A New Shawl

I haven't been posting much of my own work lately. This is partially because I haven't sewn much for myself,  partially the "Great Sewing Room Clean-up" and mostly, because I have been frantically knitting.

You see, I sort of volunteered to be a test knitter for a designer I follow. The project didn't look too complicated (not like 1001 Nights) and I had lots of wool on hand that I could use.

The shawl was 303 stitches across. Each row took a long time to knit, and it required careful attention to detail. I needed two contrasting yarns to make the shawl, and I had one I thought would work, but nothing to go with it. So, I needed a trip to the yarn shop. When I started knitting, there wasn't enough contrast between the two for the pattern to show properly. I ended up buying another skein of yarn.

After much knitting, I finished the shawl before the due date, although my hands and shoulders were not happy about all the knitting. It is now blocked, and ready to wear.

The Big Reveal:

This is Tyche by Claire Slade.

After blocking, it is lovely and long. It does take awhile to start to see the mosaic pattern, but it goes much faster after you figure it out.

You can tell I was pining for some nice spring weather when I started this. The yarn is Indigodragonfly Cariboubaa in colourway Guppy Longmockings and Sublime Baby Cashmere Silk in colourway Pinkaboo.

While I was gathering supplies for this, I discovered the required needles were lounging in a forgotten UFO. It was a scarf I started in 2015, then ran into difficulties when I realized I didn't have sufficient yarn in my stash to finish the scarf. The yarn was a sale bin purchase of a discontinued line. This is when it is good to have friends. My buddy Cheryl of Grandma Coco fame had rummaged through the same sale bin and had a skein of the yarn in the same dye lot. While waiting for the yarn to arrive in the mail,  I moved on to other projects, and this one got forgotten. It last appeared in my blog in January of 2016.

I spent a great deal of time on Saturday, figuring out where I left off in the pattern (one should always store a UFO with a marked copy of the pattern). So, I am working away on this scarf. Since I am optimistic that scarf season is over,  it can go into the gift box, for next Christmas.

I do find that 39 stitch rows go much faster than 303 stitch rows.