Start Shawl, Frog Shawl, Start Shawl Again

Last night, or I guess early this morning, I wrote about how I was going to pick up my hibernating chroma fingering shawl sampler project. But today when I grabbed it...it just didn't peak my interest. I think part of the problem is that while the switching of patterns is highlighting the color change like I wanted it's not a very pretty shawl. I can tell even with blocking it's still going to be disappointing. So I'm going to frog it tonight and try a rectangular shawl on bigger needles. Still not sure which pattern I'm going to use yet. But maybe something from Knitty, or maybe something from the Vogue Stitch Dictionary. In anycase, the colors on this yarn need to be highlighted so maybe something plain.

Update: I choose Renontuli-huivi/Northern Lights designed by AnneM and available for free on Ravelry.

Chroma Lights in progress

Stinking Rose! I'll make a shawl instead.

I think I need to put the flowers away for a while. The last rose came out okay. Still not what I want but I'm getting tired of trying to get the petals to line up just right and the center from poking up too high.

2nd Knitted Rose Tester

...And I'm feeling stupid for getting ahead of myself in planning a wedding yet again. Even though Partner and I have been talking about the wedding for a month now, he still hasn't re-proposed and until I get the ring back on my finger it feels stupid to be telling people my plans.

Knitted Rose

As I wrote in my last post I am in the journey to design and make the perfect rose for my upcoming nuptials, in a little over a year. I suppose more than anything this is an excuse to try something new with two sticks and string.

In the last post I wrote why I was making my own rose instead of using other designs. But I was disappointed with my first try.

A Rose by any Other Name

There's a long drawn out story behind this, but Partner and I tried being engaged once and decided to postpone it. Well, it looks like that's back on. So Hurray for me...um...I mean us. What does this new engagement mean? It means we're planning in ernest to get married. Although even this is unofficial right now since Partner wants to re-do the proposal. Seriously this was his idea. I just want my ring back. Man, I love that ring.

But back to the point. We're now (unofficially) planning the wedding! And I have all this extra yarn from the felting project that just happens to be in reds that would make lovely roses to decorate the reception and/or be used in the bouquet.

I started by making Nicky Epstein's Angle Rose.

It's absolutely beautiful. But I just couldn't get over the feeling that felting all that yarn just to cut out shapes was...not my style. Partner and I may still go out and buy felt from the craft store. But in the meantime I've decided to try to knit out those shapes and make my own knitted "angle" rose.

Angle Rose and my first Tester

The first tester was done with worsted weight yarn on size 10 needles, and in my excitement to assemble it I didn't bother to block first. It wasn't just excitement though. I wanted them to curl over to look more like a rose. It's not bad, but not what I wanted. There's a bunch of different things I'm going to try to make it work. The first of which is to try it in smaller needles and block it to see if that helps the definition. The second is to knit a much bigger version and felt the individual pieces.

The next tester is going to be using size 7 needles and with a couple of rows added so it stays about the same size. Eventually I'll work my way to a flower that looks good, at which point I'll post the pattern instructions in case anyone else wants to try it out too.

Felting Frenzy - Kinda Quick Knits for Feb and March

**Updated to included post felting pictures.

In case you haven't noticed I get a bit obsessed with projects or techniques and kinda go from there until a new type of project or technique catches my eye.

Lately that has been felting. First it was the French Press Slippers for my sister.