Finally finished

In October, a friend at work commissioned me to make a shawl for his mom for Christmas. He offered to pay, but really, it took so many hours that it would have cost $700. Or $1,000. I started it Oct. 31 and finished it Dec. 15, working on it about two hours a day almost every day. Seriously. I'm not a slow knitter, but it sure takes me a while to finish projects. And I get very impatient and bored with things. And let me say for the record, I will not be doing any more requests for anyone.



I had motivation, though, because I had a deadline. I did it, and I think it came out beautiful.



The pattern is a vintage pattern called the Adagio shawl. If you're on Ravelry, you can see my link here, and find your way to the pattern.



I used Knit Picks City Tweed dk yarn, about 9.5 balls of it. It's a beautiful, soft tweed. I used the colorway Orca.



Notes:
I used size 7 needles, but found it to be too tight despite having knit a swatch. It stretched nicely upon blocking, though. I did initially have trouble with the k3tog at the beginning, because it was too tight to get the needle into three stitches at once. I panicked, but nobody else seemed to mention this problem on Ravelry. I found a substitute stitch that makes the same effect (SSK, then pass that stitch to left needle, pass third stitch over it and off, then pass stitch back to right needle.), though it was much more time consuming. After a few rows, however, the fabric loosened up and I was easily able to k3tog.

Blocking mats and my love of all things dry

I ordered these blocking mats from knitpicks recently and am using them for the first time. Unfortunately, they are not as big as I expected. I hope to get another set for Christmas.



I am blocking the Adagio shawl I'm making for a friend, and I will have to do it in two sections because I ran out of mat. But my shawl is almost finished -- I just have to complete the collar and sew it on.

****added****

I had wanted to talk about the blocking mats a little bit when I posted this before, but at the moment, I really wanted to take a nap, so I seemed to forget about half of the intended post.

Anyway, these blocking mats are awesome. They are each 12 inches square and fit together like puzzle pieces so you can make whatever size and shape you need. They are made of foam so you can pin easily to them.

I also bought the blocking pins at the same site, which are easier to use than straight pins, in my opinion. You dampen your knitting project with a spray bottle on one side, put that side face down and start pinning to your desired measurements (we're talking about wool here, not synthetics. Wool has a memory that allows you to shape it while it's wet). Then, after it's pinned, spray down the exposed side really well and let it dry. If you live in the desert southwest, like I do, it dries in about five minutes and you're on your merry way. I sort of wonder how people deal with humidity, to tell you the truth!

I am fully adapted to low humidity, so even dry skin rarely gets ahold of me. You don't get as much mold and mildew, and you never see rust around here. The summers are hot ... "but it's a dry heat," so it doesn't bother you. And in the winters, HARDLY ANY SNOW! Yay! You never get those days where the air is so heavy and wet that you can't breathe. That's my plug for arid climates. I know it has nothing much to do with knitting, but tangents are my thing.

Adagio shawl

A friend of mine at work asked me to make a shawl for his mom for Christmas. He's paying for supplies, I offered to give my time. Only I didn't realize it would be two hours of work a day to finish it in time. Phew! It's fun to make, though. Just, nobody else ask me to knit something for them. Ever.



It's from a vintage pattern called the Adiago Shawl, and I'm using City Tweed DK yarn from Knit Picks in Orca. It's wonderful to work with.