Saturday, March 12, 2011

Blooming Garden

It's finally done! Taking a month to knit a shawlette is not something I want to do often. I did enjoy this knit - along, no matter how long it took. It was a very friendly group.
Unfortunately this green is very hard to photograph. Usually it's the color red, but try as I might, I didn't get it quite right.
Blooming Garden

Blooming Garden

The shawlette turned out to be 50 inches x 25 inches after blocking. I used 3.75mm needles, and used 1.34 skeins ~582.9yds. I used Wandering Cat Yarns Twinkle Cat in the colorway Emerald City. The color of the yarn photo is pretty accurate. The pattern is called Blooming Garden by Tiziana Sammuri. It's available for purchase now.

WCY-Twinkle Cat-Emerald City-2 times

There are many beautiful versions of this shawl, but I like Diem's best, because of the crispness of her knitting, the sharp contours, which I'm missing from mine. I know I made several mistakes, but I'm not a perfectionist. But seeing her's I wish I was.

Blooming Garden

Especially the flower part was real lace, with charted stitches on the wrong sides as well. You really needed to pay attention, but it was not hard to knit. The use of stitch markers is very helpful in this case.

Blooming Garden

I love those little star stitches. The bind off around the neck was very interesting as well. It preserved the garter stitch border. I thought it was very clever of Tiziana to figure this one out.

Blooming Garden

So this one's over and done with. I dont' think I'll join another KAL this year though. There's so much other projects I want to do, plus I've joined a spin-along as well, and there are always all the fiber cub fibers to spin.

Since rain and snow have been chasing each other for days now, I felt like baking some cookies, and sipping some tea, while watching the miserable weather outside. Our backyard is flooded, it's a sea out there, and we have water in the basement, not good.
I made oatmeal/chocolate chunks cookies. I didn't have chocolate chips at home, so I used some chunks from some Belgium hot chocolate mixture. I seldom make hot chocolate anymore. There should have been some walnuts in there too, but I didn't have any at home. Almonds did the trick. Those cookies are VERY filling, and smell so good, and are even more delicious.

March 11-oatmeal-chocolate chunk cookies with new tea pot

Have a lovely weekend, from all of us.

Feb. 9

***

23 comments:

Ann said...

Beautiful, beautiful!
It is worth a month.
You always knit so neatly.

CelticCastOn said...

Wow I didn't realize it would be so big. Beautiful!
Those cookies look delicious!
I need to catch up on doggie posts :)

momsue84 said...

Beautiful shawl! I love the yarn you used. Hope you have a terrific weekend, too. Hugs to the pups!

Unknown said...

Shawl was perfect!
Like all his work, congratulations!
Like much of his dogs, and your blog.
Please share a little of the wonders of your life.

kisses

keila

susannasplace said...

Der Schal ist schön, die Cookies sehen lecker aus, aber das Bild von den Hunden ist einfach genial :).
Wünsche Dir auch ein schönes Weekend.

Susi

Lindsay said...

Gorgeous shawl! Little mistakes are what make knitted pieces personal :) No one can even tell but the knitter.

Walden said...

Absolutely beautiful!

Päivi, Lankakomero said...

It IS beautiful!

Wanderingcatstudio said...

The shawl is absolutely beautiful! I've put the pattern in my queue

Beverly said...

Saw the finished shawls on Ravelry so I have been waiting for you to post yours. It is pretty and I love the green bordering on teal color.

I don't join many kals because I always get distracted by my other knitting or things that I want to knit.

faith76 said...

Ooooh those cookies look good and the shawl looks fab too enjoy x Leah x

Michelle said...

Denny looks like he's up to no good and Happy looks like he's going to tattle. The shawl is very pretty. I like all the details in it and it's so nice for spring.

Rhonda said...

All I can says is WOW!!! and I want those dogs. :)

wanderrast said...

Wunderschön, ich beneide dich um dieses Garn.
ich wünsche dir baldiges besseres Wetter, wir sind momentan bei 10° - herrlich, alles Liebe Elfi

Linda said...

Lovely, I do like that green.

Alexandra said...

Beautiful shawl!!! I love the pattern, the yarn and the color!

Lost City Denise said...

Beautiful work Monica!!!
I love seeing your work - but did you have to torture us with cookies? Now I need to make some...

Virginia G said...

Your shawl is gorgeous. It's really really lovely, and I love that yarn.

Susan said...

Such a pretty shawl!

Mr Puffy's Knitting Blog: said...

That's not a shawlette ~ that's a full shawl ~ and it's really really lovely. Your color choice for a Spring Shawl could not have been better ~ and now I must go bake cookies :)

knottygnome said...

that's a really neat pattern! i love that it's sparkly green as well.

TracyKM said...

I think your's is gorgeous! I'd actually like to make this one!
I think you like Diem's crispness because her pictures are with it still stretched and pinned, and it's really stretched out. It might not stay that crisp once unpinned.
I love the yarn you used for both these last two shawls!

Laurie said...

LOVE the shawl and the yarn. Your work is really beautiful! We're dealing with the rain/snow/wet basement scenario, too, though today was a rare sunny day. The cookies sound delicious! LOL at Maggie with her back to the camera. :-)