On the Podium

After several marathon knitting sessions over the weekend, I bound off the last stitch of my Ravellenic Games project while watching the end of the women's marathon yesterday morning.

Pattern: Wilshire Shawl by Dee O'Keefe
Yarn: madelinetosh tosh lace (100% merino) in Fathom, approximately 0.86 skeins/817 yards used
Needles: 32" US 4 (3.5 mm) Addi Turbo circs
Started/Completed: July 27, ~8:30 p.m./August 5, 8:45 a.m.
Mods: none

This was a really fun knit. The lace itself was pretty simple (nothing more complicated than a slip one, k2tog, psso), and as you can see, a fair portion of the shawl is in plain stockinette, making for some pretty mindless knitting. Unfortunately, there was one part in one of those mindless sections where I did let my mind slip and forgot a pair of yarnovers around the center stitches. I discovered it many rows later and decided to sneak in the two extra stitches rather than rip back, and while you can find the error if you look for it, I don't really think it's very obvious because the eye is drawn to the lace portions.

I haven't measured the final dimensions, but this shawl is pretty sizable. I had to put extra towels on the floor on the top ends because it was wider than the big towel I was blocking on. Despite the size, it's really light and airy; I've gotten so used to knitting shawls in fingering that I'd forgotten just how light a laceweight shawl can be!

Overall, this project was a real win. It was enough of a challenge in that it took some serious dedication of time and effort but not so much of a challenge that my tired brain couldn't handle it at the end of the day. The pattern was very easy to follow (but it has only charts, for the record) and well written, so I'll definitely consider more of this designer's patterns in the future.

After finishing such a big project, I immediately cast on for something quick -- a baby sweater. This is Cascade from Petite Purls, and I'm knitting it for one of the Mister's coworkers who's expecting a baby girl early this fall.

Yes, I know it's blue, but I happen to like little girls in bright blues -- any bright color, really. This is going very quickly -- I expect to finish the body tonight. It helps that I'm making the smallest size, but there's something so satisfying about finishing a sweater in a couple evenings.