This is my favorite
shawl to date. It’s
puuuuurrrrdy. I’ve been
wanting to knit Whippoorwill for a good, long time. But there just hadn’t been much time for shawls and such
until I scaled back on some self-imposed knitting requirements. I cast on for the shawl as a birthday
present to myself. I wanted to
make something for me, that I knew I’d love. I deliberated over colors for a very, very long time. You should have seen how many times I
went to my computer, visited shop after shop, filled and emptied my cart and so
on. I had settled on using some Handmaiden Sea Silk, but right before I cast
on, I made the decision I wanted something like a gradient.
I couldn’t find the right yarn that offered what I
wanted. Instead I chose to
purchase multiple skeins of yarn and make my own transition in the
pattern. My final choice was Tanis
Fiber Arts, and I used Tidal, Peacock, Deep Sea and Midnight. (As an aside, I love TFA and would knit with it again in a heartbeat!) While not a true gradient, I tried
alternating colors at specific intervals to combine the colors in a different
way.
I will admit that the set-up rows had me confused. I think I ripped out three times at
least before I got it right. And
there were some futsy notes I read on other knitters’ pages before I really
thought I could take this project with me on the go. But once I got going, it went quickly.
Then I put it down, unintentionally, for a couple
months. I had a spreadsheet of
sorts telling me the when, where and how of my color changes so when I picked
it up to finish it, it took me about a week to really get into a groove. I probably made it way more complicated
than necessary.
(The purl side of this shawl looks so neat!)
Alternating skeins was a hassle, but like many things, I
like the finished object so I would do it again.
I blocked this sucker out as big as I could in the space
that I had. And even though it’s
waaay too warm to wear it this summer, I’ve attempted to do just that at least a handful of times. This was mostly unsuccessful
because it was just too darn hot.
But Fall will be here soon and then I will get a lot of use out of
it. It doesn’t feel as though it retained the size I blocked it out to, so I may try reblocking. We’ll see. It’s a big shawl as it is and I’m still trying to decide the
best way to wear it.
Because it’s four different colors, though, I fully expect
it to match much of my very blue wardrobe. ;)
