Proud Owner of a Campside

It is exactly a year since I cast on, but I did finish my Campside shawl, by Alicia Plummer.  You know what I’ll say next, things like “love”, lots of “really”s, and maybe an “interest” or two.  I can’t help it, I’m almost always excited about my finished knits.  If I hated them, I would frog them and not re-knit.  So here I go:

I do love this shawl.  It’s big, as in, can double as a tv throw or fireside blanket.  The succession of  graphic, lace stitch sections look clean and simple, though they’ve stumped plenty of us.  At least, the apparent ease of it led to lots of little mistakes on my part.  But, I was pretty chill about my stitch count and when I couldn’t find where I’d left out an increase, I just continued knitting with a smaller stitch count.  Could you pick out the mistake on this monster?  Didn’t think so.

I really, really liked the ribbed edging.  I don’t think any ribbing has ever been so satisfying to knit.  It looks sharp and contrasts the allover lace.

It was fun to knit.  I believe I called it addictive like a drug September before last, but I must’ve gone through knitting rehab, or gotten involved in a different knit-along to have abandoned it.  When Katrina of the Yarn Thirty Podcast began hosting the Graveyard KAL, where you either resurrect old works-in-progress (It’s Alive!) or lay them to rest by frogging (Dearly Departed), I decided to finish this one.   This was my progress at the time:

Details:  I used size US 4 circulars and 3 skeins of Knit Picks Hawthorne in the Sellwood colorway.  It’s one of the least multicolored of the Hawthornes, and it makes me think of a cloudy sky.  When I say I used 3 skeins, I mean I used almost every inch of them.  There was no skein alternating for this. I began working and saw that I liked the flashes of white as they were, so I just started a skein when I finished the last one.

A couple of my Ravelry friends have said they found this yarn was too scratchy for wearing next to the neck, but I seem to be immune to those issues.  It was too hot to wear for these sad little photos, but not scratchy.

There is errata for this, as you’ve probably heard because you’ve probably knit multiples of it while mine sat in a knitting basket for 11 months.  I’m going to put the notes from other Ravelers that I used here, for my own future reference:

errors in chart 4: 
-Row 7, last 4 sts should read “k, ssk, yo, m1l”
-Row 23, first 6 stitches should read “m1r, ssk, yo, k3”

Total repeats for each lace chart:
1 and 2- 2 repeats, plus 4 rows
3 and 4- 1 repeat, plus 12 rows
5 and 6- 2 repeats, plus 10 rows
7 and 8- 4 repeats

Don’t forget to ktbl for the center stitch like I did, when I resurrected this project.

Don’t worry if the transition from one chart to the next looks off kilter as you knit, it’ll look fine once you get further along in the chart.

A stretchy bind-off might help you in blocking, I just purposely knit my bind-off loosely.

This was an easy shawl to block,  I had no trouble stretching it to the proper dimensions, then leaving different knick-knacks sitting on it to ensure it did’t snap back.  Blocking wires are on my Christmas list.

Now, about these photos.  I still have three FOs to post about, besides this.  I just worked with what I had, which was a very bright afternoon, my son to help me, and neighbors watching from their yard.  If you want a good shot of Campside being worn, there’s an abundance of beautiful FO photos on Ravelry.  It was miserably hot and I was late to watch Saturday Night Fever.

If only I’d known how bad that movie would stink.  What was I thinking?  I could’ve stayed home until it cooled off and set up my tripod…  I think I was confusing that movie with Staying Alive.  Still not a cinematic masterpiece, but I don’t think it’s quite so sick and depressing.

What I really need is a shawl model, so I can take the photos quickly.  A girl who doesn’t have to hurriedly remember to brush her hair before taking photos.

Someone extremely photogenic and unafraid of the camera.

A model who will go about her normal behavior as if unaware that she’s being photographed.  Where could I find that?

Katrina’s Graveyard KAL has also inspired me to frog my Pomme de Pin, the one that fit perfectly but had a major, unfixable stitch pattern mistake through the entire sweater.  That will be a Dearly Departed entry. I may decided to re-knit it one day.  I must’ve had one long, deadly brain fart when knitting it.  Actually, I was recovering from a loss in the family, family illness, and my daughter’s wedding,  so I’m surprised the thing didn’t have four arms.

Then, I may add fringe to my Hualpa Kimono that I started this summer for It’s Alive!

It may be getting a bit late for you to join the KAL to resurrect a project, but it’s not too late to frog an old, unfinished one.

(some on ravelry, some on kollabora, some on instagram, and a little on flickr)

Oh, wait.  I haven’t typed the word interest yet.  There, now it’s complete.