Well. That's Finished.

Many, many, many months ago, I got out my five skeins of alpaca laceweight and my Folk Shawls by Cheryl Oberle and I cast on for a big square shawl in a simple grid pattern and I knit about an inch or so before I noticed that my eyelets were not lining up properly.   I decided I was hopelessly lost so I ripped the whole thing out and started over.  I did some math and decided where it made the most sense to me to put stitch markers so I wouldn't get lost again (surprise!  they did not align with the printed pattern repeats).  The slow rows required my full attention, glasses off, and took about 20 minutes.  The fast rows required only a minimal amount of attention--just one step up from mindless monkey knitting--and took about 8 minutes.  The medium rows required medium attention, glasses on, and took about 12 minutes.  The glasses off bits meant this was not TV knitting.  The pattern was simple, once I marked it off properly, and somewhere between 450 and 500 rows later, i.e. Friday, it was done:  the Box Lace Shawl.


I remember when it was still a baby.....

Anyway, as we all know, lace looks like ass until it's blocked.  Step one:  cold water soak with some wool wash, followed by a turn in the gentlest possible spin cycle.

Then carefully extract it from the washer, trying very hard not to stretch it.

Then, if it's big, fold it, gently, without stretching.

Then roll it up in your ugliest beach a big towel.

 Put it on the floor and stomp on it to squeeze out as much water as possible.  Then unwrap it and spread it out gently on a dog-proof surface, if you have one.

This is a plain rectangle (it was supposed to be a square, but I kept going until I used up all the yarn), so the object here is to smooth it into the size it's supposed to be and arrange the edges so they dry straight.  See that big curve up there on top?  That'll stay that way if you don't fix it.

If it's the right size, or nearly so, you only have to arrange it into shape.  If it needs to be stretched or you're trying to make scalloped edges or something, you'll need to pin it.


Here's a close-up look, so you can see all the mistakes and imperfections I see when I look at it.

It's better from a distance.  Look fast because those yellow leaves are going to drop any day now.

I'm putting it up for bid at a charity auction, and there's already someone who wants it, which feels really nice.