A Flourish Of Finishes: Leaf Evolution Shawl

I'm breaking one of my blogging rules by writing this post (I don't have many blogging rules, apart from 'be yourself' and the one I'm breaking 'reply to most if not all of the comments from the previous post before you write another one') but I'm aiming to write a short post every day until I've shown you all of my finishes from my FAL Q3 list and linked them up with Katy and her linky party, I do hope you'll forgive me!




At the start of the quarter I had two balls of yarn, a pattern and a set of needles and no idea when I was going to finish:

Gorgeous lace weight yarn by Manos

Over the next couple of months it grew steadily and I took photos at not-very-regular intervals (i.e. when I remembered and the weather was fine) so I could track progress:

Getting started

Three repeats

Seven (I think!) repeats

No idea how many repeats but this was taken the day before Archie's dramatic adventures on Bank Holiday Monday

And, less than two months after starting (mainly because once Archie was home from the vet, he didn't like me to be out of his sight so I spent an awful lot of time knitting and catching up with the telly), I cast off the final stitch:

Off the needles and looking lovely but in definite need of blocking!

You can see the lace pattern but it's not very defined - I love how this changes after blocking

After blocking (I wanted to show how delicate the shawl was but don't think I really captured that, sorry!)

The lace pattern is a lot more defined now and the feel of the shawl (as well as the dimensions!) has changed quite drastically

I'm thrilled with how this shawl turned out and I think I can safely say that it's owner is also thrilled - there are a couple of gorgeous photos of it (and her!) right here.  The yarn was wonderful to work with and didn't kink/twist up on itself or split.  I can't knit with many yarns (I'm allergic to wool and can't tolerate many other types of yarn (even if there's no wool in it) and it's not just natural fibres that set my skin off so finding yarn I can knit with is always tricky) but I had no problems with this particular yarn.  I couldn't wear it (and had to knit in short spurts when the shawl was small as, somehow, my hands were more in contact with the yarn, but that got better as the shawl got longer) but I'd definitely knit with it again.

I think I can safely say that I'm fairly addicted to knitting shawls (even though I can't wear them!) and have plans to start another in the next couple of months but this time with another blogger who would like some (virtual) company while she tackles her first shawl.  I'll let you know what we choose and when we're starting!


Leaf Evolution Shawl II

Yarn - Manos del Uruguay Lace in green (colour 2387) - two skeins
Needles - 3.75mm Knit Pro Symfonie (I used a 60cm cable and changed to an 80cm cable as the shawl grew)
Pattern - Leaf Evolution Shawl by Tetiana Otruta (24 repeats of chart B)
Size - 78" x 36" (after blocking)
Made for - Kerry (I suppose you could call this my first commission but I prefer to think of it as 'making something lovely for someone lovely')
Started - approx. 18th July 2014
Finished - 8th September 2014

As it's the first of the month, I'm also linking up with Lynne:

It's my bed and I wanted it on the floor so I could lie on it, not up there airing off.  Go on, admit it, you're impressed I thought of pulling it off, aren't you?

Flickr is obviously a bit mardy today and isn't playing nicely - I hope that you can see my photos but if not, imagine lots of photos of some tatty looking knitting, a few photos of a (gorgeous, even if I do say so myself) green shawl and one photo of a slightly defensive (but proud) looking dog laid on a quilt next to a cage...