Ewe-nice for best dressed wooly sheep in a shawl! Yes Ladies and Gentlemen, after much knitting, muttering, a few vacations, and just a little tinking (wink, wink) the Hidcote Garden Shawl has danced its way off the needles.Time of delivery: Sunday afternoon, 2:00PM EST, 25 Feb 2007.
Vital statistics: Weight 125g, Length ~1920 yds of 2/28 laceweight 100% cashmere from ColourMart,
Unblocked dimensions 45" x 98"
After posting about my frustrations with the cast-off last night, I somehow felt better so I picked up my 3.75mm crochet hook and paying carefully attention to maintaining an accurate, even tension, I did a standard knitwise single crochet cast-off. I started last night, but once I was satisfied that I *could* get it right I stopped and waited until today to finish casting-off those 500+ sts. I feel a tremendous sense of accomplishment having completed this large shawl, certainly a task worthy of an Academy Award I think :-) I know Ewe-nice
agrees with me!
PS. I know the pictures aren't the best, but it's the best I can do with a crummy camera. I'll post better ones once the wires arrive and I can properly block the thing. That should be quite and event as the shawl is quite enormous :-)
PPS. Once again I remind everyone that I chose to use 3.5mm needles instead of the 3.25mm recommended in the pattern. The size of my yarn was about the same. The end result was that I used 600+ more yards than the pattern calls for and my shawl unblocked already exceeds the final dimensions of the blocked shawl that Miriam knit. I had 2300 yds to work with, so I had the freedom to choose the needle size that yielded a lace fabric that was pleasing to my eye. If you have plenty of yarn and desire a really large shawl, you are welcome to follow my choice. If not, please use the smaller needle. Either way, be prepared for the possibility that you may need more than 1300 yds of laceweight yarn to finish the shawl as written. I can't imaging anything worse than spending this many hours knitting a masterpiece only to run short of yarn on Chart 10. True, some designs can be easily adapted to shorten the length, but I don't see this as one of them. That's my story and I'm sticking to it! Good luck!
4 comments:
Beautifully done, and thank you for sharing your tips and tricks for the cast-off! I'll be revisiting your blog entries on this subject in the long-distant day in the future when I finish my Hidcote.
Gorgeous work!!! I was thinking last night that these lace items could be tacked to a white wall for photographing. The close up looks so detailed beautiful.. I love this design. Great job!
Wow, that's beautiful!! Very nice color, too. I don't normally go for greens but that is one stunning shawl!
What an awesome accomplishment! Definitely worthy of an Oscar.
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