Mingus completed and Arabian nights begins

Mingus was completed this weekend. What a fun knit! The second sock flew by compared to the first. This pattern is odd in that you're knitting part of two different rows on the charts for each round on the actual sock. It was confusing at first, but easy once I got into the rhythm.

I gave Fleece Artist another chance after having problems with their color saturation on two different pairs of socks. Those were both with SeaWool and with a darker color. Somoko is a great yarn. I like the addition of mohair and the subtle shine of the silk. This yarn feels quite durable. Dwight claims that it doesn't feel soft, but it felt soft to me and I was the one knitting with it. ;-)

Details:
Pattern: Mingus by Cookie A.
Yarn: Fleece Artist Somoko in Burgundy (used around 85gms)
Needles: size 1 (2.5mm) for the leg and size 1 (2.25mm) for the foot
Start: Feb. 26, 2008
Finish: March 2, 2008

I started my Moroccan Days/Arabian Nights shawl. I suppose mine is the Arabian Nights variation since I'm using darker colors. Something important was brought up on this shawl's ravelry board. Someone mentioned reinforcing the beaded fringe because it would be tragic to get that snagged on something. I never thought of that and I'm the type of person that would get it snagged. I plan on going back and reinforcing it with another strand of the same laceweight. The beads flow easily on the yarn and I think it will be no problem to weave in another yarn. Speaking of beads, I've been dragging them along and pushing the down the yarn with no ill effects to the yarn so far. This yarn is a pretty durable yarn for a laceweight.

This is another shot of the beaded fringe. I ended up twisting the stitches on both sides of each loop. The beads wanted to travel around and I had to stop that before it drove me nutty. That's why I like the crochet method of adding beads. The beads stay exactly where you put them.

I've finished the bottom border with the beaded diamonds. Now I'm knit up to row 4 of charts D, E, and F. I'm knitting this on a 32 inch circular needle, so you can see that this is going to be a wide shawl. Here's what it looks like so far.