be-holden

so this shawlette kept catching my eye in the ravelry database…  i LOVED the detail and the scallop-y edges and i was sure that i needed to make it…  i kept working on the things i was working on for a while – and then my girl jen! was lookin’ for a new project.  she said this shawlette was in the running and it didn’t take me three seconds to turn it into our own little KAL (knitalong for you non-fiberphiles – where more than one knitter works on the same pattern or type of project at the same time).

i stash dove to find just the right yarn – - i skipped all the blues, ’cause i always do blue, i got it down to 5, then down to three…  and finally i selected blue moon fiber arts, socks that rock mediumweight, in sunstone.  i bought it almost four years ago at stitches midwest in chicago.

so i wound the yarn into a center pull ball, loaded the pdf pattern up on my kindle and packed it to start at the walleye game a few weeks ago.  i start perusing the pattern on my way down town (i wasn’t driving!) and realize that my skein is much less yardage than the pattern calls for.  i have a minor panic attack as i’d brought no other knitting!!  *GASP!!*

i texted frantically back and forth with my friend meghan who had just worked this shawlette recently and she suggested a way to save some yardage and said i’d likely be just fine with my skein…  i started and had this much done by the time we got home from the game (p.s. josh – look!  another shot of the ring ):

i basically raced right on through, i was so happy with the coloring and the yarn is one of my faves and i was using my fancy schmancy needles jon got me 2 Christmases ago and the whole thing was just a dream knit.    and then i went to bind off…

i could tell already i wasn’t going to make it so i backed out a row and finagled a way to still do a picot edge while binding off from the purl/wrong side of the work…  i got about a quarter of the way through the second half and ran out of yarn. 

luckily enough…  jen!, herself, my lovely little kal partner had a skein of this SAME yarn in her (VERY) meager stash.  haaaaahahaha  i say that out of love, she’s more of a buy what you need, knit what you have kind of knitter, where i’m just a yarn ho.  so the out of yarn discovery was made late on a thursday night, the request was made to jen! to borrow just a bit of her skein and she had it in the mail to me and on my doorstep by monday afternoon when i arrived home from work!!

so i got it finished and took a couple shots before blocking (very orange-y in the indoor/nighttime lighting):

even outdoors, the sun was setting so it was still orange-y:

but this is when the real magic happens…  here it is on the blocking board (along with some socks i knit my sister for Christmas that needed a little more give) after i soaked it, then rolled in a towel to get most of the wet out:

i pinned out each picot point, taking care to manipulate the fabric so that the scallops had nice rounded arcs…  my fingertips ached, but i was pretty happy with it…  i left it to dry overnight and today when i got home from work i took the pins out, tucked the few ends away and then threw it on….  and i am so VERY happy with this project i can’t stop grinning and looking at the pictures of it.  i can’t wait to plan an outfit around it, tomorrow morning!  hahaha

and that one handknit’s story – start to finish.  love it love it love it.