shimmer - a finished shawl

Last month I joined a mystery knit-along. This was totally new to me, and I thought I'd jump right in.

I LOVED it. There is something so fun about not knowing what the next part of your knitting will look like. Will it be lacy? Will it be striped? Will it be both?

Now that the knit-along is over, I can release the name of the pattern. It is Red Rock Canyon by Romi Designs.

I knit this with two skeins of a lovely Sweet Fiber yarn in the Merino Lite weight. The colors were Sea Glass and Ever Gray. Both colors spoke to me.

As the knitting grew and grew and grew, I became increasingly curious as to how it would look when I was finished and it was off my needles. It is huge (wonderfully so).

I love the different parts to the design and how the stripes ripple.

I'm naming my shawl Shimmer. It is a perfect fit.

 It is quite possibly my favorite knitted item ever.

I can't wait to be able to use this on cool summer nights, after a long day in the hot sun.

Sounds like heaven to me.

a knitterly goal

Our local yarn shop, 88 Stitches, is having a kind of knitting challenge during the next few weeks, in conjunction with the Winter Olympics.

I've decided to join in and challenge myself to knitting a Grace sweater found in Jane Richmond's Island book. It is a beautiful, classic sweater. I'll be casting on tomorrow morning. I've swatched, and measured, and tested out the lace pattern.

This project just begged for a new yarn bowl pouch. (My current yarn bowl/project bag is occupied by my "Color Affection" shawl.)

This pouch is very, very loosely styled by Anna Graham of Noodle-head's open wide pouch. I've used the dimensions for the large pouch, but everything else, construction procedure, zipper application, and so on,  have been adapted to my way of sewing pouches, which seems to be somewhat unique.

Anyways, for this pouch, I used a striped chambray style material for the base, and a couple prints by Tula Pink's Saltwater line that I absolutely adore.

For the yarn, I chose an amazing colored fingering yarn by Sweet Fiber called Super Sweet Sock in the Temperate color way.  It's a gorgeous tealish green, with a kind of aqua shimmer woven in. It's going to be great.

I love it. And I can't wait to cast on tomorrow.