Several Shawls

 Hi all -

We're moving into fall here with the aspen leaves turning. The leaves are dropping now, but I've really enjoyed their beauty! We've been having some unusually warm weather, but it's supposed to cool down a bit next week. We even have our first chance of snow for the season on Tuesday night. We usually have a small amount of snow sometime in September, so it looks like we're having a late start. I'll have to get my winter tires soon!

I've been furiously knitting away on my project for the Joji Locatelli Fall Knit-Along. I finished my Echoes of Color shawl. This isn't a very good picture, but it shows the shape of the shawl and you can see the fringe on the bottom edges:

Echoes of Color

This picture shows the color and design better:

Echoes of Color close-up

And this one has the best representation of the colors:

Echoes of Color close-up

I really love how this shawl turned out! I think the colors are gorgeous! This is from my favorite color palette -- caramel with jewel tones. It's going to be a gift for one of my sisters.

I was also able to complete a second shawl -- Pure Joy:

Pure Joy

Again, not the greatest picture, but the close-ups show the details better:

Pure Joy close-up

Pure Joy close-up

Pure Joy close-up

I wasn't sure how these colors would work together, but I really love how they turned out! For those of you who are knitters, I didn't quite make this shawl correctly. The pattern uses short rows for the shaping and I misunderstood what method was supposed to be used, so I used German short rows instead of wrap-and-turn. While each method is valid for short rows, there a bit of a difference in how you count the stitches so my short rows ended up a little shorter than they were supposed to be. That means that the wedges are a little narrower and shorter than they are supposed to be on the end where they all come together. But I stayed consistent in how I did things and nobody will know about the mistake but me. I'm not sure if I'm going to keep this shawl or give it to one of my nieces. I love the color combination, but I'm not sure if any of them will.

I've also started a third shawl -- At Dawn:

At Dawn

This shawl also uses short rows for the shaping, but this time I'm doing it correctly. It's hard to visualize what the final shawl will look like at this point, but it will end up as a mirror image where the mirrored side will be the darker color with light colored stripes. This will be a gift for one of my nieces.

In the background, I've also made progress on my Peeping Cowl:

Peeping Cowl

At this point, I've pulled in all four colors that will be used in the cowl. It's hard to tell in the picture, but the darker color in the stripes on the top is a dark gray and not the purple that is used below. I have two more solid sections (in each of the grays) separated by two more striped sections, then there'll be some ribbing in the purple to finish off the cowl. This will probably be a give for my other sister.

That's all of the progress I've made so far. October has a mini-challenge for making one-skein cowls and shawls so I'll switch gears tomorrow and start another cowl that uses a single skein of yarn. I also have a couple of mystery knit-alongs starting up next month. First, Stephen West starts his annual mystery shawl project on Oct 5. He's an incredible designer who specializes in very modern designs with an incredible use of color and interesting techniques. This will the first time I've joined in. Also, Laura Nelkin, who is my favorite knit designer, has a mystery cowl project starting on Oct 13. I'm really looking forward to both of these! We'll see what I have time to get done with all of this going on. My biggest priority is that I'll work on whatever projects bring me joy!

I hope everyone is doing well!

Nancy