Fjord and Piper's Journey

Although I love shawls, I have never been completely certain what I would do with a finished one. The "shawl" I finished using a Brooklyn Tweed baby blanket pattern is really closer to a lap blanket, and I often curl up with in wrapped around me when I go to bed. For those of you who live in cold climates, a wool shawl underneath a down comforter is heaven. In fact, if it is warmer than 20, don't try it, because you will wake up unbelievably sweaty. It is not particularly comfortable to wear around the apartment. This fall, I was looking for a simple pattern to knit, one that would be repetitive and soothing and look lovely, and I came across the Quince and Co pattern Piper's Journey. It knit up quick, and I wear it at least three times a week!

I knit the pattern in Quince and Co Sparrow, in the Fjord color. Fjord is much bluer than the blue-grey in the photo above, but not as indigo-blue as the photo immediately below. I loved working with Sparrow; it's plump and soft and knit up quickly and cleanly. The garter stitch body is wonderfully cushy and the lace edging just the right amount of stretchy. 

The photo above was taken at the point when I realized that I did not, in fact, have enough yarn to complete the project. More importantly, the photo allows you to see some of the construction of the shawl. You knit the garter-stitch body first, with a eyelet edging that uses a double yarn-over to be extra stretchy (that was a pattern feature I found super mind-blowing). Then, when you have the required number of stitches, you cast on additional stitches and start knitting the lace border, picking up (live) garter edge stitches as you go. You can see that I am at the eyelet edging in the photo above, having knit almost the entire lace border. I HATE sewing edges on, so I loved that particular construction. 

You can see the lace edging and the garter body here. This is a pre-blocked photo, so I did stretch both the garter and the lace out before I called this project complete. The pattern dimensions are for just under 12 inches of width, but my row gauge is loose, and I ended up with about 15. This actually works well for me, since I am 6 feet tall, and the wider a shawl is, the less ridiculous it looks on me. And I wear this shawl all the time. I wear it as seen in the photo below, in a take on the traditional body-wrap shawl. I cross it over my chest and tie the ends in back. It keeps me cosy and the ends stay out of my way while I work. (It is not the most flattering picture of me ever, but it turns out that taking blog photos of yourself is crazy difficult, before you start worrying about looking good).

The photo above and the photo below are probably the best photos in terms of "real" color representation. Moxie, one of Britt's cats, was helping me take blog photos. Mostly because I like natural light, and the best place is the end of my bed. Coincidentally, both cats quite enjoy lounging on the end of my bed, and while I was able to shoo George away, Moxie lived up to her name and refused to budge. They are remarkably polite about balls of yarn, though, so a few photos of them and my knitting is hardly a problem.

Hope you all are doing well and enjoying your February. The weather people say we are about to have another polar vortex here in Minneapolis, so we'll work on keeping warm. 

My projects: I have finished my mom's birthday present, have two live WIPs, and three WIPs in varying stages of "live". I have five FOs photographed but not posted.