Check, Check, and Check

I started this new post Christmas knitting year with three goals. To finish three projects that were still on the needles. Previously you saw the socks. Now I finished these little bad boys.

I am teaching a "Mistakes, Mishaps, and Oh Craps!" class at Blooming Needle, one of our Local Yarn Stores (LYS) this next month and these are the screwed up swatches that I will be using to teach how to fix some basic issues and/or demonstrate such techniques.

The yarn was remaining Christmas Stocking yarn that I did as a commissioned piece last year. The 10 swatches of red and green on the bottom are all dropped stitches. The two green swatches to the right are just demonstration swatches of what twisted stitches vs normal stitches look like and how they can be used as a design feature as well. The batch of white swatches to the left are checkerboard patterned that all have a mistake that I hope to show them how to drop down only the needed stitches and reknit them back up. the green one is my demonstration one for this technique and the blue one is a demonstration swatch to do this same technique with cables. Then the top ones are accidental yarn over swatches that we will approach tinking and or tearing back and re-inserting needles through stitches properly. The little white tube is just a ribbed cuff to show two of the most common ways I've seen for accidental yarn overs to be created and how to eliminate some of this.

And I finally finished the Rockefeller Shawl by Stephen West.

I won't trash talk it today. I'm just glad it's done and I can hand it over to the only reason I finished it. A friend fell in love with it and offered to buy it. Otherwise I think I may have burned it in the fireplace one chilly evening just to make myself feel better. I'm just glad it's done and off my list.

For those who know this pattern you can see I did not stay true to the pattern. I won't dive into my issues with it but I decided to modify the first sections wedges and made it a slightly asymmetrical wrap instead.

As I type this post I have Phillip Phillips playing and I just figured out what I like about his voice. He sounds so much like Dave Matthews. I used to love climbing in the morning's at the Alaska Rock Gym with some friends while Dave played. His sound brings back many good memories.

Now, I'm going to go watch the premier of Downton Abbey. I stayed up late last night in part to finished the shawl, but I also was trying to finish the last of season 2 of DA. Episode 9 ended just as I finished blocking out the edges of the shawl. Talk about good timing.

All I will say so I don't spoil anything for others is too bad Thomas is such an ass because he is kind of cute. But damn is he a jerk!