Finished!

[aunty_marion]

I've finished my Ravelympics Ishbel shawl! It's now pinned out on the bed, and will shortly be either flipped over and repinned, or (more likely...) covered with another towel so I can steam press it to block it. (It's acrylic - so sue me - so it can't be wet-blocked as normal.)

Comments

[james]

Very pretty! And congrats on finishing it on time.

[feywood]

Oh that's lovely. What are the measurements?

[aunty_marion]

I did the large stocking stitch section and the large lace, and it's come up at about 62 inches from corner to corner along the long edge, and about 22 inches deep.

[feywood]

Oh that sounds lovely. Good choice.

[heavenlyevil]

Wow! Very nice. I'd love to see a picture of what it looks like being worn, since it's larger than the ones I've seen in person.

[aunty_marion]

That might have to wait till I can recruit someone to take a photo of me - my only full length mirror is a bit small for me to get a good picture in it!

[heavenlyevil]

That's a good kind of problem to have! It really is such a beautiful piece.

[aquaeri]

Lovely! And since some people are allergic to wool, I don't think you have to be defensive about knitting acrylic. Also, when I lived in the US, I found the wool sweaters to be horribly, horribly scratchy and the acrylic sweaters didn't feel so greasy in comparison to what I was used to in Australia, so both wool and acrylic obviously can vary a lot.

[aunty_marion]

I'm not allergic to most wool (apart from things like mohair, which give off too many fibres for my asthma to be happy about them), but this shawl was a bit of an experiment (I'm still a lace beginner, really!); and as I've been unemployed for 3.5 years now, I'm not spending money on Real Wool for experimenting with! This was a cone of laceweight from a charity shop, which cost me £2 last year, and when used double it was just about the right weight for something like this. It's not a terribly good acrylic, but it's not horrible.

One of the yarns I hate is one that a lot of people seem to love - the Noro stuff. I can't stand the feel of it against my hands, and although I'm told it softens up after washing, I don't think I could bear to knit with it long enough to make anything. And also, it costs too much! OTOH, I could happily live with Biggan Designs First Cross Merino - only in DK at the moment, but they're apparently bringing out a 4-ply later this year. Now, when I win the lottery... *g*

[aquaeri]

Yes, I was kinda shocked when I first got to handle Noro. I'd seen it raved about all over the interwebs (The internet is for YARN! The internet is for YARN!), and I'd certainly admired how it uses colour, and I'd assumed given the price tag that it was nice wool. Then I finally got to our local expensive yarn store (the fact that it relocated from the opposite side of town to just down the road from my shrink helped :-) ) and, well, it was a bit of a shocker and I didn't mind I couldn't afford it, really.

I knit with Bendigo Woollen Mills, because it's comparable in price to acrylics and is a nice quality and handle (and the colour selection is great). I don't know if it's affordable with overseas shipping.