Thursday, September 19, 2013

Shawl cozies

I can hear you now... what on earth is she talking about now? Well, I would have had the same reaction a few weeks ago but I read a thread on Ravelry about a portable, roll-up shawl pattern. In the thread, one knitter pointed to a number of shawl cozies she had knitted. One was based on a candle cozy, another was a based on a pouch pattern. It got my gears churning.

I don't like what happens to a shawl when you toss it into a bag. It always gets messed up and I am afraid that it will get caught in a zipper. Sometimes I store them in ziplock bags but I don't like putting them in plastic.

I also had some leftover handspun yarn from the spring shawl I made this year. So I thought I would knit myself one. I made it like a sock toe. I started with Judy's magic CO and increased every other round on both sides till I got to a normal sock width (80 sts). After that, I knit straight for a bit and then kep increasing about every inch till I had 100 sts. I wanted it to be a bit wider to accommodate the shawl. But it turns out that I didn't need to do that.

I got bored and added a lace panel thinking I'd end with the lace. But I got bored knitting lace and went back to stockinette. Then I got bored with stockinette again and did some textured pattern I made up - a round of k2, p2 and then a round of k but I staggered the knits and purls on the next k2, p2 round. I ended with some more stockinette and a rolled edge. The end result is something that I'm pretty pleased about.

This is what I ended up with:
I rolled the shawl up like a burrito:
And this is what the end result is:
I added some ribbon I had laying around. I think I will move it a bit further down but for now, it is done. It can be used as a little pillow also. Which leads me to my next idea...
Yes, it is an envelope. But it is a knitted envelope. And large enough to hold one of my larger shawls. With the shawl inside, it would be a nice pillow and would also hold the shawl secure. I have some thicker handspun that I can knit up into a firm fabric which will be more pillow-like than the soft flexible bag that I made last week. Practice skeins are good for this sort of thing.

I don't anticipate making one for each shawl but just a couple in different sizes that can be used for any shawl.

Interesting, right? Did I inspire you to knit a shawl cozy? Or even to sew one?

No comments: