When I was younger I was very lucky to have friends that liked to sail and memories of sun and wind burn on Lake Ontario are still among my fondest. To this day, when I hear a knitter say that they are ready to cast off, it takes me a short moment to realize that they have completed a knitting a project rather than commencing one.
So, as I neared the end of the knit work on a shawl that’s been my recent obsession, it seemed a as good a day as any for casting off. So here I am launching Knitworking.net into a sea of knitting blogs with a celebration of a much anticipated cast off of another sort.
This happened:
BEFORE BLOCKING
But unlike our friends and loved ones (well most of them), it responds well to a little aggressive treatment — in this case blocking. One of the things I find endlessly amazing with lace knitting is the magical transformation that happens in the blocking process.
Voila.
AFTER BLOCKING
Here’s a fun comparison of the lace section before and after blocking.
BEFORE
AFTER
I call it All I Want. Who can resist a Joni Mitchell song, from the album Blue appropriately enough, and especially one that references knitting! Hear it here.
The pattern in Love in a Mist by an incredibly talented woman who publishes her patterns under the name Boo Knits. If you don’t already know her designs, you need to check them out here.
I’m drawn to the less elaborate designs myself which lend themselves better to subway knitting and a life-style that gets more mileage from simpler, more minimal styles. Boo Knits claims her motto is “maxium impact and minimum stress” and that her projects are quick and easy to make. I can’t speak for all of them but this is my third Boo pattern and each of these has been true to her aim.
Having said all that here is a fair warning: casting off this shawl, with it’s beautiful little picot edge, is, unlike the relative ease of launching a blog, a monumental task!
I cannot say enough about how absolutely amazing the yarn that I used for the project. It’s a merino-silk lace weight by one of my very favorite indie dyers — Sweetgeorgia Yarns. Sweetgeorgia earns extra points in my book for being Canadian — I’m just a little less homesick when I’m knitting with Canadian yarn. The base is beautiful to knit with — so soft, beautiful drape and perfectly plied — and the colour!
Luckily for me the skein was generous enough in yardage that I used less than half of it on this project. I have enough left to make one of these lovelies: Aurita, Alcea or Different-lines
I’d love to hear from you about which are your favourites and why. Leave me a note in the comments below.
Do you have a project knit with SweetGeorgia Merino-Silk Lace, or a Love in a Mist project to share? Post it on instagram and mention @Knitworking. I’d love to check it out.