I was knitting the Be Kind Shawl by Veera Välimäki for about about 6 weeks. I’m a fairly monogamous crafter, so I knit a couple of rows most days. I tried not to go too hard at it because when I do, I invariably end up with an injury – slow and steady for all crafts this time around.

I’d never knit a shawl before and there were several new-to-me techniques (knitting back and forth on a circular needle, short rows, stretchy bind off). I absolutely loved every minute of knitting this and am keen to try another.

I finally completed it on Monday evening. It took me about an hour and a half to bind off the 550+ live stitches using Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off, which is indeed quite stretchy.

I normally don’t really care for garter stitch, but this was such a squishy and snuggly ball of warmth. I was smitten.

♥

When I gently hand washed and very carefully laid it out, it grew and grew and grew without me doing anything to stretch it to shape. It is now a bit less snuggly and squishy.

I thought it was enormous before, but Holy Goodness! I did size-up my needles to achieve gauge and undoubtedly this was a rookie error.

I really love the self-striping sock yarn (Rowan sock in the Ocean [006] colourway), it made very pleasing random stripes.

unfurled – a little scraggly at the bottom – I’d not woven in the ends at this point

i could wear it like this

or like this

♥

You can’t really tell from the above photos how epic this is, but behold the Action Shots …

BabyKitty is interested

I’ve been wearing it around ThePalace(OfLove), tangling myself in things and tripping over the trailing ends – elegant shawl-wearing lady I am not. I definitely need to get myself a shawl pin.

While I’m away I’m going to consider whether I’ll frog it and re-knit with smaller needles. Definitely more evidence that I’m a process knitter – because this doesn’t phase me at all and seems like it would be quite fun.

♥