A Dose of Vitamin C

Finally--I get to show you the swap shawl!! I had planned originally to go stash diving but my swap partner said that she liked orange and bright! And me with no orange in my stash.  So it was time for a trip over to Loopy Yarns. They are my home shop here in Chicago and are so wonderfully close to a train stop that is on the way home from work.



I chose Veronik Avery's St. Denis Boreale in Carrot.  This is her fingering weight and I don't think it's getting enough press. This is Made in the USA yarn!! It's 100% wool--not merino--so it is a more crisp and bouncy yarn. The colors are gorgeous and the yardage is generous (225 yds). I really liked the stitch definition that I got and even after a trip through Soak (just the faintest hint of orange came off in the water), all of the stitches were still very crisp. WEBS has it if you're looking online--it's brighter in person than the colors are showing on my monitor. 

The pattern I pulled from Sock Yarn 1 Skein Wonders. It's the first thing I knit from the book and it was....okay. It's the Clover Honey Shawlette.  I don't think my row gauge is that off but I had to do a full extra repeat of the lace chart to get anywhere near the appropriate measurements.  And in my experience this takes closer to 300 yards rather than the 400 that it calls for.  I chose not to do the beads, they seemed superfluous. 





And in case you wondered, once I pinned it out I did cover it so my swapee didn't get a shawl ENTIRELY laden with cat fur.



I don't think I'll knit the pattern again. It was deadline knitting, what with deciding around March 1 that I wanted to do this particular pattern rather than the one I'd picked out before and by the time I was done I was pretty sick of it. If repeated I might try to figure out how to add another repeat of width on the chart.

Packed it up with some buttons, stitch markers and sock yarn...