FO!

The Faroese shawl, from "A Gathering of Lace", came off the needles last night. As in, finished. As in, Yay, now I get to use my new blocking wires!

I know it's a little difficult to see detail in the first picture. The flannel sheet is my blocking sheet and cream on off-white doesn't really show well.

The shawl was considered done at about 10:00 last night and I was going to wait to tonight to block it, but there wasn't much to watch on tv, so I went ahead with blocking. All in all, from washing to considering it blocked took almost an hour. The wires made the job of blocking this shawl, in particular, a breeze! Because there are no points to block out, it would have meant a ton of pins just to make sure that both sides were even. I think I used about a dozen pins. Threading the wires through the edges took the longest and because I'd ground the ends of about eight rods to rounded points, it went very easily and quickly. I used all eight of the rounded wires, plus a half rod, cut for small bits (which I knew I'd need).

I'm very happy with how this shawl turned out and I'm sure my mother will enjoy it. This morning is the perfect morning for a shawl (or two or three... it's really cold here!)

The details again? The Faroese shawl by Marilyn Van Keppel from "A Gathering of Lace", Louet Gems Pearl, undyed, approximately 4 hanks (I think.. it was all in one large skein) on 3.75 mm needles.

This last picture, though not a pretty picture was taken just to show the detail. Cream against the ugly brown carpet that came with the apartment is a much better contrast. All in all, a very satisfactory FO.