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Burnished

Last year, 2016, was to be the Year of the Socks for me.  The only problem was my hands grew achy and stiff from using the small needles required to knit socks.  I stopped knitting them, yet there are a lot of sock yarns in my stash. When I found Tin Can Knits's pattern called Burnished,  published in their book Mad Color or sold separately on Ravelry, I knew some of that sock stash could be used.


Several things attracted me to this pattern.  First that lacy edge adds a nice contrast to the striped work and since it is not added until after the rest of the shawl is complete, one has only to focus on lace for a short time.  Second, it requires three different coloured yarns that work together, good for stash busting  And third, it is a brainless type of garter knitting for the most part meaning it is easy.  Below is my triple selection from my abundant number of sock yarns.


The variegated is one of Arne and Carlos' sock yarns, Regia, from Schachebmayr in colour 02460; the solid turquoise is a Lion Brand, Sock Ease, colour 178, Snow Cone; and the tan yarn is something leftover and unnamed.

These three seemed in my mind to mimic the colours shown above only using much more blue and toning down the green.  And even though the turquoise isn't a perfect match to the variegated blue, they work together IMHO.  Here it is knit, but unblocked.


Like any lace, that edge looks pretty unimpressive until it takes a dip and gets a serious stretch.  Truth be told as I stretched my Burnished out I broke one of the strands of yarn at the top.  It was easily fixed and is ready for the big reveal.



My blocked Burnished is hung on a clear front-half of a female body shape.  If you look very closely just below the shawl on the last photo you can just see it blurring up the wall.  The simplified seamstress mannequin came from an inexpensive swimsuit I purchased to use when swimming in chlorinated water.  After adding a hole at the top of the form, I was able to place a coat hanger through it.  Burnished was taken outside and well, you can see the results.  Even Paul was impressed with how well my homemade mannequin worked to show off the shawl.   It will be used again for such purposes.

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