I'm addicted, Shawly!

I started a shawl on New Years Eve and just 14 days later it came off the needles, an entire knitted project finished in 2 weeks! I don't think you will ever see such productivity from me again - amazing what can be done when the laptop is packed away and there are a couple of extra hands on deck to help out with the Kids. Needless to say the house in a shambles and the Kids ran out of socks! It's not the sort of thing I could get away with for the entire year but it's been a gentle and easy start to the New Year.

I'm sorry I didn't mention that things might be a little quiet around here. We've been enjoying the company of my Dad and Diane as well as Daniel's parents who left just yesterday. It's been almost a month of family staying with us. It's been lovely but I decided to pack away the laptop with all its anti-social potential and brought out the knitting needles instead where conversations can be carried on alongside the rhythmic clicking of the needles.

But back to the shawl, it's the beautiful Textured Shawl Recipe by Orlane and I absolutely love how it turned out. I adore it's simplicity in design and construction and it shows off the variations in the yarn beautifully. The yarn is a squishy Merino/Cashmere blend by an Australian Company Augustbird, and hand dyed in the Stonefall colourway. I bought the yarn months ago with a cardigan in mind but decided a more substantial shawl would be more suited to the Tassie climate where I am always grabbing an extra layer to throw on.  It's not so much a pattern but more of a 'recipe' where there is plenty of scope for variety. I have long admired Kate's beautiful knitted creations over on her blog and when I saw her Textured Shawl on Ravelry I looked no further and followed her notes almost exactly. My Ravelry notes are here.

Before Blocking

This was my very first shawl and there are definitely a few traps for new players, despite it essentially being a knitted triangle. Since you start with just a few stitches and increase from there, I assumed that I was starting at the tip of the triangle and working towards the long base of the triangle. For this reason I spent the first few rows pulling the shawl into a shape that resembled a tip (see where my toes are - oops!) whereas you actually start at the base and work out.  Thank goodness for blocking. I also used the Elizabeth Zimmerman sewn bind-off, which created a lovely finish but took an entire evening to get the 323 stitches off the needles so if anyone uses or knows of another quicker method which yields similar results please let me know!

After Blocking, that's a bit straighter!

Blocking is something I haven't attempted before either other than a little spritz with a water bottle on my finished pieces. This time I submerged the entire thing into a bath and didn't take my eyes off it for 20 to 30 minutes to ensure it didn't disintegrate before my eyes. I have felted many a woollen sweater in my youth by combining water with wool so it was a nerve-wracking experience. I didn't have any blocking rods either so just used string to produce some straight lines and then pinned it to the rug in my bedroom away from all the Kids and checked on it every 5 minutes like a newborn baby. 

I love the element of surprise with a shawl, the fact that all the stitches are bunched up on a circular needle, and you have no idea how it will look until you cast-off. I'm completely addicted. In fact I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning the other night just so I could finish it in time to start a new shawl - Ysolde's Mystery Knit Along, along with 2346 others from around the world. We will be given a new clue every Monday for 5 weeks. I started and finished the first clue last night so it's not too late to start! I think this is the beginning of a new obsession. How many shawls is too many, I wonder? I'm still reading Christopher Koch's "Lost Voices" which is a brilliant read if I could just steal myself away from the wool and the computer I might actually finish it sometime this year! What are you all reading and/or making at the moment? I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone is up to. Have a lovely end to the week!

Mel xxx

I'm joining in with Ginny's Yarn Along this week.