Summer Mystery Shawl 2010

Started this shawl August 3, 2010 and finished August 8, 2010. 75” wide x 38” long x 55” along sides. Made with Jaggerspun Zephyr in Daffodil. Designed by Renee Leverington.

I guess it didn't come out as bad as I had originally thought. It's still slightly felted and much smaller than it should be, but I guess it came out OK. The beautiful gold beads don't show up that well in the photos, but they look great in person!

I have more photos posted on Ravelry here: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/RitaMiller/mystery-shawl-17

My Petroglyphs shawl ruined!

Well, as luck would have it, I RUINED one of the most beautiful shawls I ever made! It was another of Renee Leverington's Mystery Shawls, MS17 - Petroglyphs. I am so upset at myself! I was soaking the shawl and couldn’t believe how much dye was coming out of it. So I kept soaking and rinsing and squeezing and re-soaking all day long. Finally, the last time I went up to rinse it yet again (in the evening), I noticed how weird the shawl felt. When I looked at it, I saw that it had felted!!!! I couldn’t believe it! I guess I must have “squeezed” it a few times too many. I didn’t wring it, I know that, and didn't use warm or hot water, but I guess the constant squeezing and soaking did it in. Lesson learned! But why did it have to be on one of the prettiest shawls I ever made?!


I was ready to just throw the whole thing away, but I decided to try to block it despite the felting. I had to pull the shawl apart in several spots that had felted together, especially along the neck edge, where the “eyelet” border is. I couldn’t even see the eyelets! But eventually I got that edge all pulled out and got the shawl pinned down. But the beauty of my work is gone. You can see that it’s felted: there’s no definition of stitches and the shawl itself is WAY smaller (and denser) than it should be, more like a shawlette now. Normally, these shawls are about 72” x 36”. This one is about 60” x 27”. And it just doesn’t have the beautiful delicacy that laceweight shawls have. I really loved this shawl and especially loved the yarn-bead combination that I used (Cinnabar Zephyr with metallic gold beads). I may make it again in the future just because I loved the bead pattern in it. I’m just not sure. All I know is I am devastated about it.

Anyone else ever had a yarn where the dye just wouldn’t stop coming out?

Found it!

After my sister told me that she remembered giving me this pattern from a tear-off sheet, I looked through every place I could think of where I might have stored tear-off sheet patterns. As I was getting down to fewer & fewer places to search, I found the pattern! It's called "Summer Shine" and was put out by J & P Coats LusterSheen, leaflet #LW1177 ©1995. I looked on the Coats & Clark site and couldn't find the pattern to download, but at least I have it on paper. I've scanned it into my computer so now I have a digital version of it, too.

Anyone know this pattern?

I made this top for my sister some years ago (actually, I made two, another one in white & beige), but I can't remember where the pattern is. It may be in a book or a magazine. I have literally thousands and just can't look through them all. So I was wondering if anyone recognizes it and could tell me what book/magazine this pattern might be in. Thanks for any help.

Some of my recent shawls

 

Shetland Garden Faroese Shawl (knit) by Sivia Harding. Pics on Ravelry here.

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Flying Diamonds Shawl (crochet) by Vicki Mikulak. More pics at Ravelry here.

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Sari Lace Triangle Shawl (knit) by Sylvie Beez. More pics on Ravelry.

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Ostrich Plumes & Pineapples Shawl (knit) by Glenda Hunt. Ravelry pics here.

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Orchard Hill Shawl (knit) by Vicki Mikulak. More pics on Ravelry.

Disaster!

Made this baby blanket (Mayflower Baby Blanket) from the Caron website out of what was supposed to be NO DYE LOT Caron PerfectMatch Royal Blue. I had bought 12 skeins of this from Herrschners a few years ago and it came 4 skeins to a pack. Since there's no dye lot number on this yarn, I just kept grabbing a new skein when I needed one. Apparently, the NO DYE LOT doesn't really mean what it says, since there were obviously dye lot differences between the skeins I used on this afghan. Of course, I didn't notice this darker stripe until the blanket was all done, washed, and blocked. So instead of a rather nice baby blanket, it's now a cat blanket.