Been a while...

Poor little blog has been sadly neglected for a while now.  I've been actively creating and taking photos but I just haven't been good about updating on the blog.

As a start to getting reacquainted, I thought I would write a post documenting the prayer shawls I have made since my last accounting.

First up is this blue and white combination.  This is a pattern I had done once before using just one color all the way through, but I thought I'd mix it up a little bit.

This next pattern was called "Ears of Corn", and the sample was done in all yellow and consisted of uniform rows of little spaces, (which did sort of mimic an ear of corn.)  I started out making mine in all white, but then busted out some periwinkle blue yarn to mix things up a bit.

The "Ears of Corn" pattern turned out to be fast and fun, so I decided to make another.  This time I raided the yarn stash for any leftover skeins in the blue/green family and made each row a different color.  This shawl looks so different from the previous one even though they are the same pattern.

I was really enjoying this easy to memorize pattern, so I decided to make one more.   The multi-toned purple yarn was leftover from a previous shawl, and I got to use most of it up by combining it with white and a darker purple.

Still trying to use up what leftover skeins I had on hand, I chose four shades of teal blue, from dark to light, and returned to one of my favorite patterns to make up this next one:

I also selected a bunch of pink leftovers and, using the same pattern,  combined them with white to make this next one:

Having made the above pattern several times now, and always working along the lengthwise direction, I tried using the pattern  along the short side this time.

This next one is not my favorite, and the picture doesn't do it justice.  I had a couple of skeins of yarn given to me where the colors changed throughout the skein in various shades of blue.  Some of the color changes were very subtle, and others were more defined.  I chose a simple, repetitive stitch pattern and ended up with this one:

At some point, I got the itch to do some knitting, rather than crochet.  I found this beautiful rainbow colored yarn and just went back and forth in garter stitch for a relaxing change:

Back to crochet with a new pattern.  This one created a mosaic kind of design with repeating diamond shapes:

I then used the same pattern in white, but did it in the lengthwise direction:

For my most recent project, I went back once again to the comfort of a familiar pattern and made this light/dark purple shawl:

Shawl making, especially during uncertain times, gives comfort in two ways...once for the maker and once for the recipient.  I'll be getting started on my next one ASAP.

Shawl wrapped up

I'm a little late, but here is the update on Prayer Shawls I made in 2017:

My first finish was this teal and white color combination that I had only just started back in 2016, but got it completed last year:

I also made two shawls from what has become my favorite pattern, the One Skein Wrap.  The first one was a combination of white with pink:

The second one was this magenta/cranberry colored one that I blogged about here.

This next one was made up of rows of fans.  I think I may have to dig out that pattern and make another one.

With Spring and Summer coming, I wanted to make a more lightweight lacy shawl, so I made this one:

With all the open areas in this pattern, it was not surprising that it only took two skeins instead of the usual three.

This next one was a bit more masculine. It's based on the granny square pattern, but done in rows. 

Long color variations in the yarn from white to purple made for an interesting finished look in this next one:

Not as many shawls in 2017 as there were in previous years.  I developed some wrist pain, so I had to cut back on how long I could crochet in one sitting, and also take some time off for it to rest. 

My Prayer Shawl group continues to be going strong.  In only four years we have created and given away over 1000 shawls! 

In my world, stashes are for fabric, not yarn

When I started making Prayer Shawls back in 2014, I decided that I would not generate a yarn stash.  However, it seems that no matter how hard I try to estimate the amount of yarn that I need for a project there is always some leftover.  Hence, the following collection:

These were all leftovers from previous finishes.  I thought I would use them all together in one shawl with a  ripple effect style similar to this old gem from my youth:

The pattern I chose is one that I've done several times now.  (Ironically, it's called the One Skein Wrap, although this project would be using multiple skeins.) I began crocheting with the first three pink shades, but I decided that there was too much of a jump in hue between the two darker pinks and the light pink.

I went back to look in my leftover yarns, and came up with one more skein in the dark pink/red range, and decided to ditch the pale pink and set aside the teal/aquas for another day.

Then I added in a thick, variegated yarn in the same color family.

 The thing I love about this pattern is the stitch called "dc7tog", or "double crochet 7 together".  You make 7 double crochet stitches, without pulling the yarn through the last loop, leaving you with a bunch of loops on your hook like this:

Then you pull the yarn through all the loops left on the hook.

Lastly, you gather them all together with a single chain.

The result is a series of gathered shells that create the peak in the ripple pattern:

To make the shawl, I varied the yarns as I went along and this is the way it turned out.

 In this closeup photo, you can see that the thick, variegated yarn introduced a bit of blue.

When all was said and done, I still had some yarn leftover, but I had certainly made a dent.

One more photo that shows the color variations.  I think they all came together very nicely!

Wrapped up in shawls

I had another good year of shawl making for my Prayer Shawl Ministry group.  Here are the shawls I made in 2016.

I started off the year with this cuddly, knitted ripple shawl:

After that, I thought I would try mixing it up by adding some stripes, so I began another one in the same pattern and larger needles, alternating with some red and navy yarn.

This one is still a work in progress.  I keep it in the car so that I always have a project with me.

Getting back to crochet, but still on a stripes kick,  I turned to a pattern I had made before in a single color, and decided to make it with stripes.  I picked out two shades of green and added them to white to make this shawl:

I loved the look of the bands of color, but it took me two nights of TV watching just to weave in all the yarn ends when it was finished.


This next shawl turned out to be the beginning of a series.  I made it in white, from a free pattern  called One Skein Wrap on Ravelry.com.  The "One Skein" title was what got my attention initially, but it turns out that the "One Skein" has to be one of the super sized "pound of yarn" skeins.

This shawl turned out to be really fun to make and I liked it so much that I made a second one, also in white, but with a slightly bigger crochet hook:

 This is a different shawl.  Honest! 

It dawned on me that if I made a shawl with fringe, I could leave the yarn ends hanging until the shawl was complete, and then incorporate them as part of the fringe! So I picked out three pretty jewel tone colors of yarn, and then made the same pattern over again.  It turned out like this:

And the fringed ends looks like this.

All the yarn ends became part of the fringe.  

I had leftover yarn in each of colors, so I made the same shawl, but combined the yarn differently:

This time, I kept to a color scheme when I did the fringe:

I was still enjoying this pattern, so I made yet another one, again aligning the colors of the fringe with the colored bands in the shawl.

My next shawl was a triangular shaped shawl called the Fringed V-Stitch Shawl.

The pattern calls for a specialty yarn to add a fringe, but I thought the edge looked fine without it. The shawl already had a pretty edging.

After making so many lacy shawls, I wanted to make one more suitable for a man, so I knit this one using a self striping yarn:

Next, I revisited a pattern I had made once before, and crocheted this yellow, cape-like shawl:

Then it was back to knitting again for this last one.  I bought 2 large skeins of a fairly bulky variegated yarn and knit this up on size 17 needles:

The cross-hatch pattern just happened all by itself!

There was one "oops!" project last year, and it was this one:

The pattern I followed was actually for a poncho, but I thought I could adapt it for a shawl.  Unfortunately, I didn't make it long enough, and it took me a while to discover it was going to be too short.  I didn't really like the colorway anyhow.  A pattern this busy looks better in a solid yarn.  So, I'll be pulling that one out, but in the meantime, I have started over with more stitches and a new colorway:

If you look through the rungs on the chair back, you can see that the blue and white one is much longer than the green and tan one.

It's nice to have something to show for it after spending many an evening watching TV.