River of Dreams

Don’t talk to me until I’ve had coffee

The first thing I do in the morning is let out the chickens and clean the coop. Then coffee. Always coffee. River of Dreams is perfect to knit while my brain is absorbing caffeine from the coffee to wake up. Usually, I have Instagram stories playing. I knit about 10-12 rows a day. true too, is i move a little slow in the mornings. So now you can understand why it’s taking so long to finish.

You will remember from previous posts, the pattern River Of Dreams by Lauren Rene, was written in conjunction with the anniversary of LYS Flying Needles. I love that this shawl has a playful mix of colorful stripes throughout. The yarn I’m using was a kit from the shop created for this shawl. It also included an exclusive color, River Of Dreams, there are five colors in all. I’d say I’m about 75% done with my shawl.

Some changes I incorporated

I decided to work a garter stitch border rather just Stockinette as the pattern is written. I knit 10 rows of Garter giving me 5 ridges, then 5 stitches of Garter on each end. It’s my preference that the edges to lay flat. Which is why I went with the garter stitch border.

This shawl has so many stripes. The pattern calls for you to cut the yarn after each stripe. Instead, I’m carrying the yarn up the right-hand side when that yarn color will be used again. When doing this it’s important to ensure you cross your two yarns every other row in order to “catch” the carried yarn. Also, you should NEVER pull the carried yarn tight.

Carrying the yarn up the side will minimize the number of ends I’ll have to weave in, and I hate weaving in ends. If you are working in Stockinette, I recommend slipping the first stitch of each row as this will help hide the carried yarn.

I’m at the point in the pattern that calls for knitting 46 rows in color #1. But I think I might run out of Color #1. Instead of knitting the 46 rows as instructed, I’m working my own series of stripes within the 46 rows. So, I’m mixing up the colors #4, #5 and #1.

Other finished River of Dreams

I have seen two finished shawls. One shawl I saw at Knit Night at Flying Needles. It was knit by a man named Taylor. He knit his shawl using oranges and purples. It turned out really nice.

Another finished shawl I saw was knit by Lauren, the designer of the pattern. She was wearing her finished shawl at the anniversary sale. Lauren knit hers in the same colors that I am knitting mine. As a matter of fact, her shawl is why I picked the colors I did. And as a bonus, the kit had an exclusive color.

Will I ever finish this?

Currently, I’m knitting more on the body of my sweater than my shawl. I have a couple inches until I start the cable section and the underarm gussets. Then it will require more attention. My shawl will return to TV knitting.

Six people have this project entered in on Ravelry, including my own. Three are finished projects, three are works in progress. I intend to finish my shawl, changing the count to four finished and two in progress.

What’s my Time Frame for Finishing

My goal is to finish the River of Dreams shawl by the end of February. This is totally doable. Plus, I can get back to knitting my socks and finish those for March.

Obviously, the January Gansey sweater is intended to be knit within January. This won’t be finished in January unless I really pick up my pace. Better get on that.

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Happy Knitting.