One yard of oilcloth, one yard of poly-cotton broadcloth (for the back), two packages of extra-wide double fold bias tape and about an hour of cutting, pinning and sewing. One package of the bias tape went around the straight edges on the left, bottom and right (all in one piece, with mitered corners), and the short straight edge at the top. The other package makes up the neck strap and the ties and binds the curved armholes – and neatly covers the raw edges from the other bias tape. So much faster to buy the prefolded bias tape and not have to do all that pressing!

We had such a quiet, pleasant weekend for Thanksgiving that I was able to start and finish the Shimmer shrug. It is a pretty quick knit, since there is no front to speak of and the back is cropped.

I messed up the lozenge pattern on the back, and I also think it’s just a touch too small through the back shoulders. If I were to knit it again – and I might – I would probably add an inch to the width in the back. Originally I had planned to wear it with a sleeveless dress, but it doesn’t cover the dress straps in the front, so I’m wearing it mostly with t-shirts. Shrugs are my favorite thing to wear at work, because they cover my arms with more warmth than just a shirt but don’t make me too warm.

The shrug used less than six balls of Elann Pegasus yarn, and I bought seven, so with the leftovers I decided to knit up the Foliage hat from the Fall 2007 issue of Knitty over a couple of evenings during the week. I did the worsted-weight yarn version, but with only two repeats of the lace pattern after finishing the crown so it’s a bit shorter: