Shawl On, With Hope in Your Hearts...

I loved the play Carousel when I was little. As an adult, I have some pretty serious issues with the normalization of spousal abuse but the music at least still makes me happy.

I decided to join in on Wendy Johnson's latest KAL. She has such beautiful patterns and a bottom up shawl, while not something I've done before, sounded like quite a fun idea. I've only gotten through the cast on so far and please, forgive the awful colors. Fiber Optic yarn does not photograph to the brilliance that it is nor the depth of purple. This is more purple than blue in person.



I also decided that I wanted to get out some long neglected Lorna's Laces and make a shawl for myself for work.  I have my giant Malabrigo Clapotis there, but it doesn't tie around me and blue isn't always how I'm feeling. The air conditioning promises to keep me cold all summer, so I felt this was a practical undertaking (worsted weight wool, just as it's getting hot. Brilliant idea, right?)

Originally I bought this yarn with the intent of knitting a hat and scarf for a girl with whom I am not really close enough to knit items for. I wasn't really then either, but I had high hopes. I got two feet into a wavy scarf and ran out of energy. For three years this gorgeous purple yarn was ignored in my stash because it had meaning. I was supposed to be doing something with it. After moving back to Chicago, I ripped out the partial scarf, rewound the yarn, left it alone for a couple of weeks, and just started a shawl.

A garter stitch shawl.  I think I must be the most boring knitblogger ever---2x2 rib socks and garter stitch.  It's the Tess D'Ubervilles pattern.  I chose it because I wanted something mindless (1) and I wanted something long to wrap around but also be triangular. I liked the look of the shaping for this shawl.  Also, it calls for the amount of yarn that I have in the Lorna's.



It's plugging right along. The yarn is wonderfully cozy and I'm glad to finally be getting to use it. I love the subtleties of all of the purples and can't wait to wear this.  Working on size 10 needles means this grows much faster than the socks on size 0s.

These two projects, once done, will be another 1K approximately....see how I'm making plans to get through 5K this summer! There's a little method to my madness,  but only a bit.