I finally finished the shawl I have been working on for the last fifty years! Actually since mid January but you know when something feels like it’s been going on forever? That.
I haven’t had much time to work on it lately but once I was near the end I raced through the last part. It doesn’t look much just cast off and unblocked.
I haven’t had much time to work on it lately but once I was near the end I raced through the last part. It doesn’t look much just cast off and unblocked.
I don’t have the space here to block things out flat so I usually steam them. I cover my ironing board with towels and pin out whatever I’m blocking section by section. I steam the pinned out part and once it has cooled down I move on to the next part. It works okay and will do until I get more space.
I knew from the get-go that I was going to add a fringe, the shawl pictured on the pattern was fringed and I really liked the look of it. Who doesn’t like fringing right? I started by wrapping the yarn around a DVD case.
Using a scalpel I cut through one edge, it was wound too tightly to get a pair of scissors in, and ended up with a stack of yarn all cut to twice the length of the fringe I wanted.
Separating the yarn into pairs I folded them in two.
Then using a 2.5mm crochet hook I attached them to the edges.
After I’d cut all the yarn out I started wondering what the heck I was doing. I had a feeling I was going to get bored halfway down the first side and the whole thing would end up shoved in a bag to languish unfinished until I got a bug in my drawers to finish it (I have a history). But surprisingly it went really quickly and wasn’t at all a pain in the backside to do. In fact I quite enjoyed it, sitting with my feet up, shawl over my knees, cup of tea on the side. I might fringe everything!
To cast off I used the Zimmerman sewn bind off, I think it gives a much nicer edge. Mind you it curls really badly and needs some intense blocking to sort it out.
I like the way the little holes look like hearts, they don’t on the pictures in the pattern so I may have done something odd but I like the effect.
All in all a really nice knit, the pattern was easy to memorise and was quite relaxing to work on. The pattern is available free from here.
Enjoy your Thursday!