I am the kind of knitter who really does like to make the same thing over and over. When it’s a pattern I really enjoy, and when I have yarn that works well with it, or when I see yarn that I would like to acquire and know it will work with one of my go-tos, I’m all in. It’s been happening a lot, as you’ve seen, with socks for me lately, particularly the Stumptown Socks. I just finished what I’m pretty sure is my 11th pair, and see no real end to the Stumptown Socking in sight.
But today, I am not talking about my Stumptown Sock thing. I’m talking about my Spell Shawl thing. As previously discussed in this blog, I’ve made quite a few of these things already: two in gradient kits from Blue Moon Fiber Arts, a smallish one in two skeins of In the Deep Hue Sea yarn I got at Columbia Gorge Fiber Festival last year, one in Hedgehog Fibres (which taught me that all the buzz about HF was well-deserved), one for TNNA in Knitted Wit’s newest Merino Shimmer Fingering. So that’s, by my count, five Spell Shawls already. But the one I’m doing for the KAL Lorajean and I are hosting might just be my favorite yet.
I started out using three colors, one of the sets we came up with for the Facebook Live’ing. But then we had this Skype call with a shop in Florida, and they were all using so many colors, so much variety, so much amazingness. So, Lorajean and I each added some colors to ours: Lorajean decided to go straight Unicorn on the Spell Shawl, using all eight Unicorn colors, and I added my two faves, Story Teller and Shan-nasty. I also swapped Funfetti out for Feliciacakes.
I’m head-over-heels, people! I just turned the corner and am working my decreases, and this shawl is looking goo-ood. The yarn is perfectly nubbly and textured, and the colors are flowing so well into each other, and I feel like this is one piece that I will reach for again and again as the weather continues to be chilly and damp. Now that I’m on the downward slope, this is going to fly by, and because of the shape of the shawl, soon I’ll have one lone stitch and then I’ll be finished. And then, because I’ve kind of got the bug once more, I will probably start another one with stash yarn. I’ve got some really good stash yarn that I will likely not use for designing, which is the perfect yarn for fun and personal knitting, right?
