The Nina Shawl Begins!

Here it is, the beginning of the Nina Shawl from Mason Dixon Knitting. I fell in love with the color combination used in the book so I had to pick the same colors, although, I saw a picture somewhere on the net of a beautiful blue and green combo. Oh well. This is Classic Elite's Provence. The book called for the hot pink (more melon to me), zinnia orange, black and celedon. Now I don't know about you, but when I saw the picture in the book, that did not look like a pale seafoam-ish color to me on the checkerboard section. So, I opted for white. I think it goes better and looks more crisp and clean. I also decided I wanted a seed stitch border instead of the garter stitch. I also wanted it wider than the 5 stitches called for in the book. The checkerboard is knitted in fair isle. I have no problem using two colors on the knit rows. The purl rows, well let's just say I drop and pick up. lol It seems to be working just fine. This is a very easy knit with the fair isle section the most difficult but it isn't even that. Probably just a bit more tedious.



If you were at the last guild meeting you'd know what this is. But in case you didn't make it, this is a CD container. JoEllyn gave us a tips presentation. This was one of her tips. I work with a couple of new college grads who burn CD's alot. I asked and one guy brought me an empty in days. This particular case is a soft plastic and not the easy-to-break type. I used an ice pick to make the hole. If you have a delicate yarn, JoEllyn suggested you roll up a piece of sand paper to file down any rough edges. As you can see, my yarn cake of Provence fit pretty well. I'll admit at the very beginning I didn't know if it was going to work. It was a bit snug but has been fine so far. Usually with Provence I do an outside pull as it tends to tangle up on itself but the inner pull has worked really well with the CD case. Yes, it does have a spindle on the bottom and the yarn cake fit fine around it. Pretty cool idea, huh? Thanks JoEllyn!

Margaret carries the colors of Provence for this shawl at Gourmet Yarn. After seeing that blue-green combo, I might have to check her stock and see if I can find those too.


This is Miss Lexi, acting nonchalant and cool. Isn't she doing a marvelous job?