FO Friday Returns! Finally!
Pattern: Seraphim by Miriam Felton
Yarn: NatureSpun Sport by Brown Sheep in Chuck Berry, Seconds, 5 Skeins
Needles: US 6 Addi Turbos (I went up a size since I was using a slightly thicker yarn)
Dimension: ~75″ across and ~37″ from center back to tip
Recipient: Me (though it may go to grandma Schueler depending upon Mom’s success with the pattern)
Process Dates: March 17th, 2006 - April 20th, 2006
Adjustments: I took out a total of 24 stitches from the top stockinette section to account for my larger yarn, needles, and gauge. Also, on the last design row of the chart I took out the first decrease of each half of the shawl as the stitch counts weren’t working for me with that decrease in there. Since I was at SnB at the time I can’t say that the error wasn’t me, but it looks fine in its final state.
Monday evening I completed the knitting portion of Seraphim at SnB and following a wonderful last supper with Mom and DH at Bisetti’s I bound it off. It was a bit of a race as mom wanted to feel it off of the needles. Because I did not have blocking wires and the best place to block something so large is the guest bed she did not get to feel it in its blocked state. But, on Wednesday I got myself a 1 pound package of stainless steel tig welding rods that are 3/32″ in diameter. They worked great to block the shawl.
I’m quite happy with the shawl. There are a few wabi sabis in it that I noticed upon blocking, but nothing hugely obvious. The coloring of the first ball of yarn sometimes strikes me as a big deal and other times seems as though it could almost pass as being part of the design. It blended in better I think when it was wet. Partially because of this and partially because it is my first shawl and does have some mistakes it will likely be a home shawl, so it is now living on my chair in the living room.
Miriam did a wonderful job with this pattern. It is a great place to start if you are new to lace knitting I think. While I wasn’t new to lace knitting per se, I was knew to actually finishing a shawl project. The stockinette beginning was just what I needed as I took on this project shortly after learning that my paternal grandmother had taken a rather serious turn for the worse. She has improved since, but I found the stockinette to be quite therapeutic. The lace portion was fairly easy to memorize, especially when one design row repeated a few times. That repetition allowed me to do some of the lace knitting while watching television or visiting with friends. The charts were also very readable.
It has been a looong time since I had a FO! Man does it feel good!
You may still put in your guess for yesterday’s contest until Monday morning, whenever I’m ready to post. All correct guesses will get thrown into the hat so-to-speak.
I’ll leave you with some more photos of a modeled Seraphim (I’m taking suggestions on which shot(s) to send to my Grandma Bakke, a former knitter and sometimes fixer of mom’s mistakes, just click on them for larger versions)…
Have a great weekend!
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Edit: I forgot to mention the Dye-O-Rama Swap that Scout and a few others are hosting. For those of you wanting the perfect excuse to get into dyeing or those who are old hat but would like to have some fun knitting someone else’s dye scheme head over and sign-up. They are having sign-ups open for only 48 hours and the doors opened at 6pm (MDT) last night so time is ticking!
