Shawl? Check!

The shawl finised and is currently blocked out on our living room floor. I'm having a heck of a time keeping the girls off of it. Kai is old enough to have a healthy fear of touching something that's being blocked, but Abby is still learning.

I'm not sure now, post-blocking, if it was the exact same yarn as that Yarn Harlot entry that Jenny saw. It didn't seem to bloom as much, and while it lost some of it's dye in the soak, it didn't fade nearly as much as hers seemed to. But, I dunno, the color differences may be accounted for by photography. I wasn't able to get a before shot of the shawl, because I can't find the camera. An after shot is going to have to wait a while, too, I guess.

I'm not positive, but I think that it's going to be a touch too small for me to wear without fiddling with it a lot. I'm not a big shawl wearer in general, so I don't think I'll have the patience for one that needs to be adjusted all the time. It is, however, a good size for a baby blanket, so if it does turn out to be less than comfortable, I'm sure I could gift it away no problem. This assessment was pre-blocking, though, so it might be a bit looser on the other end.

It's funny how the oil wasn't all that apparent to me when I was knitting with it, but the second I put it in the soaking water, it got VERY slick. I can't really assess the softness at this point, either. Still waiting for it to dry.

Last night, I cast on for the baby sweater on 2 needles. I'm knitting it according to her pattern except that I'm only planning on putting on the top 3 buttons, so I only need to worry about that many button holes. I've knit the garter stitch top and one repeat of the pattern. I'm using some DK weight wool/alpaca blend that I've had for ages. It's creamsicle colored! Sa-weet! It's part of the wool mom bought at Webs ages ago that was packaged for sale in Russia, so I have no idea what the "real" brand is, but it's very soft and I love it to bits. I'm glad to finally have a use for it. I've tried trading it away before, because I was sad to see it sitting there unused for so long, but I don't think anyone was willing to take a change on yarn when they don't know it's true origin and can't touch it in person.

I'm thinking there is no way I'm going to get this sweater and the longies done by the end of the month. It's just too much knitting. Next month is a sweater, but I believe it calls for worsted weight yarn and March has 31 days, so I may be ok. If not, later in the summer, things slow down a bit. I'm still aiming to get it all done!