THE Shawl

Initially, my desire to start sharing my knitting came from knitting something I was really proud of. Way back in...oh, say August of last year (I really don't remember when exactly,) Friend Em asked me to make her a shawl during the same dinner her fiance asked my boyfriend to be his best man. Given our level of friendship vs. her fiance's and my boyfriend's, this still seems oddly appropriate. I had never knit a shawl before.

I sent Em a variety of options, of which she chose Aeolian. The big one. For a wedding, and for the drape and whatnot, I started perusing silk yarn. There's the second first: I'd never used much besides acrylic and wool yarns. Also never used lace-weight anything. Oh, and never blocked. I hadn't realized previously that I followed a go-big-or-go-home philosophy to knitting. Claudia Hand Painted Yarns, Silk Lace, Shells on the Beach.

The single snag along the way was mice. Yes, mice. I very carefully stored the shawl anytime I wasn't actively working on it in a sealed plastic bag, in amongst my other yarns. And they chose this one bag to chew through and try to take away its contents for their home. Most luxurious mice on the block, I tell you. But they didn't get away with it and somehow managed not to cause a single break in the yarn. Yay!

Come January, the shawl was knitted up completely, but still didn't look like much. I got some blocking squares and pins from KnitPicks but didn't have the time or inclination to actually block until April. In the meantime, I made and blocked two other shawls for practice. It was another month practically before pictures could occur. I have a battery charger for my camera now.



Modifications: Skipped beading, and for the most part (read: after the first row) did 7-stitch nupps instead of 9-stitch nupps. Not bad for a first time, eh?

Come back end of July to see it in action.