Cabled Shrug

Ah, a little breather between work, design submissions and proposals. And obviously it has to be filled with some crafting. :)

I've bumped into a yarn sale a bit earlier in the year and picked up a couple of balls of this bright and fresh colored bulky yarn. It's Yarn Bee Melody Bulky Wool Blend (70% wool, 30% acrylic) in "Enchanting" (#120). What a nice yarn to work with! It's soft and glides through my fingers, doesn't split and is machine washable!

I have to admit, I have not yet knit anything in bulky yarn as I am more on the fine yarn, colorwork side of things... but here was a great opportunity to explore the bulky yarns.

After a bit of swatching to get a feel for the yarn and what might look nice with these bright colors, I decided to make the Aran Cabled Shrug by Crystal Yarns (free). This would be a great shrug for the cooler and gray Fall days together with some jeans. I always like to add color to my life. :)

It works up really fast, is a fun easy pattern and I hope to get it done before the next load of work is hitting my desk or needles.

I've made a few minor adjustments so far:

Adjustment 1: Started with CO 7 sts on each side of the cable panel, increased 5 times every 10th row, then increased every 5th row until there were 20 sts on each side of the 36-sts cable pattern.

Adjustment 2: I changed the bobble start to “k1 tfl, k1 tbl, k1 tfl” instead of “k1, yo, k1” to avoid any holes.

My sleeve will be 3.5 diamond patterns long and the back will be 3 patterns across = 10 total patterns.

August 10: Oops, work has caught up with me and my shrug will have to wait for the next break...

Whale Watching - 12"x12" Afghan Square

Yippee! This square was selected as a finalist!
Will have to wait till Sept. 15 to find out if it was voted as one of the 10 winners…

Entered in the Chain Reaction Afghan Project Contest on www.crochetme.com. You should go over there and check out the other entries…

It is summer time, temperatures are soaring and I am longing for some cooling off. My thoughts wandered off to being on a sail boat, enjoying a nice ocean breeze and watching whales frolicking in the cool waters…

Worked in a soft washable cotton yarn with hook I-9 (5.5 mm). Different stitch patterns have been used to convey the feeling of waves, the sail and sun texture. The background is worked in one piece. The boat and sail are worked onto the background (no sewing). The sun and whale with water spout are crocheted separately and sewn on.