Triangular Prayer Shawl finished

This shawl turned out so well that I would love to have one for myself!

When I started it I went through my stash and found that I had one skein of several different colors but not enough to make an entire shawl from. Stripes seemed rather boring so I decided to try a triangular shawl worked from the top down. I love the way the stripes bend!

I started with the multi-colored yarn that is at the top and chose colors that were in that yarn for the solid sections. As I worked I was afraid that it wouldn't be generous enough so I added another multi that had some of the same colors and some different ones. The color repeat on that one were so long that I got the purples on one side and greens on the other. Very interesting effect. It is nice to see how well the colors all went together.

It is definitely generous though! Toward the end I needed two long circular needles to knit it. One for each half of the triangle. It was a lot of stitches to bind off! No, I didn't count!

The front corners hang about 8 inches below my finger tips and the back comes half-way to my knees. It measures 43 inches from neck to point and has an 88 inch wingspan. It will be so nice for someone to wrap themselves in!


Added note about pattern: This shawl is inspired by the Simple Triangular Shawl by Janice Farrell Pea. I enjoyed the way the bands of different yarns looked in hers. The method for making it is a basic that you will find in many books and patterns. You start with 3 stitches at the center of the neckline and increase one stitch at each side and two in the center on every other row.

Busy Summer & School has started!

Vacation is over and summer has come to an end. This past month I have been busy, busy. We babysat for 2 little girls for 3 weeks. I didn't have much time for knitting then. I was also trying to get ready for school, moving a daughter into a new apartment, making curtains for her and sewing a mother-of-the-bride outfit for a friend.

I have 3 homeschooling this year but only 1 enrolled in our homeschool assistance program through the school district. I will be teaching a Kindergarten, 9th grade and 12th grade-- mostly supervising in the case of the older ones. I have one of the two high schoolers going to band, chorus and Spanish at the local high school. That means some extra driving for me. Then there is our 5th grader who really, really wanted to go to school full time. We decided to give it a try this year and see how she does. So more driving! We are still trying to work out the timing for getting them where the need to be. Later we will be adding some music lessons and extra field trips and enrichment classes. It is making me tired just thinking about what this year will bring!

My knitting has suffered some but I can see that all of the waiting in the car for the kids may actually help. I always take a project along. My goal right now is to try to finish up some of the projects that have been on the needles a bit too long. I am trying to resist starting anything new right now so I can do that.

I am sending off a dozen hats to the Knit-a-cap project today. I have a couple of other charity packages that are going too for the Yarn Yoga group that I am a co-owner of now.

I will post some photo updates of my knitting as soon as the camera batteries are recharged!

Hug your kids today. They grow up way too fast!

Denise