bewitched.

Remember when I scored a giant cone of fingering weight wool last summer?

I knew it had to be a shawl or a stole or something, but seriously, a shawl? I've never been that kind of girl, so the thought of spending tons of time on something that for sure would be incredibly gratifying to knit & finish, wouldn't be put to much use once it was done wasn't all that appealing to me.

But last week I found myself in a very new to me place. A place with no projects on the go. Donald's socks have been axed - he'd like slippers instead (the socks were taking me *for.e.v.e.r.* something about using cotton to knit stuff for other people slows me down) Gord's anniversox were done & the next big project was supposed to be a sweater for him. We've finally narrowed down the pattern (Elizabeth Zimmerman's Seamless Hybrid - wooot!) but now there's the matter of picking out the yarn. I had a sock on the go - but it was mainly an 'at work' project.

I needed something....something a little challenging, using something from my stash. A buffer project that would last until Gord had made a colour/content decision for his sweater.

Yo guy, my bad - this was cast on last wednesday at about 9pm. I finished it on Monday night.



It's the Swallowtail Shawl from Interweave Knits Fall 2006. I used size 4 circular Addi Turbos. This is a really easy to follow pattern. The hardest part is the nubbs - the stumpy ends of my needles could not get in there for the p5tog - I did some online searching & discovered that sl2, p3tog, psso would work just the same. This saved me lots of time & cut my swear words to almost nil.

I'd read it a million times - how blocking lace turns the work into a whole different thing - turns the caterpillar into a butterfly....but it took seeing it with my own eyes to fully understand. Before blocking, the top edge measured 42". Now it's 56". Lovely. I have the awesome tips on lace blocking from the Yarn Harlot to thank for how nicely this turned out.


It has one or two mistakes, but nothing I can't live with.

This used barely any of the wool from the cone - I could probably knit about 4 more of these things with what I have left over!

I really, really love it, and dare I say...I think it's converted me into being that kind of girl.