There’s a reason I start my donation project for the March Fashion Show so early. My Rose Trellis shawl is set aside for now so that I can work on other projects. When someone buys/gives me yarn for a project, the new project moves to the head of the queue.
My dear friend Leah bought a huge amount of acrylic worsted weight yarn for making afghans at a flea market. In the batch were several skeins of lace-weight yarn that she knew she’d never use. She hands them to me, asking “Can you use this? Can you make me something with it?” Not only is Leah a dear friend, she’s a sorority sister and a client. How do you say no? You don’t.
I have no idea what the yarn is, not who made it or the fiber content. Leah gave me four skeins of orange, four of green and one of burgundy. They are large “cakes,” ready to work with. I wish the original owner had saved the labels.
I remembered seeing a recent post on Facebook about a shawl made with a bright orange, so I located that pattern. It’s called “Baja Sunrise Shawl,” because the designer, Kristen Ashbaugh Helmreich, said the colors reminded her of sun hitting the waves off Baja. Her pattern calls for DK weight yarn, but my yarn is lighter in weight. The guage swatch was not working well at all.
I switched to smaller needles and have a good start on the project, which I have dubbed “Summer Citrus,” because the orange is the color of oranges, tangerines, mandarins and other summer citrus fruit, and the green is perfect for leaves. When I get down to the “waves” at the bottom of the shawl, it will be like sun dappling through the leaves on a tree.
The pattern is very easy – one row of yarn overs followed by five rows of stockinette stitch. I’ve been working on it for a little more than a week and I’m already on row 68. In another 30 rows or so, I start the stripes. At row 128, I start the lace border. It’s an old-fashioned “shale lace” type, similar to “feather and fan,” which many of us learned when we began knitting lace. Leah has a late July birthday. That’s my goal. Wish me luck!
Many thanks to designer Kristen Ashbaugh Helmreich for this interesting pattern. You can find a link to get the pattern here – http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/baja-sunrise-shawl.
Many thanks to Jimmy Beans Wool for featuring the shawl on their site and inspiring me to make my own version – http://www.jimmybeanswool.com/.
PS – doesn’t it look nice on my favorite summer table cloth?
Knitting Twigs into Trees 