Sunday, May 31, 2015

Thalia

The second shawl/scarf for a wonderful teacher is based on Kirsten Kapur's Thalia.
 


 I very much enjoy Kirsten's patterns and this one was no exception. The shawl begins from the top center with a double-yarn-over center section. I don't like to keep referring to the pattern the whole time, so I used stitch markers to mark the increase points (there are three plus the edges).


I held the yarn double, but even so the shawl turned out rather small. That's ok though, it'll work well as something to drape on the shoulders or wrap around the neck once.


 
Pattern: Thalia
Yarn: Isager Strik Alpaca 1, held double
Needle: 4 mm


Thursday, May 28, 2015

Nuku Nuku Nurmilintu

The end of the school year is fast approaching and I needed a couple of gifts for teachers. Conveniently, we were going to take a long road trip over Memorial Day weekend, meaning lots of hours sitting in the car, and a great opportunity to crank out a couple of scarves.


Nurmilintu was actually the second one in the order of knitting, but happened to be the first one I got around to photographing. It was a nice, quick knit--started on Sunday and finished on Wednesday.


 I spiced it up a bit by using two colors. I made the last garter stitch section a little longer, and doubled the length of the final lace section both because I just liked how it looked, but also because I wanted the size just a bit bigger than what it would have been according to the pattern.

 
 
Pattern: Nurmilintu ("nurmilintu" is a bird in a Finnish nursery rhyme)
Yarn: Berroco Alpaca Fine, less than one skein of each color
Needles: 4 mm


This package is going to the orchestra teacher as a thank you for making my kid want to be an orchie again! Couldn't thank her enough! (Turns out kids want to be in orchestra when practice is fun, not when they get yelled at. Go figure...)