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Finally Finished Something

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prima shrug maggie paceThis month was supposed to be my month of finishing, then a crafty injury kept me from knitting — at all — for more than a week. I have to tell you it was pretty darn boring!

I allowed myself to take up needles again yesterday, and I think it went pretty well. I finally finished one project. This is the Prima Shrug by Maggie Pace, which is the subject of a workshop at CreativeBug. I didn’t watch the workshop, and I did change the pattern a bit. It was supposed to be all k1, p1 ribbing but I did the collar in garter stitch instead because lining up the ribbing on the collar with the ribbing on the sleeves was driving me crazy!

I also used a different yarn, some worsted weight Malabrigo I had lying around. So I didn’t get the self-striping effect, but it sure is pretty. I also made my collar a little shorter than hers, mostly because I really wanted to finish it last night, but I think it’s long enough. It doesn’t come up on my neck, and I like that.

I am, apparently, incapable of taking a shrug selfie today, so you’ll have to settle for the project-on-a-bed picture. It’s still pretty. Just wish it were warm enough today to wear it!

What have you been working on lately?

Comments

  1. Wow, Sarah, I love how your shrug came out. That color of Malabrigo is beautiful!

    I had my knitting laid out in a relaxing pace with only a couple of projects to finish all summer. But I recently learned a friend of our’s is expecting a baby, so that adds a project to my list 🙂

  2. I’m also shrugging! Trying to finish off a cabled shrug (from Lion Brand) got a few more rows to do, then second cuff and the neck ribbing. Started it last year, but had to rip it out because I ran out of yarn, so had to try and find something similar!

Have you read?

Knit a Log Cabin Blanket with All Your Scraps

I guess I must have had this pattern on my mind, because I had chosen this log cabin blanket recipe to write about, promptly forgot about it and a couple of weeks later started knitting a log cabin blanket using all my pink yarn. 

It might stay pink if it makes it to baby blanket sized, or I might add in some pastel green and blue, too, to make a bigger blanket. We’ll see. I’m also holding several strands of yarn together to make a kind of bulky yarn, which means it’s deeply satisfying how much yarn is used even as the project is still relatively small. 

In Kristen Finlay’s version, DK weight yarn scraps (or fingering/sock yarn held double) are used to make a simple scrappy log cabin blanket that’s lighter weight than my version. Log cabin is a great technique for knitters of any skill level because it’s worked in garter stitch. The only not completely basic technique you need for log cabin knitting is picking up stitches. 

If you’ve never worked a log cabin knitting project before, this is a good introduction, and it is really nice to use all your yarn scraps in one big project you’ll use for years to come. 

If you use a lot of DK weight yarn you can keep building on it whenever you finish a project, or if you use more worsted weight you can do the same thing with it, it will just be a little bigger starting out than the pattern calls for. How big it gets is totally up to you. 

I have really been enjoying working on my log cabin project, and it’s my current sitting at my desk and need a break knit (do you have one of those or is it just me?). 

Ready to start your own log cabin blanket knitting project? You can grab the free pattern from Kristen Finlay on Ravelry. 

Need more log cabin inspiration? Check out more log cabin knitting patterns. 

[Photo: Kristen Finlay]