Why, That’s Just Outlander-ish…

October 27, 2014

I don’t know if any of you have been watching the Starz TV series called “Outlander,” but I’m kind of hooked on it.  (Charming even likes to watch this show with me…most likely because it has a smattering of blood, gore, and killing in it to make it interesting enough to hold his attention for an hour.)

Anyway…the plot goes something like this…In 1945, after being separated by war for several years an English nurse named Claire takes a trip with her husband to Scotland to get reacquainted after so many years of being apart.  During the trip, Claire touches some big stones at a place called Craigh na Dun (sounds like Craig-na-dune) and is transported back in time to 1743 Scotland.  Although she makes several attempts to get back to Craigh na Dun, thinking that she can figure out a way to again touch the stones and be transported back to the future, she gets caught up in the Scottish rebellion against England and ends up married to a young, red haired, muscular, Scottish (cute as a button) rebel named Jamie Fraser.  The last scene in the season finale has Claire about to be abused by an English officer (who just happens to be her English husband’s ancestor, Black Jack Randall) when cutie-pie Jamie comes crashing through the window and says in his heavy Scottish accent, “I’ll thank you to take your hands off my wife!”

As much as one might think the cute Scot Jamie would make me swoon, that’s not the real reason I watch the show.  As silly as it may seem, I’m fascinated by the shawls and scarves that Claire wears during the show.  In the last couple of episodes, she wore the most adorable little cape/shawl kind of thing.  They’re sort of rustic items, but at the same time they are charming.  Aaaaaaaaahhhhh….I guess I was born in the wrong century.  Even though I don’t live in the 1700’s, I do live in an area of the country that gets cold during the winter.  So, today I started a fairly plain knitted shawl that I think will help chase the chill away and hold me over until the new season of Outlander starts in 2015.

I wanted to make the shawl out of super bulky yarn, which is lofty (light and airy) and soft.  I also wanted a color that would go with jeans since that is what I tend to live in during the fall and winter.  Because there aren’t many yarn stores in my area, I went to Walmart and found something that I think will work well.  It’s Lion Brand super bulky Hometown USA in San Diego Navy.  I started knitting the shawl today and found that I really like the drape and feel of the yarn.  It is also fairly easy to knit, considering I’m using gigantic size 18.5 straight knitting needles.

My pattern is simple.  I just cast on 29 stitches and work in the seed stitch (knit 1, purl 1) for the entire thing.  I’ll just make it as long as it needs to be in order to wrap around my body and shoulders comfortably.  Although it is awkward knitting with the big needles and big yarn, progress is really fast.  I only spent about an hour on this and I’ve already gotten a foot completed.  After I get the shawl completed, I may crochet around the entire outside edge to give it a finished look.  At the rate of knitting a foot per hour with big needles and super bulky yarn, this project can be completed in just a few days!  

Lion Brand "Hometown USA Super Bulky" yarn in "San Diego Navy".
At $2.97/skein, it's a great deal!  (I purchased 7 skeins...all that they had
in stock of this color.  I can simply return any unused skeins.)

Here, I'm trying to show you how thick and lofty the yarn is (the
knitting needles are plastic, size 18.5, that I got for three bucks at
the Shenandoah Valley Fiber Festival in September)

This is the first foot of the shawl, viewed vertically.  Made in a simple seed stitch
(knit 1, purl 1) pattern, it's a great project if you just have a few spare
minutes to work on it.  If you have to stop knitting in the middle of a
row, you can easily see what your next stitch should be.

Here, the shawl is viewed horizontally as it would be viewed if it
were wrapped around your shoulders.  Note that the stitches appear
to form a diagonal/criss-cross type of stitch.  That's the beauty of the
simple seed stitch!