Well, I guess my cut finger did kind of rattle me Friday evening. Somehow, my blog post ended up being published three times! Got that fixed the next morning. I knew it wasn't in any way a serious injury - I've had worse cuts - but I needed a couple of extra hands to get it properly bandaged to stop the bleeding. I went through the same thing a couple of months ago with a deeper cut, and that kept breaking open for days. I've lived alone for so long that I rarely even notice it, but then every-so-often something like this kinda freaks me out a bit!
Anyway, Saturday morning was better, I could get a good bandage going, and so I sat down and FINISHED the shawl! I knitted the final two rows and then the crochet edging/cast-off. This pattern called for crocheting through the live stitches as part of the edging, so it also functioned as binding off. Of course, I pictured a "quick-crochet edging" and it took several hours, but then it was off the needles!!! And looked like this......
At this point I...hmm, I think I forgot to measure the diameter at this point or else I've forgotten the result. I know that I was hoping to get 42" blocked. I soaked it and laid it out to block.
That sounds so casual, doesn't it? "Laid it out to block." Man, that took an hour right there! There were probably somewhere around 180 little "points" to pin!! And the good news is that it blocked out to the full 48" that I originally was shooting for, so I'm very happy.
I'm sorry I didn't have anything dark to put under the blocking, so the picture doesn't show well, but here it is, in all its pinned glory.
I'm going to try to get some better pictures, and also some pictures on the big day, and then I'll pull together the "Shawl Story" and publish a link to that next week.
Whew. I may need to sit down here for a minute....
Sounds like Door County was just the right choice. Think it might be a good location for a knitting retreat? We haven't really done anything like that for a while, so we'll have to keep that in mind!
Keep knitting!
Cynthia (aka Designated Knitter)
Wow! That is a beautiful pattern. Very nice work too. It is still a bit dizzying for me to picture myself taking on a lace project that large. I saw a pattern in Handknit Holidays for a tree skirt -- I forget how large that was, but it gave me the same feeling!
ReplyDeleteI have gotten not only to SEE but HOLD that magnificent piece of lace in real life, and let me tell you, the pics do it NO justice. The pattern blocked out beautifully, and holding it is like holding a delicate spiderweb. Cynthia is a knitting goddess!!!
ReplyDelete