The "after" picture

Greetings and Dear Cynthia,Yippee! My work is done on this project. Now I just have to let nature (evaporation) do its thing, and the shawl will be done! Here it is blocking. Dimensions as pinned are 96 inches across the top, and 48 inches from the back neck edge to the bottom point. This means that it "grew" roughly 50% in the blocking process! Considering how much the unblocked fabric puckered, I guess I can see why.And, though it will recoil slightly when I take the pins out, it is almost exactly the size I was going for! Very exciting for me. On a gloomy day like we have (again!) today, this is definitely a bright spot!

In other knitting news, I've made progress on both the sock and the Sapporo sleeve. If things go as I hope, I'll finish the Sapporo sleeve tonight and get that blocking, too. It will be a once in a lifetime event for me to have both a huge shawl and a Dale of Norway sweater blocking at the same time. Imagine my sense of relief at getting these things done. Perhaps this will help alleviate my nightmares about signing up for a class and forgetting to attend it until the last week before finals...

If there is sun tomorrow, I'll try to get some photos of the shawl in use, as well as get some snapshots of my daffodils and hyacinths. My favorite season is definitely Fall, though the color of the spring bulbs really helps to chase away the winter blahs.....

Warm regards,
Laura (YarnThrower)