Poppyprint Knits!

When I went down to Seattle to shoot the photos for my book Make It, Take It, I needed some pretty knitting needles to show off Kristie's Knitwit Needle Clutch project. All of the interchangeable cable sets that my friends had were clear cables with white needles that wouldn't show up against the low volume print fabric inside the clutch. Thanks to the generous people at KnitPicks, I was sent this beautiful set of their interchangable circular needles to use as a prop and then keep! Lucky me!

Knowing how much people love these needles, I figured I should at least try knitting something with them. Last spring while visiting a friend in Victoria, we went to a sweet neighbourhood knitting shop called Knotty by Nature. While there, I chose two skeins of Malabrigo Rios in a gorgeous deep blue along with a copy of the free Boneyard Shawl pattern by Stephen West on Ravelry. The helpful man-knitter working in the shop that day convinced me that if I could knit and purl, then I could knit this shawl. My mom taught me to knit when I was a teenager, but since then the only thing that I'd made was a set of simple beanies for me and my family for Christmas 2014. I am definitely a novice.

I made this coral one for my sister.

It wasn't until Thanksgiving weekend in October that I finally consulted YouTube for a cast-on video and got started. Well, I actually got started about 5 times because I just couldn't tell if what I was doing was correct. Right off the bat, I had to learn what M1R and M1L meant (that's "make one right and left" for you non-knitters). Once I got the hang of the pattern things went very quickly for me and I really enjoyed the process. I could actually sit with my family in the evenings and knit (I can't do that with my sewing machine).  The hardest part for me was remembering to count my rows and inserting the purl row that makes the ridges.

This is mine and I so love it! Malabrigo Rios (I don't know the colourway). I'm mostly wearing it with the "V" in front and the ends wrapped around my neck over my shoulders, like a scarf.

My first shawl was such a success, that in true Krista fashion, I decided that my sister and 3 SIL's would all get one for Christmas.  I did it! I knit 5 shawls (plus a bonus one that I donated to the Christmas Bureau) before December 22. Yay! There is a freedom and total lack of stress knitting something that doesn't have to actually fit anyone.

This is the Malabrigo Rios in Lettuce

I won't go so far as to call myself a knitter, but I think there will be more projects in future.  There are so many great free patterns and although I never thought I'd be a shawl wearer, our much colder than normal winter has me thinking I could use another.  Perhaps I'll even venture out to an easy lace pattern.  Knitting holes on purpose has appeal.

One think is for sure: I'm going to promise not to collect yarn. I have zero storage space and simply cannot allow myself to stash yarn like I do fabric. I repeat: NO STASHING YARN.

I'll let you know how that goes.