Peacock Feathers Shawl

Recipient: Mom
Designer: Dorothy Siemens
Pattern: Peacock Feathers Shawl
Source: Fiddlesticks Knitting
Completed: September 12, 2007
Colours: "Madder Green"
Yarn: Yarnsmiths 65% lambswool, 35% camel down, lace or fingering weight
WIP status: Ready to sew in ends and block
Pictures:

completed


closer shot of half the shawl


detail of of the first motif


detail of the second motif


detail of the third motif and edging


detail of the tip

2007-Sep-12

If you've ever done a big, intricate lace project and then blocked it, you know exactly how high I am on myself right now. :) I finally got off my rump and cleaned out the bin I soak knitted items in, thus leaving the way clear to give this shawl a soak prior to pinning. After the soak, the water looked like this:



After stretching the life out of the shawl and making it stay with 258 pins, I waited for it to dry, sewed in the ends, took out the pins, and was rewarded with...magic. Glorious, heady stuff. Especially when it means I have one Christmas project completed.

2007-Mar-13

Last week, I was taking the subway on my way to work and I had probably about six rows left to knit before I could start on the crocheted edging. I knitted all through the ride, and when I came to my stop, I packed up and left the train, confident that I'd probably be able to finish all the knitting on this project before the end of the day.

On my way towards my office building, I was stopped by a very nice lady who pointed out that I was trailing several metres of yarn behind me, from my backpack. How strange. I thanked her, wound up the excess and put it back into my bag. Then, I stopped. Again...how strange, I thought. Why would I be trailing yarn? Was it really the other end of the yarn ball, as I'd originally assumed, or...

OR...

Had I actually left the yarn behind me on the train, had the length between the yarn and the shawl break behind me as the train pulled out of the station, and was now almost yarnless for the rest of the day?

I checked.

Why yes, yes, that's EXACTLY what happened.

Grrr.

There are a lot of 'fortunately's to this tale. Firstly, I didn't lose the actual shawl project, just the yarn ball it was attached to. Secondly, I only had about 25-50g (best guess) left on the yarn ball, so the loss was not great. Thirdly, I had over two additional pounds of the same yarn sitting in my stash, so there was absolutely no risk of running out of yarn for this project.

What DID piss me off was that, once I'd exhausted the two or three metres of yarn that had been left trailing behind my oblivious self, I couldn't do any more knitting on the shawl that day until I got home. That was the part that blew. That, and looking like a total idiot as I walked off the train still attached to a ball of yarn. Sigh.

ANYWAY, all this to say...if you have been in Toronto over the past two weeks or so, and have happened across a small ball of forest green lambswool/camel hair blend yarn? Consider it yours. :) I wish you joy of it. But I do highly recommend that you wash it before using it!

Meanwhile, once I returned home that day, I was able to continue knitting the shawl, and I finished it off. All that was left to do was the crocheted edging. Unfortunately, since I am not a crocheter, I have a very limited crochet hook collection (can a single crochet hook really be considered a "collection"?), so I had to borrow the size I needed...from my mom. :) That's right, I needed to borrow equipment from the intended gift recipient herself. (I will point this out to her with great glee when she opens it at Christmas.) Of course, I didn't tell her what I was going to use the hook for, and fortunately, she didn't ask.

So! It is done! All except the sewing-in of ends and the blocking. Here it is looking unblocked and noodly:



Here it is pseudo-blocked on my living room carpet:



I intend to complete it this weekend.

2007-Feb-20

Once work started to stall on the Elizabeth Jacket project, I turned my attention to this. It's getting bigger and bigger at a very nice pace, although I'm now at that stage where each row takes a really long time and the rows just keep getting longer and longer without getting any more exciting. In fact, yesterday I discovered some errors I made several rows previously and had to waste a lot of time doing intricate surgery to fix it all. (Grr.) I find this to be even more of a PITA than slogging away on endless, increasing rows (not to mention rather difficult when you're simultaneously trying to follow the plot of an episode of CSI Miami or 24). However, the good news is that it looks really good:


(this was taken on Saturday - it's noticeably further along now)

The other good news is that I'm halfway done (in terms of the number of rows) the last chart before the edging.

2007-Jan-30

The yarn is lovely, the design is absolutely gorgeous, and the work is easy. Unfortunately, the knitting is kind of mind-numbingly repetitive right now. I'm in the middle motif, which consists of an eight-row repeat that just keeps going and going over increasingly bigger rows.

So, while the outcome continues to be lovely...


...the process is starting to wear a little thin. However, I do keep at it. It makes for very good subway knitting.

2007-Jan-27

The reason I chose this week to get out to Knit Night was that the pattern for this project had arrived! I made sure to bring the yarn and needles needed for the project, then snapped the pattern up as soon as I got there, and cast on.

As always, Dorothy Siemens' patterns are not only beautiful, but extremely clear and easy to follow, and the charts are big. Moreover, the lambswool/camel down blend of yarn that I'm using is really lovely to work with. It's a good piece of knitting, this is.



And here's where I am now - 100 rows into it. This means, according to the shawl progress calculator from Rose-Kim Knits, that I'm 20% done the body. And that means that, at last, I have finished the task for the first week of this year's Schedule. Hooray!

2006-Dec-8

Today I called up Lettuce Knit and asked Laura if she could order the pattern for me from Fiddlesticks. I doubt it will be in by next Wednesday when I go to the SnB/holiday party, but hey, I live in hope.