Ta Da !

Remember the 'Dress that Called My Name'?

The one with the beige insert in the skirt and the orange flowers?

And remember the yarns I chose to make a little topper to set off the dress?

Well, here is the topper. Ta Da! I like it! Beaucoup!! A little piece with random vertical stripes.

In a way, this little piece is a 'memory piece'. Many of the yarns are 'special' to me. The delicate eyelash yarn was a gift from Janet - owner of London Yarns where I used to work. She and her hubby took a trip to Arizona and brought back a few of these precious 'knit-a-longs' as a gift. Much better than a tee shirt, wouldn't you say? The cotton rust was a gift from Pat. A Knit Group buddy who said she would never use the yarn and asked if I wanted it. Duh! Of course. Thanks Pat. The tri-colour Evita was a yarn I picked out of a sale bin and I think of my friend Patti-Ann who was with me at the time. See the little ball of brown in the upper corner? It came from a stash exchange deal. Hand spun, and for most sweater knitting, considered poorly spun as it ranges from very thin to very thick. But for a creative little piece like mine, exactly what it needs.

Again, before you all rush to comment on how brilliantly creative I am, I remind you - I am a copier. This time I took inspiration from Jane Thornley. Jane, who is brilliantly creative, does pieces with beautiful yarns knit in random order. Jane also does lots of short-row techniques in her pieces to make them even more spectacular. That would have been way too time-consuming and 'hard' for me. I wanted quick & easy, a 'wear-it-THIS-summer' knit. A type of 'done-before-dinner' knit.

Remember how I wondered if I had stash yarns in the brown colour-way? I needn't have worried. Look at the throw on my bed.

These are my colours. I own those colours!

But now the question is - Is it a shawl or a shrug?

Presented as a shawl.

And now - as best I can while doing a self-portrait - the shrug view.

The vote at Knit Group yesterday was shrug. Simply for the stay-on-the-shoulders- without-tugging feature. How does one make a shawl into a shrug you ask? Easy Peasy. The difference between a shawl and a shrug is nothing more than a few stitches in the 'pit' area. Sew the front to the back for a couple of inches. That's it.

I will write up the pattern over the next couple of days and post it on the blog. In the meantime I hope you all have a Ta-Da! weekend.