#1Year1Outfit – Walnut Circular Shrug

November 13, 2016 by steelyseamstress 5 Comments

I’ve been knitting frantically with my Walnut-dyed wool this month. Sadly, my knitting pace is rather slow. I can totally understand why beginners, like me, rarely choose a jumper over an accessory on only their second knit. But giving myself a challenge has never put me off before!

I’m making a shrug using this Circular Shrug pattern I found on Ravelry (you’ll need a login to view that, but here is photo of it). So, how am I progressing? I’m probably half way through now. I have completed the first ribbed section and I’m well into the mock rib section now. I’ve really got the hang of the two different stitches that are required by this project. However, I do find that I’m not very good at counting to four (K2P2) and I do make the odd mistake. This is good as it has forced me to get familiar with correcting problems – changing a knit stitch to a purl or vice versa.

When I dyed the wool I had to split it into two batches as I didn’t have a big enough saucepan. This meant that my two skeins were of slightly different shades. I decided to change from the lighter to the darker shade when I changed stitch. Hopefully this would either make the colour change less noticeable or indeed make it look as if I intended to make the change. I’ll switch back to the lighter shade when I change back to the rib stitch. Is the change noticeable in the photo?

Another thing to mention are my make-shift stitch markers. Last month I took apart some old bras and saved the rings and sliders. They’ll be perfectly usable for bra making. Anyway, they were hanging around on the coffee table and I really needed to keep track of my stitches and decided that the rings could make convenient stitch markers!

I like this knitting pattern a lot; it’s simple to construct, requires only one body measurement and it could be a good project on which to practice new techniques. I’ve looked at quite a few of the Ravelry projects that have used this particular pattern. It seems to be a versatile starting point and there are several knitters that have made interesting variations on the project. They have introduced a cable pattern or a lace pattern instead of the mock rib stitch or even long sleeves have been added.

In other news….

I’m half-way through a sewing project too, but trying to squeeze my intended make out of the fabric is causing some pattern re-design and I’m taking my time with this project.

I’ve been a little preoccupied with knitting this month and have been browsing for recycled yarns. I spotted this Billie Jean Yarn from Wool and the Gang which is made from recycled denim from the textile industry. I then did more hunting and found a yarn from recycled denim textiles from Portugal on the Hooked website and chunky recycled cotton yarn in a wide range of colours from India on the YarnYarn website.

I’ve also been thinking a little about where I’d like to go next with my knitting. I saw these adorable hats on Fringe Association. Not only do they look great, but each hat has uses different techniques so they would be a fantastic way to build me skills at knitting. After doing lots of ribbing on this project, I think that perhaps the Seathwaite hat with cables, or perhaps the Laurus hat using two colours would be a good next step. Too many potential projects, so little time…… I’m sure I’ll be back sewing again soon and dreaming up more projects there.