Friday 27 February 2009

Stashbusting

In my mission of using as much yarn in my stash as possible, I finished a couple of things:

this is the Side-To-Side Shawl, which was renamed Tess of D'Ubervilles' shawl by a group of ravelry ladies after the shawl that the actress playing Tess in a recent BBC readaptation for the TV was wearing. It has been an extremely fast knit, since I used a bulky yarn worked with 9mm needles. It was started mid January when we were under a very cold spell, and I think I was inspired to work on it by the need of having something warm and cuddly on my shoulders while working. It is incredible, but no matter how warm the house is, my sedentary work just makes me feel the cold all the time, and instead of hiking up the termostate on the central heating I'd rather surround myself with squishy soft wool :)
The yarn, Dasolo Stripes by Lana Grossa, has been in my stash for 2 years and every time I took it out of the box I had no idea what to use it for, because it is quite bright! See how the skein looks like?
LanaGrossa Dasolo Stripes

There is some colour pooling going on in the second half, but I don't mind at all. It is warm and does its job perfectly!

Working with bulky yarn is so much fun - the work grows and grows in no time and you can see progress straight away. For this reason I thought of digging into the stash for more bulky yarn, and found a bag of this:

IMG_4821

After measuring yardage, I found the perfect shrug for it:
Happy Shrug - worn the "right" way
It is called Sherry's Easy Shrug and you can admire a much more elegant version on Evi's blog.
It can be worn both ways, with the wider ribbing up, like in the picture above, but also the other way round:
Happy Shrug - worn top down
And from the back (wide ribbing up):
Happy Shrug - worn the "right" way
and back view top down:
Happy Shrug - top worn down
A few stats:
Yarn: Linie 146 Montana by ONline col.07
Needles: US 13 / 9.0 mm
Quantity used: 7 skeins, 50g each, total of 378.0 yards (345.6m)

I gotta dash... the bunnies are going to have a tantrum soon if I don't get their pellets and let them out for the usual running and binkying time up and down the stairs! See how impatient they get?
give give give the pellets now!!!

9 comments:

Ann (bunnygirl) said...

I love that shrug! If we weren't almost into summer here, I'd be tempted to try my hand at knitting again.

Unknown said...

wow - I am on a stach busting mission myself - I am trying to reduce my pile of sock yarn. I have neglecting my knitting blog for a while what with 3 new buns in the house

Glenna said...

Oooo--love the green yarn and the shawl. I really like to knit, but unfortunately I have to choose which to do--knit or stitch, and I'm better at stitching. Cute tantrum in progress!

Anonymous said...

wow those are gorgeous, i love that sweater. you are quite talented... and patient!

yeah, bunnehs are sooo demanding!

d. moll, l.ac. said...

Yarn is just so yummy, the colors, the texture....Love the whole shrug concept, I like to keep my back warm. That is a very impatient nose poking and poking.....they probably egg each other one.

RG said...

Tend to the bunns ... that look could almost melt wire!

Crafty Green Poet said...

binkying up and down stairs? Brave bunnies!

Anonymous said...

Beautiful shawl and shrug! Yikes, Neville's looking very displeased.. better put the yarn down and tend to the buns first :p

Deb Cushman said...

What a lovely shawl! Deb's shoulders get cold when she sits and reads. Maybe a shawl would be just the thing. Of course her hands get cold, too. Maybe a shawl with matching mittens!