Saturday, March 3, 2012

Like Clockwork

Knitting shawls is popular, no doubt about it. There are stunning lace creations, squishy, brightly-colored winter accessories and everything from bold statements to classy cover-ups.
I've knit one shawl before that I loved deeply. Of course I knit it in early summer, so it hadn't seen much use until I travelled to Japan. There, it was a trusty staple while walking through fashion-fabulous Tokyo.

But I loved knitting the shawl, so I knew I wanted another one.
I'm not in a lace place right now, and lace shawls don't really fit with my wardrobe.
I like Stephen West's bold, geometric designs, so I knew I wanted to make another one. This time, in two colors.




After a bit of humming and hawing (too many great patterns!), I settled on Clockwork, with its garter stitch squishiness, simple stripes and slip-stitch steampunky detail.
And I was going to knit it out of two rockstar yarns, Malabrigo Sock (in Solis) and Wollmeise (in Feldmaus).
Could things get any better?
This would be perfect travel knitting. Beautiful yarns in pleasing colors, a simple yet gorgeous pattern and just enough size to see me through the trip.
And it sure did.
As an added bonus, I got to knit the first section twice, because I am brilliant and cannot remember directions for a whole row.
So I did only one set of increases, instead of increasing throughout the row, like I was meant to do. No wonder the first section knitted up so quickly!
Good thing I like knitting, so ripping back and reknitting wasn't much of a chore.
The yarn stood up perfectly to ripping and being re-knit, by the way.
Fabulous yarns.
And what can I tell you about the end result?
The shawl is squishy, it's large, and it's fabulous.
Unfortunately, it was also unfinished by the time we came back to Melbourne, so I haven't had an opportunity to wear it yet.

If you're looking for an easy-ish knit to use up two skeins of gorgeous yarn, you could do worse than try a Clockwork.
Mine used suprisingly little yarn all up, so now I have leftovers, almost enough to knit another one, if I so chose.






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