Fibermania

O NO! Not Another Bodacious Bloomer?

I keep having to make these samples for guilds and people who are writing books and want to use this quilt (again!) and I just never seem to have one handy. So while I was away in Florida at Tommy's I made this one (did I mention, AGAIN?) and sent it off yesterday to the author for photography. I am including it here, against my better judgment--for fear of boring you silly, so that I can show the quilting. Very little quilting. It is only a wall quilt, and is only about 16" squarish. It only needs a modicum of quilting.

Just enough to call it quilted. I have shown quilts that have tons of quilting, but I must reiterate that not all quilts need a lot of quilting. So let's call a moritorium on the overdone quilt.

And now for something completely different.

I lost my red shawl!!!! If you are a long time reader, you are already aware that I am a moron. I mention it at least weekly. This is my most current moronic feat. I left my favorite shawl somewhere in Wisconsin. Here is the a recent sighting. I am in my pajamas and knitting sox at our retreat at the nunnery.

Yesterday was very windy and I had to go out and wanted to cover my head with my warm and cuddly shawl and noticed it was missing! Well! What is a girl to do? Without missing a beat I went right to the yarn store and found red wool and red eyelash (on sale!) and proceeded to sit myself down at 6pm and replace-knit a new one.

By ten pm it was blocked.

And then this morning it was dry, and much bigger and ready to wear. I model my shawl in the downstairs medicine chest mirror, in another lovely set of pajamas. Bed head by Mel.

I will weave in the ends, but I had to try it on immediately. I am so happy to have my security shawl back.

Here is how to make one for yourself, and you know you need one...

Size 13 needles (I use circulars) Two yarns, one skein worsted and two balls eyelash (Lion Brand 100% Wool about 150 yards, and Lion Fun Fur, about 60 yards) Garter stitch.

Cast on three stitches, and knit.

Using the backwards E cast on, cast on three stitches at the beginning of the next five rows. This will result in the curved bottom, rather than the pointed bottom which Tommy finds unattractive, and I have to agree.

After that you are only going to increase one stitch at the beginning of each row until you reach a point where the shawl is looking kinda the right size and you can now begin the ties.

Cast on 20 stitches at the beginning of the next two rows. Continue to knit every row until it looks like you will run out of yarn. Bind off very very loosely.

Because I used wool for this shawl I could block it and make it bigger than it looked when I was knitting it. It needs to be lavish.

If you wish to make it more washable, use one of the many inexpensive acrylics out there, such as TLC or Wool-Ease. They also have more yardage and you might want to get a third ball of the eyelash to match the yardage. This is the only one of my many shawls that I have had to block, but it was worth it, as it was kinda skimpy at first. Now it is light and airy.

O, um. I needn't have purchased more yarn. I found at the end that I have four skeins of eyelash and several skeins of wool already in my stash. All red of course. geesh.