Make a Million

Shawls have always bugged me a little. I like them, but I have never liked the way they fit. When they are made straight across (as most of them are), the neck always sticks out or rolls down. But once I figured out that if you make more increases, the shawl curves around the neck, I started working on a pattern.

Writing the pattern took much testing. I tried out many different types of increases and had many modifications along the way. I can't even tell you what I did anymore. But I do remember that I made the first version out of Harrisville Highland, one of my favorite yarns:

When I am an old woman, I shall wear purp...  

Ruh-roh!

The next version I made was this one:

It's made out of yarns from about four different companies. Here, I was fiddling with adding yarn-overs, beads, a ruffle, and working the back increase to make it as pretty as possible. (If you look at the shawl from the back, you'll see 3 or 4 different types of increases.)

As I worked on these shawls, I really enjoyed them. I thought it would be good to make one out of the gorgeous, natural wool we have from Underhill Farms, a local farm that's an hour away from us. This is actually my favorite version, even though it's not quite so flashy:

(I'm looking up at little birdies in the trees here, in case you were wondering.)

And then I thought, what if I used our really cool silk yarn from Himalaya Yarns as fringe on our really cool bulky yarn from Noro? This is what happened:

Hippiriffic! 

By now, Kim had caught on to my enthusiasm and started making her own shawls. (I had them out on loan for a day for photos.) She wanted one that had varying shades of orange-toned pinks, with purples. She got this:

Then she wanted greens, greens, greens!

I think she might be working on another, but I'm not sure. She has a lot of knitting projects going at the moment, and I've lost track.

I was thinking I'd be tired of this shawl at this point, despite its name. Honestly, I'm not.

I'm not tired of it. Not at all. I want to make more! more! more! It really does live up to its name. And it is so great for travel knitting. It's easy and fun.

I'm working on two more right now. One is in Kauni:

I'm thinking about adding some Artyarns Mohair Splash toward the edge to dress it up a bit. Hmmmm....



And the other is in stash yarn that I happen to have in "Hello Kitty" colors!

Despite all evidence to the contrary, I think I don't have enough pink in my life. So I have more yarn set aside for an all-pink one in many textures of just pink. Rumor has it that it may also contain sequins.

I'll be teaching this class at Stitch Your Art Out this coming Tuesday at 6:00 p.m. I hope you'll join us; it is inspirational to see what others are making! Give the store a call at 814-238-4151 to sign up.