Sing Me a Song of a Finished Skye Boat Shawl

An easy shawl....a slow knitter.

I cast this sucker on for our family road trip to Michigan back toward the end of June.  I finally bound off last week.  I can't even recall what took me so long to finish it - other than all the traveling we've been doing over the past several weeks.  Summer is just a slow time.  I remember last summer as the months-long Doodler knitting, so, I shouldn't be too surprised.

The Skye Boat Shawl is clearly named after the lovely song which stands as theme song for silver screen adaptation of Outlander (my favorite books EVER!!!  Go READ them!).  Written by Judy Marples, it is a lovely, simple knit.  The repeat is easy to memorize, and Judy's instructions are easy to understand and to the point, which is always glorious.

The yarn has been in my stash for a few years....maybe even over FOUR.  It was originally meant for the Julissa sweater for myself, but, well....we see where I've gotten with sweater knitting for ME.  And seriously - that sweater is GORGEOUS.  Why have I not knit it???  Anyway, the yarn is Colour Adventures in the Dia Merino DK base.  I think part of why I hadn't knit this Georgin colorway is that I never felt it was quite MY color, though I loved it.

Clearly, though, it would work in a shawl!  And since I hadn't yet knit a heavier-weight shawl, I decided to go for it - though it DOES always make one nervous to use part of a sweater quantity of yarn, right???  :O  I have, I am guessing, two and a half skeins left, which clearly isn't enough for a sweater for Camden, which is a darn shame.  Such is life.

Also!  Reds, as we know, are hard to capture on camera - well, at least to an inexperienced photographer such as myself, though I promise it basically does look like what you see in the photos.  It maybe seem as though the photos are washing it out or brightening it, but the colorway just looks like that, aha!

And...goodness!  Days in the life of us in Michigan!!!  Omigosh - too many photos!!!

Minus two cousins

Amelia faces....

Matt has the camera, but that's a lot of people!

In which I appear nekkid!  A lovely invite to Nicole's beach house!

Giggling sisters???

                                      

Sisters and Sisters

Besties since 5th grade!

                                                       

A little fog burning off Lake Huron at Mackinaw Island

                                      

Matt being a creeper, photo ONE

Matt being a creeper, photo TWO

Matt and Willow being creepers, photo THREE

Tender Is the Hat....and Cowl??? Cabernet Time!

This girlie can officially be WARM this winter!!!!  Seriously, isn't it beeee-yoo-tiful???

Can I also say that I'm glad it's DONE???  Aha!  Neither of these projects is lengthy/difficult.  Naturally, though, I made them more difficult - because that's the sort of ship I run.  The first time I made the hat, it turned out too small, because I failed to read the directions and left out the first several rows I was to knit after the ribbing.  Such is life.  This first version will head off to a cousin - naturally!  I didn't want to rip it out, because I figured a finished hat is a good thing - as long as it fits someone and I have enough yarn to complete everything else, which I DID.  Whew.

Gonna get ya'!

I used Colour Adventures (the FB page link), base Dia Merino DK, colorway Tender.  Elena Nodel, as always, dyes up a gorgeous yarn.  And it needs to be known that after blocking this yarn out, it softens up super nicely, not that it's rough to begin with, but you get me??  The patterns, Cabernet Hat (in DK weight) and Cabernet Infinity Scarf (which covers several weights of yarn, though the link says it's DK) are written super well - easy to understand and no issues at all.  Monika Sirna, the pattern writer, includes a tutorial to help peeps out with the cabling, but it's not something an experienced cabler needs to look at.

Always have to do a sad face

With that hat, my gauge was trying to trick me, as usual.  I didn't want to go down a needle size, and I didn't actually do a gauge swatch IN pattern, which the pattern calls for.  I winged it, and I found the right size needle I needed for the ribbing.  I cast on for a small but did the length of the medium.  And naturally, after blocking, it's a bit bigger in the ribbing than I'd like it to be, but thankfully, the hat is a teeeeny bit slouchy, so, she'll grow into it just fine.  And as you can see, the cowl is a great fit, so, I'm pretty happy with the set.

As a bonus, it SMELLS awesome, aha!  I used Eucalan in the grapefruit oil scent...which for some reason, really stands out this time :)

Love this!

And bonus:  I love that I made two hats AND a cowl out of two skeins of yarn!  Yay to me!  One day, when I have TIMETIMETIME on my hands, I will whip up one of these sets for moi.

One day.