What's Up? ::Shrug::

I love days like today! I got busy this morning trying to finish up the knitting on Ashley's hurricane sweater. (Of course, we all know the pieces will have to age for awhile before it can get put together.) Knitting just makes me think, especially when I'm getting down to the end of a project, which means I run the risk of only have eleven left in progress!!! GASP! So when I took a break from my knitting, I went up to my studio to, what else, knit!

I started with this, a single spool of Candlelight, a metallic thread for knitting and crochet that I bought last year at knit club for about $3.00. (I have another one--don't be silly, I couldn't just buy one at that price!)

I knitted up the whole spool in a 1x1 rib on my White 1602 doublebed, at tension 7 on both beds, position 3 (yeah, I know--a little far to give it bigger stitches) and space selection 6 which was totally inappropriate for this thread, but I was spearminting! I wanted the rib for stretchability, because this thread is rayon and polyester and it doesn't give that much. I transferred all the needles (the absolute best thing about this machine is that dumb little transfer carriage!) and starting binding off. Half-way through (and it was a bitch) something happened and about six stitches pulled off the needles and started to run. OH NO! So I just pulled it off the needles (the fabric is light as a feather), threaded my upper looper in my serger with the remainder of the thread and serged the entire edge to stop the madness.

I then pinned about four inches of the top left and right hand edges to the bottom left and right hand edges, with the corners IN--this is important because it puts the sleeve on a bias and gives it the stretch needed.

I threaded a large needle with a double strand of Candlelight and sat in the big chair. I must need trifocals now, because for this close work I have to take OFF my glasses...great...and I whip stitched the serging flat to the inside of the shrug, as shown in this closeup:



I pressed the seam flat and put on a spaghetti strap black dress to model the finished shrug for you!


It turned out pretty cute! The whole time I was making it, I was thinking about Penny, who has a life and will probably have some holiday parties to attend this year. Penny, it's on the way, hope you enjoy!