Swallowtail: knit while the chimney swifts twittered, cast off while the house sparrows piped, blocked while Nightingale warbled.
Looooooove.
Even the five extra bud lace repeats.
Even the innumerable extra nupps in the lily of the valley borders.
I started it in late May and was making good progress until I came down with mono, which put me off knitting for a bit. (I'd been poking around Ravelry just before the worst of the fever, and that night my fever dreams were about fiber and the Yarn Harlot. I haven't touched a spindle since.) But I figure I made up the time in the past few days, as I've done nothing but read, knit, and write the occasional email.
I cast off Sunday night and merrily threw the blankets and pillows off of my sister's bed so I could block it immediately. (Shhhh. She never needs to know.)
I already want to knit it again, although I know I need to wait or I'll just get bored. And I have no yarn. (Yes, I mean it. Yes, I'm staring at a plastic storage bin two-thirds full of yarn as I
type this. No, you wouldn't understand.) I'm a bit picky about shawl patterns-- I like triangular ones with wide borders, and scalloped edges, and a central motif that isn't too fussy or too large or too small or too boring...
Pattern: Swallowtail Shawl by Evelyn A. Clark
Yarn: Baruffa Cashwool, 2-ply laceweight
Needles: US 3 mystery metal circulars
Finished size: 62" wingspan, 25" down center back
Modifications: 19 repeats of Bud Lace pattern instead of 14, with Pepperknit's adjustment in row 3 of the Peaked Edging to fix the stitch count. I cast off with a US 5 needle but also made my stitches really loose, so it was probably more like casting off with a US 7 or 8. For the nupps, I tried Pepperknit's suggestion of putting the yo from yo, p5tog, yo on the purl rows a few times but I didn't find that any easier, although I did do sl2, p3tog, psso instead of p5tog as she suggests. My needles were so blunt that even p3tog was a bit of a struggle, but I found that keeping the k1, yo business on the knit rows really loose made completing the nupps on the purl rows easier.
Shawl with knitblog!kitten
I'm leaving for Madison, WI in less than a week, although you'd never know it from the state of my room. Yikes.
