Cakes two to tango...

Happy to report on this windy, but beautiful Sunday that I finished the Cakes Two to Tango Shawl I started a little over a week ago:

 The yarn used was Lion Brand Shawl in a Ball in the colorway Community Coral.

The "Cakes Two" refers to using two cakes (or skeins) of self-striping yarn, and alternating the cakes every two rows to create a different kind of striping than one would get working straight off a cake (or skein).  Of course, you don't have to use self-striping yarn to make this shawl, but it sure is fun to watch the colorful stripes play out as you work.

And also, of course, I can't leave well enough alone and just let the colors show up where they will.  Well, actually I did - up through the first chevron, but as the shawl got longer and wider, I decided to cut up the skeins and roll balls of single colors so I could control the color placement a little better.

I wasn't much concerned with how the single stripes ended up laying, but I wanted the two darker (wider) chevrons to balance each other.  Looking at the above picture, I think they do - more or less.

But now I'm left with many mini balls of yarn of different colors, looking for just the right project to use them in:

At the moment, I'm thinking I will mix them with some compatible yarn(s) and make a linen stitch scarf.

On another YOP note, Maria at Yarning With Ruby has suggested we YOPers meet up on Zoom.  I'm happy to say, this morning our small group from church used Zoom to meet up and I liked it (once I got over seeing my own mug on the screen).  I've got my comfy little spot ready to sit and chat with my fellow YOPers if we can manage to make it happen.  

For non YOPers, I hope mentioning ZOOM encourages you to use it (or other chatting options) online to connect to someone(s) during this time of physical distancing (if that appeals to you).  I'm an introvert who's fairly happy to have long days to myself, but even I have started to crave a little face time with other human beings.  Now, if I can just get my sons to agree to meet me on it...

Stay well.

Wash your hands.  

Please keep healthy.

Shawling along...

I thought I'd have my Lace-Edged Poncho finished this week, but I got sidetracked by a pattern shared in a Shawl CAL on Our Happy CAL Place on Ravelry.    People were whipping out this fun striped shawl in no time and I decided I needed to give it a go.

Once you start making this thing, it's difficult to put it down.  So I kept going and had it finished over the course of three days: 

Pattern:  Cakes Two To Tango

To be completely honest, I'm not too sure about the colorway.  It's the color Spirit in Lion Brand Mandala yarn.  Made up in this shawl, I go from thinking it's pretty and interesting to thinking the bright turquoise color is just too much.

But the experience of working this pattern was a happy one and I may try it again with other yarn.  Mandala is a DK weight yarn and it made a nice weight shawl/scarf - even if the bright turquoise isn't exactly my thing - in winter, anyway.  

I don't know, though...  maybe if I had a dark gray coat (or maybe a coat in colbalt blue 😃), I'd love these colors.  See what I mean?  I keep flip-flopping.

I like the pattern, though.  And I think this would be a fun project made from individually selected colors along with a neutral color (as opposed to using self-striping yarns). Or maybe that's just me wanting to be more in control.  😉

Here's a picture showing it more "shawl-like":

I do love the picot edging

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And while the colors in my January/February Temperature Shawl are going to be all over the place (and also leave me little control), I'm enjoying this month (or two-month) long project:

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And lastly, my Lace-Edged Poncho got just a little love this week.  

I'm not real sure what I'm doing with the colors here.  I had some idea of doing graduated widths of each color as I progress down the shawl, but I didn't start out with a concrete plan so I'm not sure how this is going to end up.    I'm also considering not making the lace edging.   I don't know.  I like the concept of this short poncho.  But I may find I'm doing too much adapting of the pattern.  We'll see. I'll just keep crocheting and hopefully next week I'll be finished and will like it.

~~~~~

And now finally...  

with this post, my 2019 Stash-Down begins!

My goal this year is to use up 

100 skeins (or more) of my yarn stash.   
I'm happy to report 
I'm starting the year out strong:

2019 Yarn Stash-Down progress:  6.4/100 skeins

While I don't expect anyone to keep close tabs on my stash used vs projects made, for the sake of my own personal accountability I'd like to put down here that this week I ended up donating two skeins of yarn after trying it and not liking it.  I don't know how often that will happen, but I'm giving myself more encouragement to get rid of yarn I know I don't care for.  My "getting rid of" will be my gain - and hopefully someone else's.   Again, not that I expect anyone else to care, but I will probably make note of that kind of thing in YOP posts when it happens.

And this year, behind the scenes, I plan to be knitting more dishcloths to use up some of my kitchen cotton stash, and the yarn used for those will show up in the week's tally that the cloths are made in.  But I only plan to show those cloths (in one picture, most likely) in the last YOP post of the month.  

And that's it!

To see what other YOPers are up to, 

visit our group on Ravelry.