The end of the arrow

My Follow Your Arrow shawl is finished, and looking very fancy indeed. :)

It's nice and big, which I appreciate in a shawl because I like having a lot of fabric to drape around my neck...

I followed Ysolda's how-to video for the bind-off, as it was a new method for me. It was nice and easy, and stretchy enough for something that needs to be blocked out. I'll probably use it again on my next lacy shawl.
I'm enjoying Ysolda's new 'Technique Thursday' posts on her blog - I've learned a few new tricks including these amazingly simple little tips.

So here it is, a Follow Your Arrow shawl with options 1B, 2A, 3B, 4B, and 5A, in Vintage Purls Sock yarn. My coin-flips resulted in a very pretty flow of lace patterns. Lucky me!

Triumph!

My epic crocheted rainbow blanket is finished, and it's amaaaazing!

It took me exactly two weeks, including two days worth of pompom edging. The blankie came out a good size (about 1.2 metres per side), so it'll be a great lap-blanket in winter.

Dad took a bunch of photos to commemorate the occasion...

Weaving in the last few ends

Close-up of the bobble edge

Ta-daaa!

Naturally I had to go and pose with it in the garden, despite everything being wet from the rain. Here it is, with a short human for scale:

And then things got a little silly... ;)

Sword Blanket swallowing!

Looks like it's fluttering away...

The birth of a blanket

My Ravellenics Rainbow Blankie is well underway! Once I changed my mind a few times about whether to start with red or white, it's been speedy mindless crochet all the way. :)

Day 1, with sorbet

Day 2, with chillies and basil

Day 3 (thanks Willie!), with decorations

Day 4, with solar lanterns

I think I'm roughly halfway through now. Amazing for four days' worth! I'm going to take a break from it today and work on my Follow Your Arrow shawl, since the final 'clue' came out yesterday. I'm dying to find out how it ends...

Rainbows over Ravelry

Coinciding with the Summer and Winter Olympics, it's a Ravelry tradition to craft something challenging while the games are on. Crafters enter the Ravellenic Games alone or in teams, competing against themselves to finish their project before the end of the closing ceremonies. This year, because the Winter Olympics are being held in Russia, many of us are crafting rainbow-themed projects to raise awareness and as a gentle protest against Russia's new anti-human-rights laws.

My plan is to make a big crocheted blanket, in concentric rounds alternating between rainbow colours and natural white wool. I'll arrange the rainbow colours in a gradient, splicing in each new colour as the previous one runs out:

Colour amounts not to scale!

I'm probably mad to attempt making a whole blanket in two weeks, but this is supposed to be a challenge, right? :)

The rainbow-coloured yarn is Prism Organic DK from Skeinz, mostly leftovers from making Rowan's Tetris scarf. The natural white is Norway 8ply from Morris & Sons.

The pattern I'll be using is the Op-Art Afghan Square, expanded to one giant square. I used the same pattern last year to make a tree-cosy for Yarn Corner's 'Royal Granny Parade' project. Sadly, many of our tree-cosies were removed by dastardly vandals before I could see them myself, including my one. Ah well, that's yarn bombing... I did get to see photos though! They're all on Facebook here and here.

This one's mine - thanks Bali for the photos. I hope my blankie will have better luck...

 

Pick a path

I'm knitting something a bit different at the moment, which is teaching me a lot about the way I knit these days - I've joined in Ysolda's "mystery" knit-along (or KAL), Follow Your Arrow.

The idea of a mystery KAL is that each week, a new "clue" or section of the knitting pattern is released, and the knitters taking part complete that section and share photos. This is the first mystery KAL I've attempted! I got seduced into it by the choose-your-own-adventure aspect: there are 2 options per "clue", and 5 clues in total, so there are 32 possible shawls.
Plus, I'm an Ysolda fangirl, so it was inevitable really. ;)

I'm choosing between the 2 options for each clue by flipping a coin. This is so I don't change my mind a million times, and to preserve the mystery aspect - I don't know quite what's going to emerge from my needles....

Because I don't have any pictures or diagrams of the finished shawl as I'm knitting, I find I really have to pay attention to each set of instructions - I sometimes need to read sentences several times, and compare the charts to the written instructions to be sure of what to do. It shows how much I usually rely on the visual cues when following other patterns. It's kind of like being a beginner again.

This is my shawl with 3 clues completed (and lifelines in place between sections):

Follow Your Arrow by Ysolda, knit in Vintage Purls Sock.

Of course, after looking at everyone else's photos, I really want to knit some of the other options too! My plan is to knit a second shawl, taking the opposite "path" through the options. The two shawls will be knit from the same pattern, but have no elements in common. Pretty cool. :)