Post 146: Shawl Finish and Mainly Masks

I did finish the shawl tonight but blocking will wait until tomorrow as well as photographing it in its full splendour. The day did not turn out to be simply knitting and blocking!


I discovered this morning that the new row markers I ordered from the Fox Collection had arrived yesterday after I had checked the letterbox.
The one I have been using is on the left.It requires metal backboard for the magnet, It's OK, but is a bit clunky to carry around. The new are ruler-sized strips with an inbuilt magnet. They slip over the page like a bookmark.


Unfortunately, I no longer need the pattern for the shawl, but there will be other projects.


The day took off in an unexpected direction. I got into a conversation about face masks with my daughters. This led to my finding an online pattern for masks made from circles of cloth - using different sized plates for adult, adolescent and child sized masks.

I made a sample with three layers - cotton outer, 1200 thread count middle layer and T-shirt fabric on the inner layer. It was rather too tight and too small.






I then downloaded a shaped pattern in two sizes - women/adolescent and men.

The test sample, with the same three layers, was much more satisfactory.

I had used an old t-shirt of mine for the sample. Once I had cut the t-shirt for the sample, it seemed sensible to use it up on a batch. I spent several hours, ironing and cutting out layers. The t-shirt yielded 9 large sets and 13 medium. I matched these with middle layers from the sheeting. I then raided my stash for cotton outer layers for 22 masks.

Here's the result.

It was quite tiring. I did the cutting standing up so I could use the iron at the same time. I don't usually stand so long. It triggers my sciatica and back ache. I took short breaks every hour.

Tomorrow I will try to get as many stitched as I can.

As i result, I did not get the shawl blocked. As can be seen from the photo above I did finish, but am too tired to either display of block it.

That's for tomorrow.







It was an impressive sunset.