My lace pi shawl is done and I'm so very happy with it.
I really was so unsure when to cast it off and experienced great bouts of indecision over the last few weeks. However, all credit must go to George and our lengthy discussions and measuring at the pub last week. The result of that conversation was that I got to cast it off a lot sooner than I ever thought I would. And here it is.
Blocking it was lots of fun, except for the giant hole that appeared in it yesterday. But it's all fixed and now it's lovely.
This is my second pi shawl. The first was a blanket, not a shawl, and made for Sean. Heavier wool so it was finished faster. This one took months. I thought it would never finish but actually that was just because I kept putting it down.
Pattern: Elizabeth Zimmerman's Pi Shawl from The Knitter's Almanac.
Yarn: Malabrigo Lace in Verdes. This was a gift from RoseRed for our one year anniversary of being friends (awww) and I love it. I will use this yarn again and again. In the words of Kuka, it feels like kittens! I often compared it to a cloud. It's beautiful.
Time: April 30 - October 18.
Needles: Here's where I mucked around a bit. I started on 4mm (size 6) needles but frankly, got a bit impatient. I got to 576 stitches and thought, you know, this is all looking a bit tight. I'm all for small gauge but I started to worry about how it would block. So I committed what might considered knitting blasphemy and changed to 5mm (size 8) needles. You can see it easily really. In the photo above, around the point where you can see the top of my skirt, it's more open. I don't mind. This was never meant to be a perfect piece, just a laceweight pi shawl.
Modifications: You don't really stick to a pattern with this shawl. Since EZ gives you various options, it's all open and up to you. So I stuck to the eyelet rows ever six rounds, had an aborted attempt at doing a gull stitch border, then got on with it until it was big enough.
After that, I did a crochet border, which I learned from Marianne Kinzel's book, First Book of Modern Lace. So fast, so easy (once I got used to it). It's a combination of single crochet stitches and a 9 stitch chain. You crochet the live stitches together, three at a time, and make the chain after that. If you're keen to know how to do it, I recommend researching it and figuring it out. I love it. Have a look.
And that's it. Done and dusted and I may well wear it to a wedding in a couple of weeks. That was the plan for rushing to finish it but I think the days are warming up and I might not. We'll see. I'm just glad to have it done. Now I can REALLY get on with A Long, Lacy Summer. I've started something new but I'll save that for another post.
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