The Rustic Autumn Shawl

I know most people around the United States are thinking about Autumn, cooler nights, lovely fall colors and and of course football.  Here in Florida it is 93 degrees every day and it never cools off in the evenings.  So to get myself prepared for Autumn, and the potential for less excruciating heat sometime in the future, I have decided to make the Rustic Autumn Shawl from Knit Purl Gurl.  You can find the link to this very fun, very fast shawl on her side bar.  It will lead you to her ravelry site and you can download her pattern for free.

 I am a pathetic picture taker, I know, but I don't have the time or energy to fix them so here they are.  The shawl is not shown in all its glory in the picture above but just take a peek below.

 I love it,  I needed a pretty simple project after the circle vest disaster.  I need to only think a little bit on a project, so this is perfect.  Karrie from Knit Purl Gurl is an amazing mother,who devotes so much of her time to introducing us to may new books, knitting related items, yarn and just great information that is really fun to read about.  I have just started the diagonal rib portion of the shawl so I am excited to see how that looks.  Karrie is having a knit along with this shawl pattern if you so choose to join.  I am knitting along, but have not joined as I am up to my eyeballs with issues with my Mom and Dad.  I just wanted to knit this at a pace that was perfect for me.  The only change I made in the pattern was in the very beginning.  I cast on three stitches, knit two rows and then on the third row I knit one, yarn over, knit one, yarn over and knit one.  That gave me five stitches and I followed the pattern after that. 

The pattern calls for Noro Silk Garden Sock Yarn.  I am a Noro lover through and through, but I am using Universal Yarns Classic shades.  It has a long color repeat like Noro but is a lot more cost effective.  I have used this yarn a lot lately and I think it knits up great.  I am making my shawl on a size 10 1/2 needle so I just have 229 stitches before I started the diagonal rib chart as opposed to 239.  A shawl is fun this way, you can adapt as you go along.

 Things are pretty rough with my parents.  They are competent enough to make decisions, just not the right ones.  When I am stressed, as I am right now I usually buy yarn.  But when things go really bad I go right for knitting or crochet books.  So this past week I bought three new ones.  Knit Noro is fabulous.  And if you have a JoAnn Fabrics and crafts by you, use a 50% off coupon and get it for half price like I did.

 This is what hooked me, well this (above) and of course this (below).

 Knit Your Own Royal Wedding just made me laugh.  I have seen so many blogs mention this that when I saw it I just had to have my own copy.  Do I think I will ever knit my own Royal Wedding?  Absolutely not, but I will smile every time I look at this book.

 I do however intend on knitting Spud the sheep in the Spud and Chloe series.  She is adorable and Spud looks like a ton of fun to make.

 One thing I love about Florida is the sky.  The clouds are amazing.  I took this picture this afternoon as the afternoon storms were coming in off the Gulf.  My life feels a bit stormy right now so I think this is a very appropriate picture.  Hope you are having a calm and peaceful day.