"Purple is a fruit" (Homer Simpson)

Waves in the square shawl
Originally uploaded by miminh3

I was going to post about this project earlier this week but my laptop screen unexpectedly died after six years of faithful service. Also forgive the horrible indoor picture -- I will try to take a better picture of the shawl outside this weekend (it gets dark around 5pm in Boston so no sunlight when I get back from work),

I started this shawl almost two years ago as my New Beginnings project at the KR retreat. It was the lack of portability, not the pattern, that made this such a long process: I needed to see the chart, the rows were very long, and silk lace is slippery. I credit Fran and her "ten minute rule" for helping me see this project to completion.

The pattern is "Waves in the square" by Sivia Harding. Like the Diamond Fantasy shawl, it is very clear and easy to follow with both charted and written directions. The construction is quite clever: this is not your regular triangular shawl but a trapezoid with two adjacent triangles (but knitted in one piece). The triangles allow you to tie the shawl in the front and the trapezoid corresponds to your back (the straight edge doesn't empasize one's behind, as a triangular shawl of this size would).

The yarn is Sundara silk lace in "black over violet" which first intimidated me because of its fineness and slipperriness. But I got used to it and switched from the Addi lace needles to the regular Addi turbos to knit faster. Sundara did a fantastic dye job (as usual), there was no excess dye when I was knitting. When I blocked the shawl however, a large amount of excess dye came out. Following Sundara's recommendations, I left the shawl soak in very hot water for at least an hour and rinsed it afterwards. The water was still colored after a dozen of rinses but I had no dye on my blocking board.

I am quite happy with the finished project and will proudly wear it with my new purple coat to the KR retreat next week!

Next post: a pair of finished socks and my foray into japanese knitting books.