Color Stranding

Last Saturday, I took a color stranding class at my LYS. My teacher taught me how carry the yarn on the wrong side so it doesn't look a mess. She taught me how knit holding the 2 strands 3 different ways. I've decided the easiest way for me to do it two handed.

I've been practicing left handed knitting. My stitches are looser than what I do right handed. My LYS teacher says to keep practicing and they'll tighten up and be identical to my right handed way. It makes sense that it'll be identical to my right hand because of the mechanics. I'm still knitting with my right hand. All I'm doing is holding the yarn in my left hand.

My teacher referred me to knittinghelp.com for a refresher video on 2 handed knitting. I found Knitting Tips by Judy when I was searching for color stranding sites. Judy has great 4 videos on colorwork. I've noticed that she purls through the back loop when she does fair isle.

Swatching: Complete Combustion aka Mystic Light Shawl
After a long search, I found the blue yarn I want to use for the Mystic Light Shawl. The yarn I decided on is Fearless Fibers Superwash sock yarn in the Sloth colorway. I'll bought 2 skeins(1100 yrds total).

The fingering weight yarn is light blue with little pale bits of lavender and gray. I interpreted the light and flames theme of the shawl to be the rare blue flame color produced in the chemical reaction when hydrocarbons/oxygen mixture is combined with an abundance of oxygen and heat is added. The flame can only be produced under laboratory conditions. (<--- Geeky organic chemistry moment.)
I wasn't going to do a swatch because it's a shawl and I didn't see the point. Thank goodness I looked at the swatch pattern because I need to know how to do cables. I watched Amy's cable and cableless cable videos to learn how. I used US7 needles like knitknag used to make her swatch. The blocked swatch dimensions should be 11x 16 cm. Mine are 10 x 15 cm and it's wonky over stretched.

I tried again using US9s. I think it's a little too big and loose. My dimensions are 11 x 16 cm but I could have blocked it larger than that. I'm going to use US8s when I knit the shawl. Come on March 26th! I'll be done with the Adamas Shawl by then. My EE kal leader extended our finish date to April 15th. I need another week because I kept messing up the 12th pattern repeat of chart 12.

Pattern Surfing: Sockret Scarf by Susan P.
You've all heard of the Moroccan Days/Arabian Nights Stole. The designer of that stole has a cute and easy scarf pattern, Sockret Scarf. It's made with 1 skein(400 yds) of sock yarn and US 4 needles. I want to make with FF Spellbound.