Summit

After the house cleaning my yarn and knitting underwent this weekend, I think I may have summitted the malaise. (Am I tempting fate by even writing this?)

One thing is for sure, Nell made a great point in the comments: "Isn't it amazing how knitting can take you from feeling like a genius to an idiot in a few stitches?" I'm used to feeling like an idiot, therefore this aspect of knitting fits like a favorite pair of old boots. Having something in one's life akin to conquering if your own Mt. Everest, your own Mt. Washington, well, that is fascinating and invigorating. So yes, Nell, it is immoderately amazing.




As I had hoped for, I finished my Sunshine and Shadows Shawl (not a triangle!) this weekend. Once I had blocked it out I stood back in awe. It was magic, this beautiful garment, magic. Somehow, this frumpy old hag (me) took two sticks and some string and made this:


Am I straining under a pile hyperbole? Well, maybe just a smidge. When you feel so dark for so long, beauty easily overtakes you and I truly feel this FO is one of the more beautiful things of which I have been the creator. Before the idea that my head is as big as China sinks in, all the kudos must be given to the wonderful designer, Evelyn Clark. It is her genius at work. I know I'm just the day laborer here.


So, the details:

Yarn
Just a few yards over 3 skeins, or 490 yards, of Reynold's Soft Sea Wool in color #320, Purple. This yarn is plumpily plied, giving it a pebbly texture.

Needles
This is one of the first projects on which I used my Knitpicks Harmony Wood option needles. I used US6/4.00 mm tips and the 24" and 47" joins.

Pattern
The pattern I used is actually a set of the stitch variations provided as an example in Evelyn Clark's Knitting Lace Triangles. The set of three lace patterns I chose, and the order in which I used them, is called the Sunshine and Shadows Shawl. I only modified the pattern by repeating the first two motifs three times in order to have a shawl sized garment.

If there is one downside to this beautiful pattern is that source material actually isn't a pattern, it's more like a stitchionary for lace patterns to be knit in triangluar form.

For a beginning lace triangle knitter, this probably wasn't the best choice. I probably should have went with Clark's Shetland Triangle, but I absolutely loved the motif variation and so plowed ahead unwittingly. The FO is so gorgeous I know I will break down and make another one of her patterns, notwithstanding how loudly I decry a dislike for the knitted triangle,



Next up this week, booty call! I went to the Knit & Crochet show in New Hampshire on Saturday and came home with some treasures. The damage I did in an hour and a half amazes me...