The Sheep Shawl FO

It's done, wrapped and in a box awaiting a trip to the Post Office this afternoon, can't believe that after all that work I'm entrusting it to them to get it to my sister, I worked out that it's possibly the most expensive Christmas present ever if you work out paying me by the hour, over £1000 at least! Eeek!

So here it is in the bad outside light that is December in England:



No modeled shots I'm afraid as DH is at work and won't be home for a while yet and it's getting dark already here.

Here's another to try and get some more detail and some scale to it:



This shawl measures a whopping 80 inches across the top and is 40 inches deep. I don't think I stretched the sides as long as I could have done but not having a surface that I could really get the pins into I did the best I could and I'm impressed at how much it grew with the blocking and how well the pattern now shows up.

So, the stats for those who might want to try this puppy one day!

Pattern is The Sheep Shawl by Fiber Trends. I couldn't even tell you how long this took me and I don't want to look in the archives for when I started it, needless to say it was a good long time!

I used Rowan Cotton Glace from Jannette's Rare Yarn on Ebay, the colour is Spice and I used 9.5 balls of it. It is totally the wrong yarn for this shawl and totally the wrong thickness but it's made a really nice thick heavyweight shawl. I knit it on 3.25mm bamboo circular needles and dpns at the end, along with a 4.25mm dpn for the Icord along the top of it. I made no modifications to the pattern at all and I used a lifeline after each chart, although I only used it once.

I have to say that these charts are very good and easy to use for the beginner shawl knitter. I used post it notes to mark off where I was and had a row counter attached to the needle. Every other row is garter stitch which breaks it up a bit and gives your brain a chance to recover before the next row and at the end of each chart you almost always had 4 rows of garter stitch which helped with that 'I want to be done with this chart NOW' feeling that occurred now and again!

I'm happy with the outcome and I really really hope that my sister likes it! I have the pattern for The Peace Shawl for my other sister which I intend to do in purple hemp yarn if she shows any interest in this shawl when it's unwrapped, my Mother will be there to gauge reactions for me!

So, now I need to decide whether I pick up the Snowdrop Shawl and finish that or start something new. I think I will give the Snowdrop a few rows to see if it catches my interest but if not I wound the Blue Heron Sunrise yarn into balls the other day in anticipation of my pattern for the Lotus Blossom Shawl arriving so we'll see how I feel after I've taken a short shawl break!

Oh, and if anyone would like to swap me a shawl pattern for The Sheep Shawl pattern I am open to offers. I didn't write on the pattern at all and it's only a little 'used' looking on the chart page from having been out for so long! The written directions are unused and the card page with the photo has been kept in the plastic folder the whole time. Give me a shout if you have a shawl you think I'd like!

More knitting news soon!