No, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth -- just got busy with things, then busier, and busier -- crikey. I finished both of these knits ages ago, don't even remember when, but it was too warm to wear them.
Both of these are of course in the Queensland Rustic Merino Sport I scored at Tuesday Morning, so they seem to go together. First is the Nurmilintu scarf/shoulder shawl by Heidi Alander, which is an obtuse triangle knitted on the bias in garter stitch with regular bursts of an easy eyelet lace. It's very clever and simple, with the added benefit of the bias making the ends swirl all by themselves into really charming shapes, rather like a French curve.
The wool is a bit rough for a merino, but then you kind of expect that with something called "Rustic", and it's not quite as soft when knitted up as it is in the skein. It is very nice to knit with, though, with a pleasing springiness to it, and both of the colors I got are rich and deep. I had a factory-splice in the purple which I tidied up and then ignored, and it is pretty much invisible in the fabric now. I guess from the lack of availability on the internet that Rustic Merino is discontinued, but if you see it on close-out, it might be worth snatching up!
I did decide that two skeins really weren't enough, and so I ran back to Tuesday morning and got some more -- of both colors! -- luckily it was still there. The Nurmilintu used I think two and a half.
The second is the Regina Marie shoulder shawl by Sara Burch. I've already mentioned my troubles getting used to the lace border, wh. took me an excessively long time, but in my defense it is a 16-row repeat of true lace, different every single row. It did turn out very pretty, though, once I got the hang of it! I might recommend perhaps a double YO instead of a single one just to the right of the cable (on the inner side, as it were) as it doesn't stand out as much on the right edge as it does on the left, for some reason -- you would just drop the extra YO on the next (WS) row, because heaven knows you don't want to mess up your stitch count, trust me!
I also tried something a little different, in that instead of just casting loosely for the border, casting off ditto, then at the end working an I-cord bind off across the top of the shawl, I did a provisional cast-on, kept the top edge of the border on a stitch holder, and then worked the I-cord all of the way across, including both the original start and end of the lace border -- although it doesn't make an entirely straight edge, because of the difference in angle between the border and the body, it does make a nice uniform sweep of I-cord across the whole upper edge, and was only slightly fiddly.
So I'm very pleased with the little shawls, in themselves and because the yarn was a happy bargain -- and now I have enough left for something else, maybe some wrist-warmers ...!
