Island Knits Shoulder Wrap from Island Knits

The glorious difference!

One of the projects I’ve been working on for pure pleasure lately is the Phoenix Shawl, a stunning Zauberball shawl I picked up the yarn and pattern for last Mother’s Day.  It’s taken me a year to find the time and focus to get near completion on this massive garter stitch short row-based project.  Gazillions of tiny stitches.

Imagine the refreshment I get from swapping out my delicate size 5 lace needles for a pair of big, shiny size 17s!  While both projects are garter stitch-based and play primarily on the gorgeous color transformations of their fiber, they couldn’t be more different.  That, for me, is one of the greatest gifts of knitting—there’s no end to the variety.

This marvelously tropical cotton fiber is like knitting with strips cut from that favorite t-shirt you’ve work for ten years and would never part with despite its fading.  It’s dreamily soft against the fingers—which will mean soft against your shoulders, and that’s important for a summer project.  Nice and stretchy, too. 

It is the perfect launch into warm-weather knitting.  Now, if we can actually achieve some weather close to warm here in Chicago…