So, sweet Rue sent this lovely yarn as a little something for Mama when she sent Wiggle his sweater.
You wouldn't think that I'd have time for lace knitting these days, but now that I'm back at work, I'm pumping 3-4 times a day. So, instead of staring at the wall in the 4x4 closet that's been turned into a nursing mothers room, I'm knitting.
30-40 minutes a day, five days a week and, just under two months later, voila! a shawl!
I pushed for a final repeat and came up just short.
But, since Rue knew me so well, she sent me green and I knew I had a giant cone of green lace weight that I bought my first year of knitting. It's two ply and machine spun, but close enough that for one row and a bind off, it wasn't noticeable.
It took awhile to get FO shots since I was unwilling to pose inside, in the evening with pajamas. This weekend Partner and I snuck out during a nap.
I cast on fewer stitches since the pattern is for more yardage than I had. I'm quite happy that this ended up measuring 15 x 56, so a perfect shawl!
If you look in the picture above, you can see the tops of each leaf. The pattern calls for purl stitches between leaves but another Raveler subbed-in knit stitches and I liked the idea. As a result, the back of the shawl is nearly as beautiful as the front!
Project details:
Pattern: Woodland Shawl
Yarn: Malabrigo Lace, Verdes colorway; a little bit of unknown green - 503 yards
Modifications: In between leafs (vertically) I did not do the purl stitches so the stems flow into each other instead of being separated. Also, I only cast on 67 stitches instead of 89 because I had one skein of yarn and still wanted a wrap.
Yardage total 2013: 3407
And it's playoff time here in the U.S. for baseball. My lifelong team is in the playoffs. I'm convinced that they've waited until I gave up my season tickets after ELEVEN YEARS to win this year. My friend who's been a fan even longer sent Wiggle a onesie so he can cheer too!
The colour is gorgeous and the pattern, too! Amazing what dedicated knitting time can do, hey?
Sorry the A's waited til you left the continent, but that last picture sure is cute!
Posted by: kate | October 07, 2013 at 07:27 AM
oh wow kathy... your shawl is completely breathtaking! i love it!
hooray for working moms who pump!! :)
wiggle is indeed the cutest a's fan ever!!
Posted by: melissa | October 07, 2013 at 08:04 AM
Lovely work ! I agree, the reversibility is super nice . I yet to try lace, but you make it look so easy :) ((I found your comment on my blog this morning, hello... nice to meet you, I'm Jen from North Bay California !))
Posted by: Jen | October 09, 2013 at 06:47 AM
Congratulations on the mamma milk shawl. What a beautiful souvenir and artifact of your hours of expressing...a family heirloom!
Posted by: Rebecca | October 11, 2013 at 02:16 AM