Knitting for Granmom

As you may recall, my granmom is a knitter. This summer, she picked out a project - a shawl - to give my mom for Christmas.

I wrote out the pattern line-by-line for her, and she gamely cast-on. About 20 rows in, it became apparent that her neuropathy would keep her from completing the project - or even really getting anywhere on it. The pattern calls for two yarn weights, including a mohair. As she couldn't feel the mohair yarn, knitting it was somewhat problematic. Being a good granddaughter, I offered to knit the pattern for her, giving my mom a joint Christmas present. I was SO CLOSE to finishing it before Christmas, but the girls I nanny gave me a lovely Christmas gift - the stomach flu. So instead of spending my Christmas eve knitting, I spent it curled up on the bathroom floor. Not my best Christmas Eve ever.

I took the shawl with me when we went up north and when I wasn't cross-country skiing, I was knitting. I finally bound off while watching The Sting. I then discovered that I am really bad at doing a selvedge stitch loosely, which caused the whole shawl to be slightly (very) lopsided. Not noticeable when worn; very noticeable when blocking!

The pattern is Balsam Lake, by Don Waalen. It was designed for the Shop Hop 2013, for the yarn store StevenBe. The pattern came in a kit, with yarns dyed for the Shop Hop. The yarns are called Rumple and Angel Hair, but by the time I saw the yarns, they were already on bobbins and had no tags. I liked working with both yarns, though switching back to the mohair every fourth row was always a shock. I did run out of the Rumple and made a few pattern changes on the fly because of it. Ravelry projects suggest I am not the only person to struggle with a loose-enough selvedge edge. I also didn't block the lace edging as well as I might have, but I was pretty done with the project by the time I got to blocking it!

Balsam Lake is extremely lightweight, and very warm. Although the only photo of it being worn is a mirror selfie, it is lovely on my mom - the colors are super great for her! It's the first major knitting gift I've created, which is pretty exciting for me. I learned a lot from knitting Balsam Lake (aprx 300 stitches across is toooooo many), but I don't think I will attempt this shawl again. Mostly, I think, because I really like the matching (but not aligned) variegated colorways, and I don't know of anyone who makes matching variegated silk and mohair yarns. Oh well!

I hope you all are well, and that you had a good Friday, and a good Valentine's Day if you were celebrating that contentious holiday. My Valentine's Day gift to myself was a 2+ hour ski at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, which was beautiful. I saw one other skier, and pretty much had the place to myself, the birds, and the dormant trees.