Monday, October 09, 2006

Happy Thanksgiving!


Canadian Thanksgiving, that is. That's right Americans, we have our own turkey eating festival/reinterpretation of European-Native North American relations too. But, since our harvest is a bit earlier to accommodate the blistering cold winter, we do it at the beginning of October. Yesterday I joined about 30 members of my family to walk 5K to raise money for the Alzheimer's Foundation. My grandfather passed away nearly 10 years ago after a struggle with the disease and for the last five years or so the fam has been marching to raise money for research. It was a gorgeous walk along the shore of the Bow River and I had a great time hanging out with my clan.

So, in the interest of posting something about knitting, here is my finished City Shawl. Please excuse the hideous photos. Here are the details:

City Shawl, a Glampyre pattern
Yarn: Lion Brand Suede in black
Needle: Addi U.S. 15 circs
Mods: I added about 20 rows

I'm in love with the finished product, but I had trouble getting this one started. I looked high and low for some really nice chenille at various fancy yarn stores, but everything was in gross colours or variegated (or variegated gross colours) so I decided to hoof it to Michael's and grab some Lion Brand. The pattern calls for any bulky chenille so without paying much attention I grabbed the LB Thick 'N' Quick Chenille. I later noticed that other bloggers used the same yarn with unhappy results. I also noticed that TNQC is actually a super bulky, which is why my shawl was starting to look like a teddy-bear skin coat. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that Stephanie actually suggests LB Suede on the pattern, so I switched it up (I also switched from bamboo circs to my Addis because the LB was sticking on the join and with both the suede and the TNQ chenille the bamboos held the yarn so tight that I broke the yarn on some of the K2togs).



So, the lesson learned? Pay attention to your yarn, use appropriate needles and if you need to, keep knitting until the shawl's a-fitting. My finished product is warm and cuddly and looks cute too. The edges are starting to dog-ear and curl a bit and the ends didn't weave in as nicely as I'd hoped, but I love the pattern and am happy to have a functional and finished item that I've actually worn many times since finishing it last week. Hooray!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

that is super nice!
way to go- i love it-
and thanks again- my turkey cooking day went off without a hitch- you were right!
;)

Sean Carter said...

That's really a lovely way to spend Thanksgiving. And a family reunion is all the more better. You can also find a lot of interesting ideas and suggestions on Thanksgiving at this Thanksgiving Blog. Check it out sometime. And by the way the shawl looks lovely!!!