Finished Objects

Right, then.  I finished the KAL shawls and here--with no ado at all-- they are:

The lighter blue is the fingering weight shawl in Tosh Sock.  It is very springy and squooshy and will be a pleasure to wear around the neck, although not one that I will personally experience because it is a gift and I'm giving it away.  Though maybe not right this minute.

The darker blue is made from Dream in Color Baby, which is more of a lace-almost-fingering-weight.  The shawl is not quite as squooshy, but is quite a bit bigger and drapes just right around the neck.  I know because I do get to keep this one and I took it out for a test run this morning when I took the boys out for pancakes before school.  Can you see where this is going?  Not to worry, though:  I think the yarn --or maybe the pattern itself-- has magical food repelling properties.  It is true that I ordered my usual blueberry pancakes and also that I doused them in syrup.  But when my fork slipped mid-cut--as anyone could have predicted it would-- the spattered syrup landed everywhere except the shawl.  This means that I will be washing three coats and my fleece sweatshirt (and that small children were inexplicably drawn to me this morning), but I will not have to wash and re-block my shawl.  Flying syrup notwithstanding, it was so worth wearing the shawl to breakfast;  the waitress caught sight of it and gushed over it in just the right way.  I gave her an extra good tip for being able to ignore the dripping  syrup and focus on what was really important.

Both shawls are just a smidge smaller than the pattern called for.  I was worried about running out of yarn and all of my obsessive weighing and recalculation failed to prove that there was no need to worry, so I eliminated the last few short rows to make sure I had enough yarn to knit the final bead section around the top.  In the dark blue shawl, I also decided to do beads instead of nupps with the short rows and I'm not sorry.  I like the extra bling  and the way the beads click against each other and I was getting pretty weary of nupping.

I had planned to spend most of my time off cleaning out the basement, but the job is overwhelming and I haven't made much progress.  Instead, the knitting frenzy continues with a quick Abernathy sweater for Matty:

Abernathy Sweater for Matty

Detail of the cable, which looks a little funky to me,
even though I'm sure I followed the pattern.

I had to make some adjustments because I ordered worsted weight yarn and the pattern (DUH!!!!) called for DK. It's moving right along though.  I am almost done with the body, so just the sleeves and the collar left to go.  Although, now that I look at the pictures, I'm wondering if I should run the cables all the way down through the ribbing.  Hmmmm . . . .