Knitting in the dark

The Evil Bouclé Shawl- No matter where I was knitting, it was too dark. And, as simple as a Feather and Fan pattern is, the darned loops on the bouclé sucked in the points of my needles, and made me knit them instead of the stitches!

Here's the Feather and Fan pattern (aka, Old Shale), straight from Barbara Walker's first Treasury of Knitting Patterns:

Multiple of 18 stitches
Row 1: (right side) Knit across
Row 2: Purl across
Row 3: *(K2 tog) x 3, (YO, K1) x6, (K2 tog) x3. Repeat from * to end of row.
Row 4: Knit across



Easy peasy, unless you're (a) trying to knit with dark blue to black wool and (b) the bouclé loops are the same size as your stitches! (No, this is not THE shawl, but it's a great picture of Feather and Fan!)

I finally frogged the whole thing. Went to my LYS (Wooly Wonders, and Joyce is a wonder!) and bought some very expensive black and dark blue wool with sparkles. That darned shawl/poncho went to my Sis last spring. But I was left with the dark blue/black bouclé, which is too gorgeous to abandon.

I chose a simple pattern from Shawls and Scarves: The Best of Knitter's Magazine (I think - It might have been A Gathering of Lace - I'll check that at the library later). A really simple triangle shawl with a gorgeous lace edging. On size 15 needles, it is a knockout! Took forever (garter stitch hell), and the edge lace was a challenge.

And, of course, I ran out of wool with four inches of edging to go!

So, I discovered the joys of Cherry Tree Hill wool, and got a complementary hank (not free, it went well with the wool I had) and finished the darned thing off.

It's blocked and ready to pop into a box for Sis's birthday!

Huzzah!