Wrap Me Up, Too

A previous post of mine was about this fabulous shawl that I was working on. I finished it Thursday evening and put it on the blocking board (actually an old blanket with an old, heavy Christmas throw on top)

So by this morning (Saturday) it is GOOD TO GO! I'm pretty excited about it, it is so nice. To recap my previous post, I purchased Faraway, So Close, a shawl pattern at Carina Spencer.com. There are a lot of great patterns at the website. The yarn I used is Plymouth Yarn, Encore Colorspun and the color is #7518 - Jolly Rancher.

The pattern calls for size 10 needles but I didn't work out a gauge swatch for a shawl. However, knowing that I knit on the tight side, I just used 10.5 needles.  There are two lengths on the pattern and I did the longer one.

As previously mentioned, I almost lost it when I got to YO2, YO3 and, of all things, DROP stitches!! I just...can't...drop...a...dear...stitch. Once I composed myself, I remembered good ol' You Tube and found this video. It was wonderfully instructive and I then understood what I'd be doing. Not that it was super easy, mind you. The first set of multiple YO's and dropped stitches on what would be the shorter shawl was a piece of cake. But, have I mentioned that you increase by 4 stitches every front side row. So, by the time I was doing the fifth and final drop stitch pattern, there were 245 stitches. And the T.V. was on. And my husband and son were both quite talkative that evening. I had to rip out that section TWICE!  I certainly was tempted to leave my mistakes and go on. I mean, I was so close to the end. But sanity prevailed and I GOT IT RIGHT...the third time. It was the charm!! Well, actually, it was a lot of concentration.  (I should mention that you aren't really dropping stitches.  You drop the multiple wraps of the YO2's and 3's from the previous row, which gives you the wavy effects.)

Getting to the end point of the shorter length was very fast. The longer length became a bit tedious because, by the end of the edging, there are 403 stitches, but it really didn't take very long. It did help that I've had a stomach bug all week and I sat around a lot. It would have taken longer if I only worked evenings on it. Nevertheless, it goes much quicker than you would think.

This picture is when I was just 2 rows short of being finished.  

It looks small and just feels like a blob of yarn on your lap.  I used my circular needle set and had the 2 longest lengths together for a loooong circular needle. Here it is while blocking. The metal "rod" is a yard stick.

You can see the dropped stitch sections. The shorter version ends with the section just above the last 2-row lace section. At that point you would begin the edging. On this longer version, the edging begins with the last 1-row lace section (the single row of yo's is the first row of the edging.)

And here is the finished product taken just this morning.

It may not look too spring-y or Easter-y. But we do live up here in Wisconsin...and it has been cold. I just may wear it tomorrow morning to church when we gather to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus and our chance for eternal life.  :)