January 5, 2009
Down to the Wire
Did I finish the Icarus shawl in time for Christmas? Yes, barely! As it turned out, the final rows and bind off were more intimidating on paper than on the needles. A long car trip on the 23rd provided lots of time to finish the edging. It blocked overnight and by the 24th Icarus was ready to go, a whole day to spare.
thanks to squid for modeling
a close up of the edging
It was a very shawly Christmas at my house. In addition to the Icarus Shawl for my mom, I also gave an Ene's Scarf to my grandmother.
Ene's Scarf is worked from the long edge in, so it starts with the longest rows of 400 or so stitches, and decreases on each row. I like how those daunting long rows are completed while the project is new and exciting. However, errors on these rows can happen - on Ene's, I had to rip out the edging and redo it because I placed the center point not at the center, and only realized it after the whole edging was complete. oops.
In the end I won't remember redoing the edging on one or fretting over having enough time to complete the other. They are both great patterns. It looks like I tend to choose simple, modern shawl patterns. I like that you can see the components that make up the shawls fairly easily - Icarus has those straight lines that morph into feathers with the edging, and Ene's is made up of a center textural pattern plus an edging. Next, maybe I will try something more complex..
This year I sewed a whole bunch of box bags as gifts, and made a coordinated zip bag for each shawl (More on my box bag obsession in a future post).
Technical details on these projects are on ravelry:
Green Icarus Shawl
Red Ene's Scarf
and no, I didn't choose red and green for these shawls as part of a Christmas theme.. it is just a coincidence..
Comments (10)
Both of those shawls are lovely!
Posted by Emilee | January 5, 2009 7:52 PM
Posted on January 5, 2009 19:52
i think both of those shawls are in my queue! your versions are beautiful. what great gifts!
do you have to pick up stitches to knit the edging on ene's scarf?
Posted by mai | January 5, 2009 9:11 PM
Posted on January 5, 2009 21:11
Both shawls are stunning!
And the box bags looks great! I really like the floral fabric.
Posted by caitlyn | January 5, 2009 10:59 PM
Posted on January 5, 2009 22:59
Gorgeous! It's obvious that you put a lot of work into those 2 very large shawls and their matching bags (what a great idea!).
Posted by Veronique | January 6, 2009 11:14 AM
Posted on January 6, 2009 11:14
I love the shawls and I'm glad you managed to get them done in time for Christmas. I can't wait to hear about your box bag obsession because I have one myself. I spent a whole lot of time last year making the "perfect" box bag, and then I moved on to something else - isn't that just like me!
Posted by Stephanie | January 6, 2009 11:48 AM
Posted on January 6, 2009 11:48
I am so impressed by your lace shawl knitting. They look amazing! I am sure they are treasured by your family members!
Posted by lolly | January 6, 2009 3:15 PM
Posted on January 6, 2009 15:15
Oh weird! I mean, hi! I just clicked over here from your comment on Mel's blog (Purling Plans), and your blog name sounded familiar, and then suddenly it all clicked - I used to work with your brother before he decided to travel the world. Just before he left, he mentioned to me that his sister had a knitting blog, and at the time I had one too, and it seemed like such a coincidence! Except then I forgot about it, and my blog disappeared when I let the domain expire, and... guess that brings me to now. Anyway, those shawls are beautiful, I'm so glad I finally stopped by here. :) And say hi to your brother for me!
Posted by Joanna | January 6, 2009 5:01 PM
Posted on January 6, 2009 17:01
They both look great! I'm at the edge of an Icarus -- I should get it done too. :)
Posted by Nadia Lewis | January 6, 2009 8:37 PM
Posted on January 6, 2009 20:37
What wonderful gifts - the shawls are lovely and those box bags - so cute!
Posted by mel | January 10, 2009 9:07 AM
Posted on January 10, 2009 09:07
These are just gorgeous! Happy New Year to you!
Posted by tiennie | January 11, 2009 10:09 PM
Posted on January 11, 2009 22:09