Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Pleased as Punch

Yesterday, I finally finished what I consider to be my biggest knitty achievement to date: a lace shawl. I started sometime this summer with one yarn and ended up stopping and starting over with a different yarn. There were times when I wondered if I would ever finish, but my fascination with the process and desire to see the whole thing all blocked out were stronger. I spent all day and evening on Monday doing the edging...very tedious short row stuff. I finished the shoulder edging yesterday and without thinking, started a standard bind-off. Dumb, I know. The pattern doesn't call for a specific bind-off, so I looked at a reference book and decided to try the Yarn-Over Bind Off, which worked perfectly.

OK, enough with the synopsis and on to the good stuff.

Pattern: Tiger Eye Shawl by Hazel Carter
Yarn: Zephyr laceweight in "curry"
Needles: US size 6 Addi Turbo
Finished Measurements: mine came out to be about 30.5" tall by 66" wide after a thorough blocking

Here is is blocking on my bed:


And here is the finished product (on my newly stained deck...Labor Day Weekend project that my parents and I did):




I would definitely recommend this pattern. Most, if not all, of the stitches are taken from the Barbara Walker Treasuries and since it's sort of a sampler, you get a little bit of everything. Sure, some sections get tedious, but I think you find that with most patterns in general. I ended up leaving my pattern in the plastic sleeve and using a dry erase marker to keep track of where I was in the charts - much easier than trying to use a post-it note that is losing its stickiness!

So there you have it. My first lace shawl. I'm already itching to start another one!

13 comments:

Rosemary said...

YAY, you beat me to shawl-knitterdom! :)

Betty said...

Gorgeous!

Did you get my email?

Jenn said...

Looks great!

Anonymous said...

absolutely BEA-U-TI-FUL Julie!!!!

Michelle said...

Gorgeous! I love the pattern. Congrats on a first lace finish!

orion713 said...

That is AMAZING! I can't even imagine how difficult it must have been. WOW

Kirsten said...

Congrats! It's beautiful!

katie said...

Congratulations! You did a beautiful job!

tekopp said...

I don't think you bragged enough of yourself in that post. because the shawl is amazing!
puuuurty!

Tonni said...

Great lace knitting! Love the pattern.

Anonymous said...

just catching up on your blog... that is so pretty! You totally rock.

Anonymous said...

It's beautiful! And it looks like a pretty complicated pattern for a first lace shawl - good job!

Anonymous said...

Stunning! Really nice job! I linked over from one of your Lime & Violet posts - Are you guys gonna keep podcasting? I'll download tonight!