Loose Ends

I just couldn't leave it undone - it was a loose end, a job half done, a "noncompletion" as the online thesaurus suggested.   So I made the Kohi Shawl, and I'm very pleased with it, and with myself, truth be told, for tending to that final loose end of the Shawl in a Ball series.   Here it is!

I still have to block this (and literally weave in a couple of loose ends as you can see), but you might be able to get a sense of the unblocked size from the red rocking chair rocker peaking into my shot in the top left hand corner.  As with hand knit lace, once a piece is blocked it can grow quite a bit, but even if it's only a bit I'm quite happy with the size.  In case you're interested, the cast on was 12 stitches, so the narrow point to the left of this photo, the straight edge is the top edge, the increase edge is the bottom diagonal edge, and the cast off is the edge to the right on the photo.  The colour on this one is called "Soothing Blue".   Here's an "in progress" picture to give you an idea.

I think the purl side of this lace is just as pretty as the knit side.  And yes, that is a chart (done on Excel) in the background, but honestly once I got a rhythm going I really didn't need to look at it. 

It is so gratifying to be able to take a hand knit pattern and convert it to machine knit and pick up new skills along the way, and it is great fun to share the progress on this blog.  If you try it yourself please leave a comment or question in the comments below, or send me a photo to share in a future blog post.  I'm happy to help or just to cheer you on.

And speaking of sharing (and inspiration, and cheering), I'm gathering an already impressive list of fibre and machine knitting related events in the Maritimes this summer and fall which I will detail in my next blog post, so watch for that in the next few days and get ready to save some dates!

Nancy