Finished shawl

After all the excitement of dying the yarn, I'm afraid I disregarded all current works-in-progress and jumped straight into knitting a little shawl with it. Progress wasn't actually that fast, but that is mostly due to the fact that I had to stop and admire it at the end of each row :-)

Since I wasn't sure how far my yarn would go I opted for a simple triangle starting in the centre back neck and increasing at each edge and twice in the middle on every other row. I went for garter stitch since I like scarves to be reversible, although I suppose it is less essential on a shawl. I also added a simple lace tree pattern I designed. Although as Diane pointed out the trees are actually upside down when you are wearing the shawl. Oh well, I like it anyway :-)

So now onto the delight that is blocking!

First we have a shawl in its unblocked state, looking not very lacy and rather wobbly round the edges:

And as if by magic with the addition of a few million pins, ta da:

A gratuitous close-up of my upside down trees:

And even closer - you can tell I am enjoying this can't you :-)

This is being blocked on my new super adjustable blocking system, otherwise known as a set of foam recreation mats for 3-8 year olds from the Early Learning Centre . They are 60cm (2 foot) square and fit together like big jigsaw pieces. They come in packs of 4 and I bought 2 packs so I think that will be sufficient to create shapes to block just about anything I can think of. Also they fit down the back of the spare bed when not in use, very handy.

And, finally the shots of me wearing the new shawl:

I was worried that it would be too titchy to be of any use and was very pleasantly surprised. It is a pretty good size, not bad considering it is only 100g of 4ply weight cotton.

I'm afraid I appear to be pulling a strange face in the next one. I am probably instructing the photographer :-)

Now I am going to be good and go back to all the abandoned projects, and also do my City and Guilds homework before the night before (next class is a week on sunday, I have already done half of the knitting part of the homework).