Spring has sprung!

Here is my Cedar Leaf Shawlette, finished and ready to go to work! This was such a fun, fast, satisfying project.  I finished it in a week.  The week included a couple of heavy knitting days, but also many days where I didn’t touch the needles at all.  The first part was mindless enough that I could have done it at work (though I started on a weekend, so that was the weekend part).  The leaf edging wasn’t really office knitting.The pattern very specifically said that blocking was needed to make the leaves behave properly.  I started to fret about this partway through, since I was knitting with a sock yarn containing nylon (this Crock O Dye is actually a superwash/nylon/silk blend).  Both the superwash treatment and the nylon fight against blocking.  You WANT these qualities in sock yarn so that the socks spring back into shape after wearing and washing.  You generally don’t want those qualities in lace.  Oops. However, I knit this sock yarn on a US 5 needle, and thanks to that – and the silk content, I think – the final product seems to drape just fine.  Note: the designer calls for a wool/silk blend in DK weight on size 7 needles.  I downsized a bit since I was working with fingering weight yarn.

I have received so many compliments already at the office today, and it’s only lunchtime.  I’m thrilled with how this came out. It is the perfect accessory for this time of year, when it’s chilly in the morning but wearing a jacket feels like a bit much.

My mom might need one of these for her birthday this year…