It’s done! After a couple of months, I’ve finished my first big lace project – the Mystery Shawl project through Stitches and Scones! In my last post, I previewed the yarn I used – Happy Feet Sock Yarn in red! Knowing I wear a lot of black, I thought red was an appropriate choice.
It was a mystery because every week or so, a clue was posted to the user group. And, in most clues there was a choice of two different patterns so it was almost a ‘choose your own adventure!’ I was on track for about the first clue and a half but then we went away for Spring Break and got behind. Actually this turned out to be a good thing as I realized that I wanted to increase the size of the shawl!
You see, as part of the project, the shop also held a session on blocking – something I’d not done before! While at the class, I saw the finished size of several shawls (pre blocking – but more on that later) and decided I really wanted something larger. So, after seeing what the magic of blocking can do, I went home and knit and knit and knit. Because each row of the shawl added stitches, it took longer and longer to finish a row and I started to regret this decision but am really glad I stuck with it!
Fourteen extra pattern rows later it was time to do the border – another place I could choose between two different options. I was again glad I was behind because I had been able to see both options complete on other people’s work and made the appropriate choice for my shawl.
Finally it was time to bind off and I was very lucky – after adding all the extra rows I ended up with a mere 5 yards of yarn left!
Now, about blocking:
In a nutshell, it consists of getting the project wet and pinning it out into its final size and shape to dry. What it also does for lace is to provide stitch definition and opens up all the little holes that took so long to do! My shawl was 21 x 48 inches at the widest points when it came off the needles. After blocking, it’s 31 x 63 inches!
But, what you really want are photos so no more typing . . . here it is!
