Impasto: Finito!

I almost went with "Impasto Was Fast-o", but I couldn't bring myself to do it.

I finished up Impasto and got it blocked this past Sunday:


Blocking worked magic on this. The fabric is so light and has such a nice drape to it. The AC in our staff area at work has been on the fritz again, but I've been able to wear this shawl without overheating. And it's a wool blend, so that's saying something.



It looks so complicated, and was so easy. I love projects like that.



I'm loving all the brightly colored projects that are popping up on Ravelry, but I bet this pattern would also look gorgeous in shades of natural wool.

Pattern: Impasto Shawlette by Susanna IC, in Interweave Knits Summer 2010 issue.
Yarn: Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool, in Flax, Sky Blue, and Woad
Needles: Size 10

Impasto!

Last weekend was the annual Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. I was VERY well-behaved; it's possible I've hit stash saturation.

Brooks Farm always breaks me. I got a skein of Mas Acero:


And a skein of Willow:


More pictures from MDSW 2010 in my Flickr set.

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I cast on a new project last Saturday with my blue/cream Silky Wool stash. When I first bought the yarn, the store didn't have enough of any one color to really do anything with, so I got 3 skeins of an off-white, 3 skeins of sky blue (you saw about a skein of that in the last post), and one skein of a darker blue. I figured I'd someday make a colorwork sweater.

Well, it's not a sweater, and it's sort of colorwork...


I cast on for the Impasto Shawlette out of the Summer 2010 Interweave Knits. For one thing, I loved it in the magazine. For another, saying the word "IMPASTO" with a thick Italian accent is really fun.

The "colorwork" is a 4 row slip-stitch pattern; the picture shows one repeat with all three colors that I have. My colorwork section is shorter than the one in the magazine. I have fewer colors, and while I could have added more rows to match the colorwork length of the model in the magazine, I really liked how it looked with 2 repeats. So, instead of having a shawl that's 16" high in the middle, mine will be 12". I'm using the off-white for the short row section that will make up the bulk of the shawl (which I'm already well into). I can't wait to get this off the needles and blocked!