Beehold!

Bee Fields is now an official FO. Although yesterday's blocking was successful, the weather didn’t cooperate for photos until this afternoon. Despite a forecast of a beautiful fall day, I woke to find that it had rained.

In the afternoon, the sun came out, and too much sun distorts the color. So I tried everything I could think of to get good shots, when Ed suggested that I pin up the shawl on the tomato cage. So thanks to his inspiration, here’s what it looks like:

This close up shows all three of the blocked motifs.

For the record, the pattern is by Anne Hanson of knitspot.com. The very beautiful yarn is 100% merino laceweight from Fearless Fibers, in the notorious colorway. I used size 3 US needles because I knit loosely, and the petite size. Even so, my shawl is bigger than the specifications: 68 inches across and 35 inches deep. I wanted a large, drapy shawl, and this fits the bill. I used just over 1000 yards of yarn.

This was a great project, despite my uneven progress at times. The final shawl has a few very minor errors. A few of the twists on the edge border twist the wrong way. The garter stitch band that separates the first two sections has a couple of purls mixed in with what should be all knits—but I can no longer find them. So this does it for me as an error-free project. It definitely was a step up from the shawls I had knit in the past because of the edging and the YOs on both sides of some of the motifs. And I never worked with drop-stitch patterns before (they are fun). The pattern was well written and easy to follow, and one I heartily recommend. This was also my first shawl using true laceweight, and the Fearless Fibers yarn was a wonderful choice.

Also contributing to this blog post is DS. You might find it surprising to learn that I actually ran out of “bee” puns for the title, and DS chastised me for my lack of inventiveness when I ran some titles past him. I wondered if anyone under 50 would pick up “bee-guiled again” from the Cole Porter song “Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered”, and he just stared at me when I mentioned that one. That tips me off immediately that I’m into the realm of obscurity. But he didn’t even get “Let It Bee”. So we’re moving on to new projects that give me some fresh fodder for tortured blog entry titles.

The scarf knitting has gone very slowly thanks to indecision about a stitch pattern, but I will have something to show in a day or two.

Comments

[WoolEnough]

It is gorgeous. What a triumph! I was surprised too that it took only 600 yards for such a good-sized shawl.

[Caroline M]

It was worth all the effort, it looks lovely. He's a keeper, what a great idea to hang it on the fruit cage.

[Linda M]

Congratulations, it looks great, enjoy it!

[Barbara M.]

How lovely it is, Marjorie! You should be very proud and enjoy wearing it very much. I promised myself that this fall I would knit for myself, having spent the last few years on grandchildren, but it doesn't seem to work that way. I just started a helmet hat (Balaclava) for the oldest grandchild, part of his penguin Halloween costume that will actually get used this winter to keep his sweet head warm. THEN..... something for me!

[Helena]

Oh! Oh! Oh!

[Chris]

Absolutely gorgeous!

[Lorette]

Bee-utiful!

[Dave]

Ten days later, this post finally popped up in my Bloglines. :-(

Congrats! It's gorgeous!! Well done!! Enjoy Rhinebeck!

[Luni]

Bloglines held your posts, now I have 5 of them at once. I'm glad to see your beautiful fo. I'll read your other posts, but won't spam you with comments.

[tiennie]

This is so gorgeous!

Been wondering where you were. Bloglines updated 5 of your posts at once. :)

[Sourire11]

WOW! I'm so far behind in my blog reading... because I'm not sure how I could have missed a shawl as beautiful as that one. Really stunning work.