Sunday knitting

I began with an autumnal desire for a new, warm, woollen wraparound shawl.

Then I found 15 balls of pink mohair in the local Op shop. A bargain, even though pink is not a colour I would usually wear.
I bought thin, long needles (size 14, steel and 50cents from the Creswick Op shop) and cast on as many stitches as would fit. Either I'd knit it sideways or longways, just depending on how wide it turned out to be.

By now you can guess that this was to be a project of pleasure and ease. I like to knit just as some people like worry beads.

If I knitted 3 rows purl and one row plain I thought I'd get a nice ridged effect, just like a sea shell, and I wouldn't worry if it was occasionally 4 rows of plain - not too formal, natural looking.

It began to look good - and I thought of an extra nifty trick. When I get to the right length I'll cast off, pick up the stitches all down the side and knit out in the other direction - more intriguing texture. I thought I'd invented this trick, then found it outlined in my new sock book as a way to do part of the sock heel.

I thought I'd invented my purl /plain stitch pattern too, but here it is in this beautiful knitting blog, Brooklyn Tweed . Read the post of April 2010 the Romney Kerchief.  I could never knit like this - what an eye for colour and texture! How do people plan such clever and elegant patterns - and knit them so beautifully?

Anyway, maybe I'm not the only person to think of this pattern, but I don't think anyone else will be knitting it quite in my way.