Re-entry

As usual, I sort of flamed out on re-entry. The girls were away while I was, cottaging with my mum up north. We all arrived home, exhausted, dirty, sunbrowned (them) and yarn-laden (me) and descended upon poor Joe (who had spent 11 days putting cups the wrong way, cackling about big reels of wire in the living room and sleeping sideways on the bed. He won’t admit it, but I know that this was what he did..especially since when I arrived, the family computer had been moved from it’s post on the computer desk and had been thoughtfully arranged on the coffee table. The coffee table, naturally, so that a feral man can surf the web, drink beer and watch James Bond movies all at the same time. ) It took us a few days to get sorted, get the laundry done, take toolboxes, wire and computers out of living spaces and buy groceries. I slept, knit, worked and pulled myself together. We celebrated Meg’s birthday and I watered the garden. Somewhere in that, I finished this.

Shawl1

(Can somebody tell me why my arse looks like that? I’m not even sure that’s me.)

It’s the Diamond Fantasy Scarf by Sivia Harding, knit with…get this…

ONE SKEIN of Fleece Artist Sock yarn. (320m/350 yards) ONE. I’m delirious with joy. I love stuff to make with small amounts of yarn, and this makes a decent sized shawl (she calls it a scarf, but on me it’s totally big enough to be a shawl.)

Shawl2

I had some trouble with the pattern until I worked out that there is no problem with the pattern. There comes a time, on rows 36 and 46 when the travelling stitches appear briefly to be travelling in an unexpected way. I yanked back this row about 20 times trying to figure out how I was screwing up. Turns out that If you don’t try to outthink Sivia and do exactly as you are told (especially on rows 36 and 46) …suspend your disbelief, don’t try to “fix” the brilliant design and blindly follow her directions, all will become clear within the fullness of time. If you can do as you are told and follow a pattern without sabotaging yourself, this is actually an easy knit.

Shawl3

My favourite parts? The edge is knit on as you go, so when you are done you are done.. and the last instruction is to “Block Severely”.

I love it when you need to block severely.

I give this pattern a 10 out of 10. Gorgeous result, clever construction, brilliant use of a skein of sock yarn, charts and written instructions and a chance to pin 8000 pins into a piece of knitwear.

Nice.