarns Bo Peep’s Not Just For Socks Yarn in a lovely colorway called Glacier Mist. When I cast on for some socks, however, I found that the yarn is much too thick to be called a sock yarn. I only have one skein, generous though it is, so I began thinking about some sort of shawl or wrap. Most shawl patterns I was able to eliminate as possibilities right away as they call for lace weight yarn and involve intricate lace patterns which this yarn, even if it was lace weight, would be unsuited for because of the variegated colorway. Also, I hate knitting lace. But in a Ravelry search for shawls using DK weight yarns, I was happy to find some appealing shawls made from this pattern I already own. More interesting than plain garter stitch but simple enough for this yarn, the pattern seems like a perfect fit.


This is the first pattern I’ve made from this book, which I received as a gift from the Cable Girl back in ’08, or possibly ’07. (These, by the way, are to be pronounced “aught eight” or “aught seven” a la Grandpa Simpson.) I’ve consulted the book many times as a reference on other projects such as the Dr Who fingerless gloves, and just to admire the pretty patterns, and now I’m happy to be making an actual project from it.

There are two things I especially like about the book:

1. For almost all of the patterns, it shows different versions of the projects made with different yarns. For example, the recommended yarn for this shawl is a light-weight solid colored mohair, but inset photos show swatches of the pattern knit with 4ply-cotton on smaller needles, and a version knit with a variegated wool yarn.

2. The book doesn’t pimp specific yarn brands. Sometimes I do like to know exactly what was used for a pattern, and there is a handy appendix in the back of the book that lists the brands used for the samples of each project. But the instructions very helpfully lists materials such as “light-weight tweed wool yarn” or “medium weight aran wool/cashmere mix” which makes substitutions far easier. When one is just given a brand name and wants to find a suitable substitute, it means having to research the weight and fiber contents of that specific yarn before trying to find a similar yarn. (Don't be tempted to use the pattern gauge as a guide either, because many patterns use yarns knit at a tighter- or looser-than-recommended gauge.)

This is the perfect weekend for new knitting projects because it is so rainy and disgusting that I don't want to go anywhere. I'll post about my other new project either later today or tomorrow.