T - 11 days
I'm still madly knitting away on the bride's shawl. I had hoped to have it finished by the end of July, but that didn't happen. Sadly, my tennis elbow (in both arms!) flared up this summer and I have been very conservative with what I'm willing to do with my arms. I'm icing every day, and the knitting doesn't appear to be making things worse, thank goodness! Of course, my tendency to procrastinate didn't help either... Nothing like a looming deadline to inspire progress.
Yesterday I put the shawl on a string so I could stretch it out and steam block and check the size.
I've got about 4-5 inches more knitting to get to the goal length. One more lace repeat on the back panel and then a row of lace leaves for the bottom edge and an inch or so of seed stitch to finish it off. I think it's doable. Knit knit knit!!! Last night I finished off th 3rd skein. Hopefully tonight I can join the 4th skein and get the rest of this thing knitted so I can block over the weekend before we leave for Colorado.
T - 10 days
Finished the knitting. Didn't go with the seed stitch border. In part because it really didn't stretch enough, and in part because I was running out of yarn here's what I had left when I was done.
Finished knitting and quickie steam blocking at about 2 am, the morning we were leaving for Colorado. Got at least 4 hours of sleep before I had to get up and get ready to go the the airport.
T - 6 days
Bought some glass-headed pins (I needed more anyway) at a lovely local quilt shop in Estes Park near our resort (we were taking a few days before the wedding weekend, with my Mom and her sister, up in Estes Park, CO to try to relax and acclimate a bit to the altitude) Figured I could do a better blocking on the bed and let the shawl cool more so the shawl will hold its shape.
T - 2 days
Down in Boulder now for the wedding weekend activities. Pinned the shawl out and fired up the hotel steam iron (thank goodness for hotels that provide good steam irons!) and steamed the heck out of that baby. Then left it to cool completely. It's the next best thing to a good wet block, which I really didn't have time or facilities for.
I was quite happy with the way it turned out. Once it was completely cool and dry, I pulled out all the pins, and wove in the ends.
T - 1 day
Delivered the shawl to the bride. Woohoo! Hopefully by the next post I'll have some wedding pictures to share.
Looking forward to being the mother of a married man!
Shelley in CT
