Wool Candy

Long time no blog, hey? Sorry. Part of the reason is that I’ve been knitting like a madwoman. I finished this:

in a week. Seven days. I cast on on a Friday, and cast-off the following Friday. Blocked it on Saturday, for a surprise bridal shower on Sunday.

My fingers were on fire. FIAH, people! I don’t know how I did it.

The story behind this shawl is that my friend Liz is marrying Sam on October 10th. She’s a wonderful knitter, and a very big supporter of Wool Candy, as well as an all around sweetheart. She’s knitting shawls for her bridesmaids, and it was getting a bit close for her comfort, so I offered to knit her bridal shawl for her. I did the same for Beth, when she got married last September. I made this Hanami shawl, and she looked so pretty in it, even though it was too hot that day to wear it much!

Liz picked the yarn, the beads and the pattern, and I set my little fingers and needles to work. There was no requirement that the shawl be finished in a week… but I was on a roll, so I went for it.

As all triangle shawls worked from the shoulders to the point, the first part of this went incredibly fast. Those rows are super short! By the time I got to the edging, it was getting really intense. Hundreds of stitches. Nupps and beads in the same row. The edging has FOUR CHARTS that you work simultaneously (luckily 3 of them are very easy — mostly stockinette). Now, I’m a fearless knitter. I’ll knit anything, once. It’s just knitting - nothing to be scared of. But man. Row 43? Took me an hour and forty minutes. INTENSE. Okay, fine. It was a totally fun challenge, and no one said I had to insanely knit a shawl in a week. Except me.

I just cast on another Aeolian, with a new yarn of mine. Souffle Fingering, which has the same fiber composition as Souffle lace — Alpaca, Silk and Cashmere –  in “Brassica,” a new colorway. With the perfect matching beads.

The Stats:

Pattern: Aeolian Shawl, from Knitty, Spring 2009 (Ravelry)

Yarn: The delicious, scrumptious, fantabulously fabulous Shimmering Silk Lace, from A Verb for Keeping Warm, in the color “Glinda”

Needles: My trusty Knitpicks Options size 5/3.75mm with a 32″ cable.

Gauge and finished size: Who knows? It’s slightly larger than shawlette sized. It wraps around Liz, anyway.

Pattern notes: I knit 6 Yucca charts, the final Agave chart, and the edging as written. Included nupps and size 8/0 purple glass beads. The very last edging row has a size 6/0 beads, because I was almost out of size 8/0s. It turned out to be a nice feature.