Tuesday, June 22, 2010

this chickadee and the technicolor dreamshawl

otherwise know as: i can't believe i knit the whole thing.


the ever encouraging oh meaghan gifted me this beautiful shawl pattern, arabella by kristen hanley cardozo. it was on my radar for a while, but her thoughtful gift and the almost simultaneous purchase of two skeins of madelinetosh sock (colorway: pop rocks) put it right to the top of the list. with so much yardage, it seemed like the large version was the way to go. but 12 repeats into the 14 repeat pattern, the yarn seemed to be fading away fast.

thankfully it was easy to customize the size and i simply stopped and knit the border section...leaving only a small amount of yarn, not enough to bind off. but scrap yarn is in no short supply at chickadee central and finally earned its keep by preventing panic and adding a charming contrast to the edge.


the finished size is *almost* as shocking as the color of the yarn. its wingspan is a whopping 68" which makes it the largest shawl knit to date...and also makes it taller than the person who did the knitting. if stevie nicks ever decides that she wants to be seen spinning from space, this chickadee has the shawl for her.

oh then it lights up the night / and you see your gypsy...



3 comments:

Anonymous said...

impeccable.....that's what i say!!!! just wows me.....kd

Christi said...

this is awesome B! huge-o and awesome!

Kristen said...

Wowza! I've been wanting to try Pop Rocks for a while now, but this really pushes me over. You did a marvelous job! I did the large size in laceweight, so even with fewer repeats, your shawl is nearly as large as the original. I love the color so so much!