The Shrug Submitted!

She is finished!! Cute flower button at the collar and ends are woven in. Washed in the machine and stretched into shape.

This is more of what it will look like when worn.

This is the view from the Back. The body is eyelet and the bands on the body and sleeves are done in a mock eyelet cable. Did I mention previously that I ran out of yarn?

Here is the completed shrug to accompany our gifted dress from Miss Meagan.

Such a saucy little girl!

Anna is wearing her outfit to see Meagan in "Les Mis." What lovely ladies-oops, I mean girls!

Shruggling to Get 'er Done

Needles still on, stitch marker holding collar closed...not done yet

View from the back. Only the right sleeve is in the works; left is not started.

At this point of the process I am determined to finish this thing if it kills me or estranges me from my family, or both.

SPOILER ALERT: None of those things happened and I will post the blocking and completion of this project in my next post.

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Good Job Mama! Peace!

Shrug Saga, part 2

The trouble began as I started on the eyelet pattern for the body and sleeves. I ripped out and knit the same section again five times because the eyelets would not line up. Finally, I remembered that word-ERRATA! I searched the publisher's website for the book and the current errata published. (This is a list of all of the mistakes in the pattern and the corrections.) The book of patterns I was using had 101 patterns; 27 had corections published for them. To top it off, the pattern I had chosen had more errors than any other in the book. Did that lead me to add it to the UFO avalanche waiting to happen in my closet? No! It would not defeat me-I would be victorious and my daughter would have a new fall sweater.

(At this point, some of my friends/family in cooler parts of the country are laughing that this little bit of a knit would count as a fall sweater, but remember I am in Sunny Southern California.)

The next cruel twist of fate came when my skein of yarn ran out and I had to choose a complimentary color from my stash to finish off the dastardly deed. The shrug needed to match a very cute dress that Anna received from her friend (idol) Megan, so just any color would not do. The final choice is very 70's-ish and actually matches an afghan that Anna's namesake crocheted sometime during that decade. Next time I will just cut up the afghan and make it into a sweater.

The Shrug I Couldn't Shrug Off!

So far so good

I found the sweetest little sweater (shrug) in a book of knitting patterns that looked like it would be a breeze to make. I have been knitting quicky projects like hats and scarves and wanted to make a "real" garment. What I soon discovered is that the pattern was full of ERRATA. These photos show the beginning of the top-down shrug at the collar stage and at the beginning of the dividing body/sleeves stage. The lovely model is smiling because her mother is happy with this project at this stage of the game.

What am I getting myself into?

I'm not sure why, but it seems that starting a blog is the thing to do these days. For me, this is a place where I can share my journey into discovering the creative spark that lies within me. I have a passion for preserving the crafting tradition and an appreciation of the new avenues that technology has provided. I hope I can persuade you to find beauty in the commonplace and pass that on to someone else.