Shrugs - Knit and Net

About Christmas time I found a shrug pattern I wanted to try. It looked quick and easy. It also looked like a shrug I would wear. I mentioned it to my husband and, wonderful man that he is, he bought it for me. I was right. It was quick and easy to make and I love wearing it. In fact, I've made more than one.

So finally, here is my version of Sherry's Easy Shrug.

When I visited my daughter-in-law in Missouri this past July I gave her the green shrug I had made and asked her if she would like a light weight net one as well (similar to the one I blogged about in April ). She wanted one! She even found me some yarn to make it. It's only taken me 2 months to get the photos from my thumb-drive to the blog. Much faster than Sherry's Easy Shrug which only had to move from my computer to the blog.

Here the shrug is viewed from the back.
The arm is stretched out to show the continuous flow from back to sleeve.

Above is a front and back view of my daughter-in-law wearing the shrug.


Below is a front and back view of me wearing the same shrug.


The color of the blouse under the shrug appears to change the color of the shrug.

Because of the yarn used, worsted weight for this shrug and Red Heart's Light and Lofty for the previously made one, the plain netting stitch shows more clearly in this shrug. That makes it looks like a different pattern. I also love the fact that netting stretches so easily. We can both wear the shrug even though I am smaller than she is.


It appears that my blogging time is gone, gone, and really gone. So the net Klein bottle bag, also from my Missouri trip will have to wait until next time.

Sweater and Shrug -- Knit and Net

It's been a wonderful month. I actually finished several projects that have been patiently waiting for their turn.

When I last mentioned my brown sweater it was April, 2008. At that time I had finally finished it and sewed it together only to discover the sleeves hung down to my finger-tips. Since the sleeves were knit from the ribbing up, I was not sure what to do. Because I had other things to make the sweater got placed in a bag and "forgotten" until the lady who gave me the pattern asked about my progress. When I told her of my problem she said it would be easy to fix.

She told me to cut one of the stitches on the edge of the sleeve and pull that piece of cut yarn all the way across the sleeve. She assured me the old ribbing would come off the rest of the sweater and I would then have live stitches at the new bottom of the sleeve where I could attach new yarn and knit the ribbed cuff. According to her, I could even reuse the yarn that was part of the old ribbing.

I believed her because she showed me with a sample piece that it was possible. I did not feel brave enough to try it on my own. So eventually our schedules meshed. Within an hour both sleeves were on circular needles ready to have a new cuff knit. It did not take many days after that before the ribbing was finished to a more comfortable and usable length.


It has been nice to wear this sweater on those cool spring days when a coat is too warm.


* * * * * * *
More than a year ago I tried to net a shrug. The biggest problem with this project was that I ran out of yarn and could not find any more in the local stores. I was not even sure what yarn it was. Thanks to the Internet I not only figured out what yarn I had used, but was also able to order another skein of Red Heart's Light and Lofty #9261 (Citrus).

Then the shrug sat because I was trying to decide what to do. No, that's wrong. I knew what I had to do, I just had to psych myself into the right frame of mind to do it. One sleeve was tighter than the other one and both were tighter than I really wanted. That meant I had to undo all the knots I had tied around the body of the shrug and both sleeves. I had to undo enough knots to bring it back to when it was just a rectangle.

Eventually I untied the knots and made the rectangle several rows longer. Then I redid the sleeves and the body of the shrug below the sleeves. This past month I finally finished it. I love to wear it. It was worth the few hours spent untying those hundreds of knots. I am surprised how warm it keeps me even with all those holes.

Shrugs and tiny mesh net bag

I've decided it's easier to find time to knit and net than to blog. Time having been at a premium this past couple of weeks, it got filled with knitting and netting and no blogging. So to make amends . . .

I saw a picture of a shrug recently in Lace Style called Retro Redux Shrug designed by Mercedes Tarasovich-Clark. I liked the look of it and wondered if it would keep my arms and shoulders warm. So, I found some unlabeled worsted weight wool I had been given and gave it a try.
















I was pleasantly surprised at how warm it did keep my shoulders and upper arms.


My next thought was, "Can I create a net shrug?"

So I dived into my left-over-from-other-projects yarn and grabbed some fluffy type of yarn. Using just a plain net stitch, I came up with a pattern that will serve as a springboard for other shrugs.














My biggest problem was that I used up all the yarn I had in that color and type of yarn. The shrug will work, but in the future I will want to add more length to the sleeves, and more of an edging to the rest of the shrug. I also have some ideas for fancy stitches and shrugs.

I was delighted with the way it kept my arms and shoulders warm, while at the same time it didn't get into things while I was cooking or cleaning like a cape or shawl would.




I finally got the heel turned on the second sock and now I can work both socks at the same time and not need to worry about one being longer than the other.


I guess at this point in time knitting socks is not exactly on the top of my list of things to do, since the heel of the first sock was turned back in October. I do hope to finish these sooner rather than later, since I really want to get into Cat Bordhi's new sock book and I am insisting that I will finish this pair before starting one from her book (which I got for my birthday).









Oh, yes. One other project that has been gradually making progress. The very tiny mesh net bag.

I finished the circle going from the center to the edges.


It looks like an oval because it is not stretched out evenly.




A bit of pinning took care of that problem.














Then I needed to create a foundation loop in the middle of a circle. I took some crochet thread and formed a square in the center of the circle (seen here from one side, and then the other).



(No I didn't change the color, the computer / camera did. The bag is still a lovely shade of light purple.)










The white doubled crochet thread becomes the new foundation loop. The orange stitch marker indicates where the first circular netting round began.



Now it is just a matter of netting around and around until the bag is as tall as I want to make it. Then I will net some handles.

The mesh is small enough that size 2 knitting needles will not go through the mesh, although size 1 will barely. The mesh stick is a 0000. I am hoping to make it large enough that it will hold a ball of sock yarn and the needles as well as the socks being made.