WIP Wednesday: Georgiana Shawl and Maluka

My Georgiana shawl is coming along great!! This is the first project in a long time that makes me want to knit all the time. Lately it seems that knitting has been a chore, but I've found my love of knitting again in this shawl.

Currently I am working back and forth on what seems like a million short rows to shape the shawl, but they are easy. I think I could be sleeping and not screw these up which is a nice change from the lace charts. Only 20 some-odd rows to go before I get to the next lace chart. I might even make it there by tonight.

I'm trying to behave and not cast on another project before this shawl is done, but it's very hard not to. I recently received an awesome skein of alpaca blend yarn in a swap and it finally told me what it wanted to be.

 Isn't it pretty?

I will be making this shawl/scarf/wrap thing (not entirely sure what to call it) that I found on Ravelry. It's called Maluka and looks like this.

This will be my very first project with cables! I'm excited and terrified all at the same time. It's only little cables though so I think it'll be ok.

WIP Wednesday: Georgiana Shawl Continued

I am really loving this shawl pattern! It's easy to follow, looks more complicated than it is and works up fairly quickly. Once I finally had the correct number of stitches, its been flowing pretty fast.

 

I wanted to be through the first chart by now, but I didn't realize how much that really was. I thought 22 rows...that can't be too bad, but turns out that there are more than 10,000 stitches from the beginning of the shawl to halfway through the first chart.

Yeah, you read that right. More than 10,000.

At roughly 10 stitches per minute, that's around 16 hours so far and I still have half the chart to go. I was a little too optimistic I think.

My yarn is shrinking rapidly too. I've used up the first 250 yards of the 750 yards I have. Please let me have enough!

 I'm not sure how much more I'll be able to work on it today because I've got pies to bake, but I'll try.

Happy Wednesday!

Frustrating Craft Show

Boy, what a weekend.....

We had a craft show yesterday. This is a craft show we've done before so I thought I knew what to expect. I was wrong.

Last weekend we vended at a new Art show that far exceeded my expectations. In sales that is, not size. It was small (26 vendors), set in a church and well planned. I love well planned events. We did really well. It helped that the organizers talked up our alpaca products and yarns, but there was also a decent amount of traffic through the show. I did so well I was able to purchase my studio lights for taking better product photos. Yeah!

Yesterday was another small local craft show. We did pretty well last year and it's local so we get a lot of our local repeat customers wandering by to see us. Um....where were the people this year??

There was no traffic at all. In six hours there may have been 100 people come through. I hate it when things become a waste of time. I'm not really trying to blame the organizers of this event although I heard there was something about the signs along the road being taken away a few days prior. It was just plain painful to sit there all day staring at the booth across from us.

In six hours I sold exactly $43.50 worth of product. I have to wonder if this is a localized economy thing or if it really wasn't advertised as they said. Now I'm left wondering if I should add this craft fair to our schedule again next year. 

One bright spot.....I got several more rows done on my Georgiana shawl.

Georgiana Shawl Started

I'm trying to get back into knitting after spending the summer not knitting much of anything. I find it really hard to just sit down and knit. I should be up and doing something, even if it's just the dishes, shouldn't I?

I recently bought this special edition magazine by Interweave Knits. It's called Jane Austen Knits. Now I'll be the first to admit that I don't like Jane Austen books, but I do like these patterns. They are very romantic, but yet very practical at the same time. They make me long for a simpler time.

There were several patterns I ear marked right away, but unfortunately I seemed to be missing something for every one of them! For most, I didn't have enough yardage of a yarn I liked, but for some others I was missing the needles I needed. {sigh} If it's not one thing, it's another.

I did manage to stop at a yarn shop near the art show we vended at last weekend and picked up the size 9 circular I was missing. I needed that size 9 to start Georgiana which is a beautiful shawl/wrap. I'm just starting to venture into chart knitting and this pattern seemed tame enough for me.

After casting on, on Sunday I got several rows done and by Tuesday was ready to start the chart. Well.......unfortunately I had cast on the wrong number of stitches. I ended up transposing 368 into 386. The chart did not work with that and I ended up ripping out the entire thing and starting over.

I have now managed to start over and am back to the chart. Actually I completed the very first row of the chart and everything lined up with the correct number of stitches. Yeah!!

The yarn I'm using is a yarn I carry in my shop called Fantasy. It is a truly scrumptious fingering weight 50/50 merino and silk blend that feels like heaven!  I dyed it in a rust color that is in fact, far darker than these pics. Bad camera!

We have another craft show tomorrow, but my goal is to get through the first chart by Monday. That's only 22 more rows. I can do that, right?