I know this isn’t a Halloween project but I have found myself flattening and cutting bottles quite a bit lately so this looks like an interesting project to try. I got this from Laura Make’s blog, which I found through Glass is Life’s post on Facebook. What a get a real kick out of is Laura’s honesty about the difficulty in cutting wine bottles. It’s not easy and most of the time the bottle breaks horribly. Persistence pays off though…I tend to go right to the tile saw and grinder to do my cutting. It’s rather aggressive but generally works. The end product of Laura’s project is lovely and looks worth the effort. Give it a try and send pictures in to post later…
Have you read?
Knit a Stunning Shawl That Wears Like a Collar
I’m honestly not totally sure what to say about the Sun King shawl pattern from Ursa Major Knits other than isn’t this cool? You should probably make one.
This modular design is worked in two parts, the “waxing” and “waning” sections. Both pieces are asymmetrical and use the same yarns in different ways to mix up the colors and make it even more interesting.
You can choose to use two contrasting solid yarns, a solid and a gradient or two complimentary gradients for your yarns. And you can use any weight of yarn and whatever gauge you like to make shawls of different sizes. There are also a bunch of different size options (seven, in fact) that take the project from a little collar like design to something more like a scarf to a large shawl that wraps around the neck to keep you warm.
The sample projects use fingering/lace weight yarn, but you can use whatever you have on hand to make your own beautiful version of this shawl. Using lace weight, you’ll need twice as much of one color as the other.
There are lots of yarn suggestions on the pattern page on Ravelry, and I love the color choices the designer made so much I’d definitely be tempted to use the same colors they did (there are a couple of different versions on the pattern page if you want to see how it looks in different sizes and different colors).
I love the little diamond shapes a the edges of the pieces, which add a little more drama to the project, as if it needed more.
I’m still not sure this boils down to anything beyond this project looks really cool and you should probably knit it, but that’s pretty much how I pick all the projects I share, so I guess that’s fine. You can check it out for yourself and grab a copy of the pattern on Ravelry.
[Photo: Ursa Major Knits]