Feeling just a teensy bit, okay, a lot pleased with myself today as I’ve managed to complete a variety of tasks that, all together, means my lovely Argo shawl is now ready to wear! Thanks to the wonderful designer of Tunisian Lace Shawls, and other things too, Aoibhe Ni.
I finished the shawl a couple of days ago, but had to wait to get some blocking mats as mine were being used for something totally different.
Impatience got the better of me today and I commandeered the blocking mats, washed my shawl, spun it, and pinned it out. I set it out side in the afternoon sun to dry, being Queensland, Australia and with our currently hot, dry summer, it dried in a couple of hours.
Update: Well, it turns out that my brain was not fully functioning the day I blocked my shawl! It did not occur to me until days after I had worn it that the neckline should have been curved, not straight. Here’s an image to compare the two.
All I can say in my defense is that I have previously only blocked straight sided shawls and while it should have been a bit obvious it was a crescent shape, my misfiring brain did not compute all the data to make it so. But it’s reblocked with my newly acquired blocking wires and drying on the new EVA mats now. I know it will wear so much better as this shape.
Really, I’m quite thrilled with it. Instead of the yarn called for, I substituted a cotton DK yarn. Wool allergy, availability of enough of the more suitable types of stash yarn, plus, this is something I want to wear in summer, so I want it to be as cool as it can be, meant none of my other yarns would work. And, I wanted this in white, I like to wear white when I’m not wearing black.
After I’d finished it, I realised I had no suitably white shawl pin, so turned to my imagination to crochet a floppy, cabbage rose style flower pin.
Working entirely from the idea that ‘this should work’, using a simple Irish Rose motif in the image, as the basis, I adapted the petal placings to alternate between each other, ruffled them by overfilling the spaces and also did some filling with tunisian stitches to widen petal. Absolutely not a design I could even begin to recreate precisely, but a concept that can be used again and again, and probably made better with each one.
To finish, I added some pearl beads, sewing them into strategic positions to look a little like dew drops on petals, with a larger one in the centre. The pin to position the flower on the shawl is a short knitting stitch holder I had in box of ‘things that will one day be useful’ tools. Held simply by picking up support stitches and turning the pin around so the back is held against the flower itself. It works a treat. I’m really chuffed with it.