lace shawl

I finally finished my first lace project, or that’s what I’m calling it anyway.  I have knit a shawl before, in a lace pattern, but it wasn’t really Lace to me since the yarn was worsted.  I got tired of knitting it and wanted it finished so I rushed to the end.  Yes, a lace shawl but not really my first lace project.

So, my first Lace.

Swallowtail Shawl, by Evelyn Clark
Available for free on her website.  How cool is that?
Yarn: KnitPicks Shadow, overdyed turquoise by me.  A very nice yarn.

It’s dry now, and unpinned, and folded, and taken to show-and-tell with knitting friends.  I rushed to finish so I could give it to the bride whose wedding is a week from Saturday.  Maybe I can get a picture of her with it on.  It’s not like she requested a wedding shawl, but that’s what she’ll get.

I didn’t rush to the finish just because of the wedding.  I became enamored of the thing.  I was amazed with all those stitches on the needles.  And instead of looking at it like a chore – those long, long rows – I enjoyed the process.

The nupps were nice too, after that first purl-back row.  I almost got out my checkbook to write the newlyweds a check for $100 for goodness sake instead of finish that horrible first row of nupps.  LOOSE is the key word there, and once I made my (k1, yo, k1, yo, k1) in the same stitch loose enough, and I mean really really loose, everything was better.  I swear that first p5tog row took me two hours.  Pointier needles would have been nice.

before blocking

The thrill of it, the challenge, is more than the end product: shawl.  Sometimes you knit a hat because you want a hat and it really is about the thing at the end.  But who really needs a shawl?  You’ve got your Pashmina from 1998 or your grungy favorite sweatshirt from college to keep you warm.

For me it’s the knitting.  The actual sitting in the chair and picking up the project.  Finding your place and your rhythm.  The focus, the problem-solving along the way, the yo’s that line up just. so. perfectly.  It is irresistible.  I, like many others, fight the boredom of a long project and cast on new things with abandon, but finishing a big one like this…the feeling is joy.

Lace might be my new thing.  I cast on for a new shawl this morning.