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The Super-Secret Larger Project I’ve Been Working on All Month(?).

It’s Octagon Time! It’s a blanket/basic shawl. Really, what it is depends on what you want to make, and what yarn you use.

I went a bit wild and self-indulgent on this one; it is probably the most hedonistic use of an expensive yarn I’ve ever committed. The soft blue gradient yarn making up most of the project is Cascade 220 Superwash Wave in Deep Sea; the bold near-neon-green stripe is Dream in Color City in Pickleball.

(The smaller stripes are Malabrigo Yarn Rios in Apple Green, and the subtle, thicker bands are Malabrigo Washted in Aguas and Cirrus Gray. It was meant as a scrap-friendly project, and technically it is that, but I kind of like the Cascade background and the contrasting stripes. The .PDF is written as a formula, and doesn’t really include instructions for stripes. If you’d like to knit something with a similar color pattern, I had about 16-18 garter ridges separating all the bright green bands, and stayed pretty consistent with that all through the blanket. The middle might be the smallest band of main color; it’s about 14 ridges.)

Weirdly, despite the hedonism and all my feelings about it, I really like the result, and want to keep it, and not allow the dog to steal it; something about the murky blue-greens and the shocking contrast stripes really appeals. (I will probably keep it. It’s a small throw and not really adult-sized, so something that’s a dog or a kid will probably end up with it eventually. Maybe not the dog though. She got the Garter Square blanket sample. Makes her tacky dog bed look slightly better.)

knitting · pattern · photo posts

Coming soon! This shawl is an expansion of the Dog Days 8 pattern—essentially, I was working up a second sample, but I had ~500 yards of worsted-ish yarn, and wanted to keep going. This is a cotton blend (it’s Caron Cotton Cakes or something else big-box; it’s surprisingly enjoyable to knit with), and seems like it would be good used for post-swim pullover sweaters and wraps. It has almost a chamois-like texture, though I’m sure it won’t behave the same way.

Anyway, a main redeeming feature of this design is that it looks pretty nice on the back; it’s essentially reversible, though not identical on either side. I almost prefer the back of the second lace motif.