My Second Oldest WIP

I feel like I will be writing that quite often as I am currently not working on my oldest WIP. It is a round shawl and I am working a knitted on border with beads; so it is fiddly. I have put it to one side for the time being and it is likely to be the last of my 2019 projects that I work on. It is my only project that is more than a year old and I’d like it if I could complete all my other projects within a year of starting. Which could prove interesting as a couple of my projects are not much further than cast on.

This year I had three plans for my yarn:- use the yarn I purchased in the closing-down sale, (I have shown a completed project and there are two more on the needles); finish WIPs, (2 down and about to show another); make for charity, (last month was the only month that I didn’t even attempt anything).

This project I started on vacation last year and then didn’t work on it again until March of this year when it was it’s time. There was no reason for not working on it except I had designated it a vacation knit, but I decided not to wait for a vacation to work on it as who knows when we will be able to go away. The yarn is one of my oldest yarns, a tencel yarn from Teresa Ruch Design with a lovely sheen.

The pattern I chose was Crystal Helix, written for one skein of fingering weight yarn, so, of course, perfect for two skeins of double knitting weight yarn. The pattern includes beads but there is absolutely no need to add beads to this shimmering yarn. The pattern is written for 130 rows but I managed 190 rows from my two skeins. I thought I had plenty of yarn for bind off but this didn’t prove to be the case and I had to be creative at the end. I have found that if I double yarn on shawl bind offs the edge is quite stretchy. This is what I did for this project, also I did not add beads to the bind off but I did do the picot part. With hindsight I could have gone down a needle size or two and still have had nice bind off. I finished with about two inches of yarn left which is really only an inch when doubled. But the “design elements” at the end are not noticeable and I love the end result. Bonus – it does not need blocking and I took photos.