Sweet Tart

Check it out, it's a finished knitted thing! (Click all photos for big. Especially click the ones on the grass and the stair rail, to see the amazing colours.)

I made this shawl out of some chunky hand-painted (maybe hand-spun?) wool, which ended up with me during someone's random act of stash-offloading, when I was in Calgary a few weeks ago. There was one enormous, messy skein of this, with no label. I had no idea how much there would be, or how it would knit up. I picked up a cheap 9mm (US 13) circular needle and made this shawl during the not-work hours in the last week and a half that Zak's been away, and I blocked it last night.

For those who have been reading a while, yes, it's another freaking Flower Basket Shawl. This would be my seventh. Perhaps I should pack it in and resort to the Shetland Triangle Shawl from Wrap Style, because it's soooo different (read: almost exactly the same). What can I say? I love this sort of shawl formula, I like the bold, all-over motifs that make up the fabric of the shawl instead of being details of the fabric, I like the lack of a separate edging and I love the pointy edges. I like the way this shawl has looked beautiful in every yarn I've worked it from, and there are others in my stash that would suit this sort of design equally well. I like the way the stitch pattern is logical and super-easy to memorize, so that it's easy to work while I'm paying attention to something else.

And I love the way this one turned out!! Only seven rows of flower basket motifs, and I have a full-sized shawl. (Keep in mind, I am six feet tall, so a full-sized shawl for me is no shrimpy thing.) There wasn't enough yarn to do the full number of edging rows, so the edge was actually straight instead of pointed; I made the points during blocking. There was exactly the right amount of yarn; the yarn tails at the beginning and end of the shawl, together, were less than a foot long. I love it when that happens.
The yarn was endlessly fascin ating. The colours are so strange and varied, and they shifted so much throughout the ball; I love how well the shawl shows them off. I've taken all these photos, in different types of lighting, is to try to do some justice to the colours. Susie saw the shawl while I was working on it, and we both thought the colours looked like candy. Specifically, they remind me of Sweet Tarts, or those Rockets candies people (used to?) give out at Hallowe'en; hence the name.

I'm very happy and satisfied with this shawl. I even found out that I can work with the big chunky needles after all, as long as I use circulars; I had given them up a few years ago as I find they hurt my wrists. I've been having a harder time then usual with this trip of Zak's. Usually it's not so bad, and I can get into having some time alone, even though I miss him. I'm not sure what's different this time. It's not over yet, but at least I've got a nice cat and this big shawl to keep me company.