Aeolian Shawl

As I mentioned in my last post, I finished this one a while back (just in time for it to be a birthday present to myself) and have finally managed to get my photographer to take a few photos.

It took me about a month and a half to knit it, all told (though I was never really faithful to it, and was working on various other projects at the same time.) It was precisely the kind of lace project that I had a hankering for -- large and complex and lovely.


I think I mentioned before that I used some JaggerSpun Zephyr laceweight that I had in my stash -- and I still have tons left, so expect to see more purple shawls in the future. I also had a bunch of beads for another project that I ended up using for this one. You can't really see them in these photos, but they give a bit of substance to the shawl. Zephyr is so light and airy that this shawl would be barely there without the beads -- I really like what they added to the fabric.

The pattern itself isn't hard, but between adding hundreds of beads and making all those nupps, it's pretty time-consuming. The blocking and pinning was a real chore, though. It took forever to pin out all those little points. That being said, I would totally do it again, maybe in something a bit fluffier. I mean, I would, if there weren't so many other shawls out there for me to knit.


I have worn it a lot -- wrapped around my neck like a scarf or worn like a shawl. I really love it. Another successful stash yarn project into the FO pile.

This Week in Knitting

After finishing Sophie, I picked up the Skew socks I've been knitting on, and let me tell you, they are getting interesting. There are some sort of Zimmermann-ish contortions about to happen, which are somehow supposed to turn all those stitches bulging off to the side of the heel into the back leg. The mind boggles, I know. I'll show you the finished heel once I've made that turn, but don't count on it making sense.


I also got the March Rockin' Sock shipment, and of the two lovely patterns that came with it, I chose the one called Slip Jig. It is a much more straightforward pattern than Skew, so when my brain starts to hurt too much from the strange construction of Skew, I just resort to knitting on these ones. Aren't the colours lovely? It is a very springtimey yarn, and they are very fun and quick to knit.


Lastly, despite being distracted by so many socks, I made a bit more progress on the Aeolian shawl in the last day or two. I am just past the first row of nupps, and they turned out so nice (even though you can't really make them out in this photo. Trust me.) I just did a row with nearly 70 beads in it, so it is also very sparkly.

Beeeeeads

I am still in the honeymoon stage with the Aeolian shawl: where the rows are relatively short and you are clipping along through the charts at a good rate. Five more repeats of this pattern and then I get to the next part of the design. Of course, by then, things will probably have slowed down, considerably.

But really, who can resist working on such a spectacular shawl, especially when it gives you an excuse to use sparkly little beads. (Look closely -- they are in the center of the pairs of yarnovers.) These ones are way shinier than they look in the photo, more like a hematite.

Added bonus: it lets me use up some more of the JaggerSpun Zephyr laceweight I have. I have loads of this stuff (several shawls worth) in my stash, and two thirds of it is this shade of purple. I am seriously considering some overdying, once this is knitted. Tell me -- am I crazy?