Finished Object : Painting Triangles Shawl

This project exists because I am on a yarn no-buy year (with specific rules). I wanted to knit with cotton as we are in a very warm and dry summer here in France, I wanted to knit from my stash, I liked the blue colour fades from these two cotton skeins from HobbI I really do not like knitting with. It is very splitty even with bamboo needles.

That said, the Painting Triangles Shawl by Stephen West caught my eyes as soon as I saw it in his Painting Shawls book. Ever since, I thought about a blue fade. Sooooo, there it is, knitted from my stash, a piece I love from a cotton I highly dislike.

A perfect finished object that matches my likings, the season, my goals, and that brings me happiness 😺

I have leftovers, in different quantities depending on the colour. I need to repurpose them, either in washcloths or may be in a test run for a stitch pattern for a scarf ?

To be continued !

Companion YouTube Video :

Cast On : Painting Triangles Shawl

This is the project I have been mostly working on recently. I guess I am a monogamous knitter at heart !

I am using cotton from my stash, a cotton I do not like because it is very splitty, even when using bamboo needles.

I already used most of a long changing colours ball when I knitted the Papillon / Butterfly Shawl for my beloved SIL 2020 Christmas present :

The colour effects are nice, she loves it as she cannot wear wool. The perfect project for the recipient, one of the projects that gave me the most headaches ! Being that careful to catch all the microscopic cotton strands was a bit .. difficult.

Having this year long yarn no-buy year project, being on a cotton knitting frenzy during the warm summer days, I decided to use the two blue balls I had in stock. Bamboo needles help a bit, not that much. I still do not like knitting this cotton brand that I won’t buy again.

Given all of these drawbacks, I love the pattern and the project, Stephen West is a real winner for me and I am very happy I could get my hands on the Painting Shawl Book the pattern is from.

The blue fades are perfect. I balled up the remaining of each colour, labelling them with a number, and worked my way through the two skeins colour changes, from dark to light to dark again, and so on. If I run of a colour, I’ll use the closest one, or mix-match what I have ! I love the effect, I love the fabric.

I used to knit one colour section in one sitting, it is now difficult as the number of stitches increases every other row. I cannot do it under an hour any longer. Well, I need to switch my mind from speedy knitting to marathon knitting 💙

Knitting a project I like from this cotton from my stash I did not like is one of the nice side effects of my no-buy project !

Finished Object : My Friend Zoe

I am trying to catch up on my blog posts after my father passed away in June. I did not have much time, having to take care of all the admin stuff for my mother with my sister, and processing the shock. Even if he had been sick for several years, and his health slowly degrading, it happened all of a sudden, without warnings.

During the first grieving times, I did not fell like working on my more complicated projects, so I cast on a very simple cowl with this scratchy cotton my mother gave me. It will be perfect for my hikes, a careless piece that goes into the washer, light and a bit warm for the late summer and fall days.

The pattern is free on Ravelry, I made no modifications to the pattern itself, other than the colour changes and a bit more length to use most of the cotton I had in stash. My Ravelry project : https://www.ravelry.com/projects/IsabelleGD/my-friend-zoe

I kept a bit of the last solid blue cotton ball as it is much softer than the other ones and I can use it in some washcloths !

Finished Object : Simple Summer Tweed Top Down V-Neck

This project I casted on on a whim and WIPed it up in less than a week. Out of frustration.

I was swatching to cast on the Summerloch tee-shirt from Hinterm Stein, I am currently craving for tee-shirts and cotton knits. I had this bright pink Bernat Cajun Cotton that my mother gave me. I mentioned it on the blog and made a YouTube video, I did not take picture of all the skeins and balls she gave me. But I did not like the swatch, not at all. I swatched with another cotton and did not like it either.

I was feeling quite frustrated because I really want to knit that tee-shirt, but have no cotton I like to use in my stash. I do not want to buy any more cotton or yarn (I am in a No-Buy Year) so I will swatch with the Holst Garn Supersoft from my stash at some point. But for now I want cotton or plant fibre everything.

The fabric was very irregular due to the cotton having a different thickness in different places, which I liked, and quite see-through which I did not. So I looked for a project with a smaller needle size. Long story short, I casted on the Simple Summer Tweed Top Down V-Neck by Heidi Kirrmaier that I had in my library (it is a free pattern).

A very quick knit that I consider finished even though I was to go back and knit a few rows of 1/1 ribs at the collar. My modifications are short sleeves and 1/1 ribbing at the bottom of the sleeves and the body as the cotton is a bit stiff and rolls up quite bulky.

An unusual colour for me that will be fine with all my neutrals as a pop !