Shrugging

Last week I celebrated my 2 year knitiversary. Some of the first real yarn I bought was this lovely Dyeabolical Yarn, in Derby Girl colorway. I liked it so much I bought a second skein. I thought I would knit a pair of wristwarmers and socks for my sister with the lovely yarn. I did get the wristwarmers knitted and given to my sister. She loved the gift, but the socks never materialized. So the leftover skein and then some has been hanging around in my stash for almost 2 years.

Early January I decided to knit a very simple shrug for my sister with the yarn. I looked and looked for the pattern I saw in my head and had no luck finding it. After several fruitless hours on Ravelry I picked up sticks and charged forward making up the design as I went along.

I was pleased with the end result. It is not perfect, but my sister loved the shrug. My mom is so adoreablely modeling the shrug in these two pictures.

My sister loved the shrug too, but she has yet to send me pictures of herself in the garment. I am including my "damn the torpedoes" instructions just to keep the information available incase I want to knit another one. I can't promise they are good directions since this is my first attempt at keeping track, but here goes...

I used 1 skein plus about a forth of another of Dyeabolical Yarns Alter Ego Merino Sock Yarn 100g-430yards per skein.

1) First I cast on 52 stitches on size 8 dpns.

2)I used a knit 2, purl 2 rib stitch for about 5 inches.

3) For some reason I knitted a row before increasing.

4)I wanted the shrug larger on the next round so I knit a stitch and then added a yarn over knit the next stitch added a yarnover and continued to the end of the row (lesson learned, I was a bit over-enthusiastic here and should have probably added a yarn over for every 2 stitches).

5) I knitted three more rows on the size 8 dpns.

6)At the end of the third row I switched to size 11 straight needles and knitted a row flat.

7) On the wrong side I knitted the first 4 stitches and purled to the last 4 stitches which I knitted.

8)I continued to knit and purl my way through the skein.

9)As I started to run out of yarn I went back to the size 8 dpns and knitted 3 rows.

10)This next part was tricky, but I was happy with the outcome. I knit two together and did a yarn over all the way around.

11)On the next round I knit two together, until I had 52 stitches again. At this point I understood why I did step 3.

12) I followed with about 5 inches of knit 2 purl 2 rib

13) Cast off.

I love how this project is also reversible.