Blogville Knitters – Daily Fiber

It’s time for another cast on. This time I am working a group knit along project organized for the Blogville Knitters group on Ravelry. Alissa has chosen this shawl by Sylvia McFadden.

Ravelry: Water pattern by Sylvia McFadden

While the designer was going for a watery look, with insets of lovely lace, I have chosen two yarns that give more of a chocolate cake with pink icing sort of feel.

For my main color, I have Wisco sock yarn in colorway Dark Plum by Ewetopia. The contrast color is an alpaca rayon blend by Berroco called Folio in colorway Cardinal.

Here you see the first swirling lace inset. Doesn’t it remind you of waves? There will be six sections like this in between the garter ridges. So far I find that the stitches required to make these waves are a little tricky, and need to be worked at a much slower pace.

The plan is to finish by the end of ~~June~~ March? It’s doable.

Members of the Blogville Knitters will recognize the pattern for Water. This pattern, offered by softsweaterknits.com, was selected by Alissa for our group knit-a-long happening in March. I agree with her – it is a beautiful shawl. It features some unique design aspects and challenging sections based on short rows.

So I am game to try.

The lace sections look just like waves of the ocean. But I didn’t choose a water color. I wanted to try something warmer. My Water shawl will look more like a lava flow.

I chose Wisco Sock, from Ewetopia, in colorway Dark Plum for the garter row sections. It didn’t photograph too well in the first picture. So here are my swatches, with a little digital adjustment.

The pink yarn I found at Harps and Thistle yarn store in Cuyahoga Falls, OH. While looking for a silk blend I picked up this Folio yarn by Berroco. It is not silk, but a blend of 60% superfine alpaca and 35% rayon. Never having knit with rayon yarn, I was a little skeptical about the resulting fabric. But store owner Cindy had used this yarn and experienced no issues such as pilling. The colorway is Cardinal, but it certainly doesn’t resemble any cardinal I have ever seen. Maybe it is more the shade of the Roman Catholic cardinals’ robes. Anyway, it is a color I currently do not have in a shawl.

So I am set with pattern, yarn and swatches. If I can trust the two that I worked up on no. 5 needles, both yarns give me the same gauge, in this case, 22 sts. per 4 inch row as called for by the pattern.

If you would like to knit along with us, you can find Water at:

Ravelry: Water pattern by Sylvia McFadden