Worth the Wait (or So I Hope)

It's been a while since I last blogged and I've been waiting to post until I had some good material. I've been working on a project that I at least think was worth the wait. So please forgive the large number of photos, but I couldn't resist.

Pattern: Haruni (Ravelry link) by Emily Ross
Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy (100% superwash merino), colorway Night Watch, one skein
Needles: 32" US 4 (3.5 mm) Addi Turbo circs
Started/Completed: May 12/June 2
Mods: did not slip the first stitch of the border

When I started this shawl, I was unsure if I could manage to get the whole thing out of my one skein of Smooshy. So I got out my trusty scale and measured the full skein to start. Lucky for me, Dream in Color seems to have generous skeins, so rather than the 113 grams the label said were in the skein, I had 120. I weighed what was left of the skein after each repeat of Chart A, because I had been advised that the border took half of the total yarn. Amazingly after I finished the specified number of repeats for Chart A, I had exactly half of my yarn left. After I bound off, I had only a tiny amount left over -- only about 2.5 grams. Talk about cutting it close!

Blocking was an interesting process. I'm used to knitting shawls that have points along the border, which are really easy to block out with blocking wires. The lovely crochet cast off on Haruni, however, results in a series of loops along the entire edge -- and each loop has to be pinned out individually. It look a lot of pinning and repinning to get things to where I wanted them.

Although I've knit a fair amount of lace in my time, this shawl was a bit of a challenge for me. The charts were a bit irregular in that the repeats aren't always predictable, so this was definitely a pattern that required a fair bit of attention. The border is also an exercise in perseverance, because you increase a huge number of stitches over the first half of Chart B before decreasing most of them in the second half of the chart. Those long rows take a long time!

Overall, I am really, really pleased with this shawl. It was nerve-wracking at the end to see if my yarn would hold out, but the result of all the work is a really stunning piece, in my opinion. I might have to make another one of these someday.