What’s on my needles: January 2023

As my blog’s third year nears, I wanted to try a new series format.

I noticed last year that my posts dropped off significantly. I believe it’s a combination of life changes leading to less writing time and large-scale projects leading to less variety in my knitting queue. I wanted to find a way to keep using After This Row as a sort of knitting diary, while also taking some of the pressure off to come up with grandiose ~500-word articles for every individual thing I make.

So without further ado, here are my current WIPs:

Painting Rainbows Shawl: A few weeks ago, I was struck with an intense urge to knit a massive shawl, one so big that I could wrap myself up in it like a burrito. I put a call out on Instagram for suggestions, and my inbox was awash with people’s favourite shawl designers: Stephen West, Kalurah Hudson, Isabell Kraemer, and Kacey Herlihy. I tucked a bunch of their shawls into my wishlist for later, and ultimately decided to cast on Stephen West’s Painting Rainbows Shawl.

I am a self-professed Westknits girlie, I love his sweeping, colourful designs and infectious enthusiasm. Painting Rainbows is a multicoloured, striped semicircle shawl published originally in his 2022 book, Painting Shawls. I’m using a selection of mini-skeins left over from my Garter Marler Cardigan stash, complemented with a full skein of Sassy Strings‘ Blackberry, and a skein of rainbow Qiviut yarn that Jayme got me for my birthday. I’m looking forward to expanding my collection of obscenely large shawls and wraps!

Re-creating a vintage snood: For as long as I can remember, my Gramma has worn an emerald-green snood in the wintertime. It’s been slowly unraveling for years, and her friends have tried to make replacements but it’s just not been the same. So she asked me if I was up for the challenge.

When we visited before Christmas, I had a look and noted that the snood was made with fingering-weight yarn in a 2×2 rib stitch, knit flat and then sewn together on a sewing machine, and then there’s another smaller tube on top cinching the fabric together and hiding the seam. Gramma also wanted it in a more neutral colour, so I am using a reddish-brown alpaca blend yarn from my stash.

I used a provisional cast-on with scrap yarn — as I plan to Kitchener Stitch the two ends together, in lieu of using a sewing machine, for a more seamless appearance. It’s an interesting relic of knitting’s past and I’m excited to bring it into the future for Gramma.

2022-2023 Temperature Blanket: Of all the projects I have on the go right now, this is the closest one to being finished. I’m collecting temperature data up to January 28th, one year to the day that we moved from Calgary to Leduc. I’m getting a second wind as the finish line draws near at long last, and I find myself as excited as ever to knit the next row each morning. Only 20 days, and 20 rows, to go!

I spent the better part of two hours one night just weaving in the ends on either edge of the blanket, and I’m completely out of my blue yarn, so I hope that the averages for the next 20 days won’t be between -11 and -20 °C or else I’m going to have to venture back to the store, or I’ll have to round the numbers up or down to accomodate.

I hope you enjoy these bite-size progress updates, I’m excited to share what else I’ll be working on throughout the year.