A cool-weather kayak shrug

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In the early (and late) season paddles on the lake, kayaking can be a tad chilly. I figured an extra layer to cover the low back and my arms would work well. I’m quite pleased with this one, a Cleckheaton pattern from their #615 booklet, “Celebration Days.” They’ve given it the unfortunate name: “Hug-me-tight.”  Knit up in the pastel pink or yellow shown in the booklet, I can picture it as a hug. Think bedjacket, on a mother’s day morning, with young ones feeding mom her breakfast in bed. Not a scene that set my heart to thumping, actually.

But, as a kayak shrug, this works really well. And, just in case you think I don’t wear a PFD in the kayak, I do. I’d just taken it off, to remove an outer gortex jacket, when Steve snapped this photo.

I am quite pleased with this little shrug:

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It’s as bright and eye-catching as a signal flag. The center colors are knit in fingering weight Wollmeise “Pure” 100% merino superwash. The blue is Wollmeise Sockenwolle “Twin,” an 80 percent merino, 20% nylon fingering weight. 52 inches of ribbing on size 4 needles doesn’t exactly keep a knitter on the edge of her seat. I got bored with the blue and that’s when I started trying to think of how I could liven up the experience some. Odd how the center panel seemed to knit up much more quickly than the blue.

Here’s a useful tip. When you get to a color changing row in ribbing, just knit the entire first row of the new color. The out-of-place knit stitches just fold nice and unnoticed into the furrows of ribbing. Instead of those ugly half-one-color-half another color purl stitches, you end up with a nice crisp color change.

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Cleckheaton “Team Cap and Booties”

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This fun set, sized for about a six month young one, is knit in…gulp, Madelinetosh Sport. It was left over from a recent project and I didn’t want any of this yarny goodness to go to waste. This sportweight wool is right up there with my all-time best sport or DK weight. I just wish we didn’t have to take out a mortgage to knit something with it.

My only modifications were to leave the “stops” off the bottom of the booties. Stops are what the Australian-based Checkheaton company calls them anyway. I’d call them cleats. They are very cute small-sized bobbles that you knit one by one and then attach to the soles of the booties. I was worried they’d be a choke hazard.

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