mom's shawl!

In my recent travelings to the midwest, I went to Chicago with Harold and my parents. My dad went to a conference while Harold, my mom, and I explored the city. Somehow we ended up at Wicker Park in front of a yarn store- fancy that! Nina's yarn shop is an elegant space with a very well edited selection of yarns. Nina deals with companies that have good causes (like Be Sweet and Manos del Uruguay), unique products (Habu Textiles) and great work horse yarns (Rowan, etc.), and I found that I wanted to knit with almost all the yarns on the shelves. Damn you, Malabrigo! She also carries Twinkle yarns, which I found intriguing, because I just got that book- but I resisted.

Then my mom picked up a ball of Be Sweet's Magic Ball in peachy tones, picked up a store sample shawl, and said- I wish I could have this! So I bought that Magic Ball, 2 Be Sweet mohair boucles in pink and wheat, and a skein of Blue Sky Brushed Suri in light pink. The store sample shawl was a pattern from Karabella for their gossamer yarn. You start at the bottom of the back, increase on either side for a long time, bind off at the neck, and then decrease on the outer edges for the fronts. Then you pick up stitches all around the edges and double the stitches every other row for the ruffle. By the end, I had over a thousand stitches to bind off. Yeesh. I had to make some gauge difference adjustments (the pattern's gauge was 4SPI and I was getting 2.25 SPI) and I striped the Magic Ball, the pink Boucle and the Brushed Suri throughout. But I knit to the schematic's measurements and then proceeded to plow through the yarn in a gigantic effort to complete the shawl before I left and use all the yarn so I wouldn't have to add to the excel spreadsheet. I used the last ball of boucle in wheat for the last two ruffle rows. So this was what was leftover:

And here is the finished result!

Ruffle close up:

And a detail of the effects of Magic Ball:

Magic Ball is kind of crazy- lengths of all kinds of yarns in complementing colors tied together at random intervals. I had this weird bobble yarn with boucle, feathery ribbon, sparkly nylon, etc. Everything pretty much blended in except for the feathery ribbon and these bobbles.

An action shot:

Comments

[Leslie]

That is simply stunning!!!

[Marce]

LOVE Chicago for the good eats AND the woolery :)
Those menu items are intriguing.
Your mom's shawl is AWESOME - what a great knit! Congrats on showing that spreadsheet who's boss!

Not only are you a knitting savant, Jenny, you are a speed demon! That stash spreadsheet must be a powerful motivator. Looks amazing too. I've said it before... I can see where you and your sisters get your good looks!

[DebbieKnitterd]

OMG, that is sooooooooooo pretty. I love it. Your mom looks very lovely in it too:)