Wrap Me Up

As I noted in a previous post, I am a fiber snob.  Or was.  Until this past fall when I took a Faire Isle knitting class.  We used yarn from the shop where the class was.  And anyway, hand spun would have been too difficult for me to figure worsted weight on the spot.  And since I've made quite a few of those lovely Faire Isle hats now - all from store bought-yarns, I AM FREE from my snobbery.  Well, sort of. I still like, er, love wool and many wool blends are great, too.  But in the last few months I have even purchased 100% acrylic.  Just last week, in fact, for Faire Isle Christmas hats for our grandsons - I wanted Mom to be able to throw them in the washer.

As I also mentioned in said post, I am working on a large shawl for MYSELF.  After making that long and drawn-out sweater for my youngest son and all those hats for gifts, I thought, "Hey, maybe I can finally make a shawl for me."  I have wanted to make a shawl for a long time but the task of spinning enough yarn for a great big one was daunting.  But now, I'm not a snob.

After searching for a nice big, warm shawl pattern, I decided on this one.  The Far Away, So Close shawl at CarinaSpencer.com.  And the yarn I chose was by Plymouth Yarn, Encore Color Spun, Jolly Rancher #7518 (color name)

Has anybody ever heard of YO3????  Or a DROP STITCH???? I thought my head might explode when I first encountered those in the instructions. I am a little too compulsive to want to drop any stitches. And then I watched this video on You Tube. Isn't You Tube great for, well, for learning almost anything?  Here is what an unblocked patch of YO2, YO3 and dropped stitches looks like. (In blocking, I will be able to pull the length more uniformly.)

It's really a very nice effect.  So this shawl will end up being a bit of a sampler with a variety of different stitch combinations.  Here is what I have knitted so far.

It is slightly beyond the point in the pattern where I could end it and have a shorter shawl, but I want a big 'un.  I want to wrap myself up.

P.S. For the final product see Wrap Me Up, Too.