The Purple/Pink Shawl

I’ve finally gotten around to taking photos of the shawl, and am ready to show it in it’s finished, blocked, glory:

As I said previously, I’m really quite pleased. More pictures? If you insist:

You will note the nice, pointy little edges. I’m very pleased those worked out as well as they did. Please also note the expanse: nearly 6 feet, which is the result of a bit of agressive blocking, but it really made the whole shawl work.

For slightly less expansive occasions, it can be worn folded in half:

I’ve written so much about this shawl, I don’t feel like there’s a huge amount left to say, so I’ll leave you with a final picture:

The Shawl is Done!

After about 6 months, my pink pinwheel shawl is done. I am very excited.

It’s not blocked yet, so you can’t really see the pointy edging I put on, but I’ll definitely post more pictures once I block it.

I was concerned as I was working on this that it wouldn’t work out. I was concerned in all sorts of ways. For the last 5 days, since I started the edging, I’ve been convinced I would run out of yarn (though some time yesterday I relaxed when I realized I was okay). I’ve been concerned that it wouldn’t lie flat (it mainly does, and I think it really will once I block it). I was concerned that I wouldn’t like it (I do…a lot).

I think I’m planning to offer it for sale, to try to offset my yarn habit…though if I wind up keeping it as a wrap, I wouldn’t be heartbroken.

For more details about the construction, you can take a look at the ravelry page for the project: I’ve included the pattern for the edging there.

Have I mentioned I’m excited to have finished this?

Too Many Projects, Not Enough Knitting

I’m currently working on at least 4 projects:

1. A pair of socks for Eva.
2. A pair of socks for me.
3. A blanket/bedspread.
4. A shawl.

Two of these projects are “large” (blanket and shawl) and two are relatively small (socks). I figured having projects of various sizes would be a good thing. It would mean that I would have a portable project when I needed it, a project that involves virtually no pattern work when I need brain-dead knitting, and good projects to get buried under when I’ll be sedentary for a while.  But a problem has arisen.

It’s been a while since I’ve finished a project. Like over a month, I think. Which for me, is a long time. I finished one of my pair of socks, but then before I could start work on the mate, I wanted to get Eva’s socks out, because they are a birthday present for her…which was about a month ago. And the big projects are moving, just very, very slowly. All the more slowly because I have other projects going at the same time.

I knit, at a fundamental level, for the joy of the knitting itself. I do it because it relaxes me, because it helps me focus and because it helps me think. Oh, and because I like yarn.

I don’t knit for the finished object (for the most part). So I find it curious that I’m having this sense of wanting to finish an object. Nonetheless, there it is.

I could, of course, cast on a quick and dirty project just to do something I could knock out in under a week, but somehow starting a fifth project as a response to having too many projects going at once seems like the wrong answer. I’m not saying I won’t resort to it, just that I’m not resorting to it YET.

In the meantime, I’m about to the point where I get to make the short-row heal on the first of Eva’s socks, which suggests I’m making real progress on them.