Finishing

To my knitting friends, is there any better feeling than binding off?  This morning, I bound off the square shawl, and I was very happy.  If you'll recall, I began the shawl during the Olympics, after I ran out of yarn for the orange silk shawl and finished the white rectangular one.  The square began as the book said to, with a weird garter stitch lace pattern.  It was supposed to proceed with another garter stitch lace pattern, but it just didn't interest me, so I found a heart pattern made of nupps that I liked better.  They were supposed to have been followed by a shell pattern, but I knew The Knitting Stitch Library had a better one, so I used it.  That went on for 12 inches and then, I picked a border pattern from Estonian Knitting.

Blocked, lying in the sun

Hot off the needles!

  This shawl was so much fun to knit!  I loved it, even when it seemed as if one row could go on forever.  I even loved it when I had to rip out six rows of the border when I realized I'd goofed up the corners.  I'll miss it, but I'm ready for the next adventure.

I "had" to go to Loopville (http://www.loopvilleyarn.com/) to get some gentle wool cleaner, and they talked me into some blocking wires.  I'd never used them before, so I'm not sure I did it right, but the shawl looks blocked to me!    The center is gathered up from the shell pattern when its unblocked, so I'm hoping it will be stretched out enough on the wires to fix that when its dry.
  They had more of the yarn from Mango Moon that's spun by Nepalese women from shredded saris, so I looked for more of a similar color to finish my original Olympic shawl, but no such luck.  I bought a skein with some orange in it, but it's very, very different from the shawl.  I bound it off, then, and washed and blocked it.  It's also outside, drying in the beautiful fall sunshine.  I tried it on, and I love it!  It's less a shawl and more a scarf, but I will wear it a lot this winter.
   I hit the bead shop while I was in the neighborhood, but that's a story for another day.  There's so much I don't understand about beading, and I'm sad to say that the young woman in the store seemed to know less than I.  But I'm undaunted!  I've promised myself some time at the bead loom as soon as I get the house vacuumed, so off I go!  Have a lovely fall day!