I wet-block all things I knit and use my yoga-mats as blocking boards. A lace-shawl usually looks like a dish-rag before it is bocked and is a really disappointing result from all that knitting-work. Then some water and pins and the magic unfolds - like a magnolia opening up:
My Icarus, after the blocking.
Last year my mognolia didn´t bloom. It had buds, and the leaves came, but no flowers. I put this down to the very hard winter it had just lived through and was happy just that actually all of my plants in the garden hade survived. This winter was also very hard, and two of my roses definitely throwed in the towel. But the magnolia had big buds and some days ago they started to open. How can I spend so much time inside an office, when there are so much beauty to enjoy in my garden?
The shawl is growing. The pattern is actually quite boring, but the yarn is lovely. I´m still unsure wether there will be enough yarn, and have the stupid feeling that if I just knit fast enough the yarn will last. I´ll be starting the lace border tonight and I hope that will be more interesting than the long main part of stockinette (rätstickning).
After some hours work on a triangular shawl, Icarus (Ravelry-link), I remembered why I had been so hesitant to start knitting - is there enough yarn??? The yarn is from Färgkraft , a very nice and thin wool-yarn, with that lovely "snaggy" feeling that I love in wool. I think I have about 700 meters and according to the pattern I need about 800 meters. Hmmm... Well, mabye this is one of the moments in life when it´s time to be a little adventurous and just see how far the yarn will take me! I can buy more yarn if there´s not enough and not care if there will be a slight change in colour. Or I could end the shawl in a totally unexpected way when the yarn ends. Some people climb Mount Everest - I knit into the unknown!
