A mad rush

I don't know what came over me last week. I have been eyeing this shawl at the LYS for the past few weeks, and last Saturday I just had to have it. I cast on last Saturday and I finished it yesterday!

Before I show you the completed item, I want to provide a little tip. When you know you are going to pick up sts from an edge, you should plan for the finished appearance. In this case, I am going to increase and decrease along an edge that I will later pick up sts from. Normally, when I increase or decrease along an edge, I do it one st inside the edge so that it looks neat and provides a clean set of sts (without increase or decreases) to pick up in. However, in this case, I also wanted the increase and decrease sides to match and look finished. So I did the increase/decrease 2 sts in from the edge. The edge st was the seam allowance - the st line that I actually picked up the sts in. The second st was the nice clean edge that would finally be visible on the shawl.

Here is the edge before I pick up sts. It is hard to see the last st. The line of sts that is visible is the second column of sts.

In this photo you can see that that line of sts is still visible after I pick up. This also makes it very easy to see the rows as you pick up sts because you have to pick up 3 sts for every 4 rows since I am picking up along a stockinette edge.

There is the finished shawl. I finished it last night but I left on a business trip this morning. I took the shawl with me and wore it on the plane. I blocked it with a steam iron in the hotel room and there it is drying on the bed. It is a lovely, warm and cozy shawl.

The yarn is Cascade Eco Duo in the color Vanilla. I love the warm cream color and the subtle variations in color that stripe across the shawl.

The pattern is from the LYS. I made the ruffle deeper and did an extra set of increases because I had the yarn to do so. My motivation was to use as much of the yarn as I could.

It is like a triangular shawl but the bottom edge is curved. You can see that unbroken line of sts across the entire bottom above the ruffle. That is the second st in from the edge. It makes for a very finished looking edge above the ruffle.

All in all, an easy knit and one that I know I am going to love and wear for a long time.