Still Summer, Still Knitting...a Bit.

My last post was July 13th (Friday the 13th for those of you who roll on the dark side), and I felt a brief re-cap would be in order. When last I posted I was a few days away from taking a 3 week vacation - oh the plans I had! Five weeks ago my goals for the summer were:

1. Practice, practice, practice at machine quilting.
   
2. Keep working on small projects
   
3. Contemplate knitting for the Hospital Auxiliary
   
4. Perhaps work on an Entrelac Scarf
   
5. Finish a short row shawl
   
6. Relax - actually that wasn't in my last post but it should have been.

So how did I do? Before I jump into results I will start with an excuse...because it's what I do. Originally my husband and I planned a stay-cation. We were going to do short camping trips out of Prince Rupert, consider building a shed and contemplate our navels for 3 whole weeks. This was all fine and dandy until vacation-eve or very nearly vacation-eve Bob (my husband) found a tear drop trailer for sale on used Victoria. To shorten an already growing long story we bought said trailer and our holiday plans morphed from a staycation to an actual vacation. With the help of my daughter Meg and her boyfriend Joel (Joel received hero status in a much earlier blog for making Meg a swift for her yarn) we purchased the trailer had a great Victoria visit and hit the road. For those of you unfamiliar with tear drop trailers, here is a picture of ours - not quite the traditional tear drop shape but a tear drop nonetheless.

What's cool about these teeny tiny trailers is that they can be towed with smaller cars and when you unpack them they look like a gypsy camp.

Anyway, 3 weeks on the road ended my plans for practicing machine quilting, so that skill, while still on my bucket list, has been moved down a notch or 2. In keeping with my teeny tiny trailer I only travelled with enough yarn for the perfect travel knit plus one more in case I finished.

The Perfect Travel Knit

After years of knitting on the road I declare the perfect travel knit to be the Tanta shawl designed by Emily Ross. The pattern is available for purchase on the KnitPicks website. Here's a link: http://www.knitpicks.com/patterns/Tanta_Shawl__D10211220.html

Here's a picture from the website:

Here's a picture of mine (un-blocked, so it looks a great deal smaller):

What makes the Tanta shawl so perfect for travel knitting?

1. It can be knit with one skein of fingering weight yarn (423 m per 100 gr.). I used KnitPicks hand-painted Stoll which is 75% superwash merino and 25% nylon - yes it can also be used for socks. Starting the project as we rolled out of Prince Rupert on July 20th, I was knitting the last few rows as we drove over the Rainbow Summit back towards home on August 8th.
   
2. The pattern has an interesting edge with just a few yarn overs and the rest is garter-stich. A perfect combination of interesting and easy.
   
3. The edging has a very short 8 row repeat that is easy to memorize (honest).
   
4. The pattern starts with a few stitches, grows to many (while I don't recall exactly it's around 80) and then immediately starts decreasing to the finish.
   
5. It's easy to see where you left off when "Holy cr*p! That guy is driving up a freeway off ramp!" and your mind does summersaults with the shear stupidity of some drivers.
   
6. Did I mention one skein of yarn? Oh, yes I did, but that's important when you are trying to cut down on baggage.

Okay so, back to my summer goals:

1. Machine quilting was a non-starter.
   
2. I did work on a small project but I didn't knit more than one.
   
3. I admit that the Hospital Auxiliary didn't enter my mind (but it's there now).
   
4. Entrelac scarf?- nope.
   
5. Finish the short row shawl - not one stitch.
   
6. Last on the list was relax. Now I did a great deal of that, so the staycation turned vacation was a success.
   

The other thing I picked up this summer was Shuttle Tatting. Learning that skill has been challenging and really fun. What is tatting? It's a form of lace making that's been around for hundred's of years (think lace collars, cuffs and doilies). I believe tatting pre-dates crochet but I'm prepared to stand corrected on that. I really enjoyed (and I'm still enjoying) trying to get a handle on this new skill. I have no idea why I decided now was the time to learn but I'm glad I did. I am truly surprised by how much I like tatting. Who knew? Here's a picture of a few of my attempts.

Knitting holds first place in my heart, but right now tatting is holding a close second.

The Prince Rupert Library Knitters will be meeting this Thursday, August 23 in the Library's multi-purpose room at 7:00 pm. Drop by and say hello!

 

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