This past holiday season was all about giving handmade goodness. Hats in all sizes were knit and crocheted, crocheted cup cozies were gifted to teachers, Abby’s blanket was worked on and is now truly in the final finishing stages, and I was even able to work on a little something for myself… a knit shawl.
I’ve admired shawls from many different knitting bloggers over the past few years and finally decided to try my hand at knitting one as well. I knew exactly which yarn I wanted to use… a soft cotton yarn that had been a sweater in its earlier life. I loved the brown to cream color change in it and knew that it would be perfect in every way.
Since I hadn’t picked up my knitting needles in over a year, I was afraid that my hands had forgotten how to work them, but thankfully everything went smoothly. I picked a fairly simple pattern, one that wasn’t too lacy or ornate, and went to work. There were times when I skipped an increase, an annoying mistake which probably wouldn’t happen if I would just knit when the kids are in bed… but all in all it was an easy, somewhat mindless knit that I only made one or two changes to… the most notable one being that I added about 20 rows to it to make it longer since I wanted to make sure that it would be nice and big.
(I apologize for the photo quality – it was far to cold for the outdoor photos I’d hoped for)
I quickly got the shawl off of my needles and right away I knew that I loved it… but there was just one problem… it wasn’t nearly as big as I had hoped it would be. I tried stretching it as I blocked it, and though it did grow a few more inches, it just wasn’t enough. I let it sit for a few weeks to see if I could grow to like the finished size, but in my heart I knew that I couldn’t, so last night I finally started the heartbreaking task of undoing all the work that I had put into making this shawlette.
I have learned many things about myself in the past few {*cough* 37 *cough*} years… one of them is that when it comes to making things, I’m a bit of a perfectionist… and I’m not above undoing and then reworking an item over and over again until it’s just right. Thankfully, this is not so much an issue for me when sewing, but when knitting or crocheting pieces that will be worn… well, let’s just say that when it comes to crocheting hats, I have lots of practice in getting the size just right! *wink*
This shawl will be knit again… with the same yarn, but next time I’ll use larger needles and knit many, many more rows! I can’t wait to show the new one to you!