Reyna update

First of all, I must say a huge thank you to everyone who reached out to me after last week's post. As clearly many of you know yourself, caring for a parent can feel quite isolating at times, so your kind comments and messages of support meant a great deal to me.

Despite saying last week that a) I wasn't expecting to post many completed projects and b) fixing the mesh section of my Reyna shawl was going to be a major operation, here I am with . . . a completed Reyna. Clearly I should stick to sewing and knitting, and not branch out into fortune telling! To be fair, I was unwell at the start of the week (I suspect it may have been my body's way of forcing me to have a rest), and couldn't do much but sit quietly and knit.

The error which required fixing was nothing to do with the pattern. It was entirely self-inflicted, and due to my fondness for working on straight needles. Even when I had only reached rows of around 125 stitches, the work was starting to look a bit bunched up in places.

This is not going to end well

But I continued regardless, squashing the stitches up more and more. Naturally, the inevitable happened - a stitch slipped off a needle, and because it was in the mesh section, I couldn't work out how to pick it up correctly. My first attempt to fix it went badly, and my second attempt was even worse! The project got dumped in the Naughty Corner, and I seriously considered frogging the lot.

Eventually I decided to have one last go at a rescue effort. The first thing to do was accept the inevitable, and transfer the stitches onto a circular needle. Even on a 100cm circular, the almost completed shawl was bunched in places; there is no way that I could have knitted the whole thing on 35cm long needles.

Note to self - learn from your mistakes!

I knew that I needed to unravel back to before the dropped stitch, but I still had the problem that I didn't know how to do this accurately or what the end result should look like. So I turned to what I can only describe as 'stunt knitting'. Like its namesake, stunt knitting does the difficult bits so that the star of the show - in this case my limited supply of 'good' yarn - doesn't have to. I dug some leftover DK out of my stash, and knitted up a quick mesh sample on 6mm / US size 10 needles. This created large stitches, so I could see the structure properly, and I could undo and reknit it until I really understood what I was doing.

Stunt knitting, wrong and right sides

I unpicked several rows of the shawl (not fun, at more than 200 stitches per row) until I was sure that I had reached a row which was entirely correct, and started knitting again. And to my relief, this time it worked. From there it was plain sailing. I've discovered that long rows of k2tog aren't my favourite thing (although I'm fine with ssk), but the mesh pattern it produces is simple but effective, and really allows the colours in the yarn to shine.

Close-up of the mesh

I added a few extra rows of garter stitch at the end to use up the full skein of yarn. I ended up with a shawl which is 93cm / 36½" along the shorter sides, and 1g of wool left over from a 100g skein.

Blocking the completed shawl

Draped over my shoulders to show the full size

Realistically, I'm more likely to wear it wrapped round my neck.

It's a useful size

And would work well over a coat, too

Although when I'm wearing a shawl with my pinafore dress, I have been known to tuck the ends in like a fichu.

Going (very loosely) eighteenth century

I'm so glad that I persevered with this, and didn't just frog it. I still see myself as a beginner knitter, maybe inching towards intermediate, but every time I manage to fix a problem like this it feels that I am another step forward on my knitting journey.

Reyna

I'm not doing hospital visiting any more, but I've discovered that looking after a newly-discharged patient at home takes up at least as much time. Not that I mind - it's wonderful to have them back, and it will get easier as we pick up our old routine again - but it's currently keeping me busy. So this week is a short post on my latest knitting project, the Reyna scarf by Noora Backlund.

Image © Noora Laivola

I've realised that I like to always have a smaller, reasonably simple project on the go as well as larger pieces such as my Wool Fair cardigan. That's especially the case just now, when I'm likely to be interrupted mid-row, and Reyna is perfect for the job as it's a simple but effective mixture of garter sections and a 2-row mesh design. Even better Reyna is a free download on Ravelry, you can find it here.

My yarn is a variegated 4ply sock from Rebecca's Room on Etsy. It's a lovely mixture of blues, with speckles of reddish browns.

The yarn

Although the shade is called Rocky River, the colours remind me more of the sandstone buildings of the Royal Albert Dock reflected in the dock waters.

Spot the similarities

In other knitting news, I've finally bought a (very retro-looking) ball winder. I found it in a charity shop, and must admit that the neat cake it produces is far easier to handle than a ball.

The cake, with the winder in the background

I'm about a quarter of the way through, and the wool is knitting up nicely.

Showing the plain and mesh sections

And here's a shot mid-row, to show it in its true shape.

Slightly bunched up, but you get the idea

I'll finish with a close-up of the cute cat stitch marker which I bought at my local wool show a couple of weeks ago.

Pussycat!

No, it wasn't the only thing I bought, but we'll come to that another time!