Blurred Lines Bandana Style Shawlette from Yarn & Stitches--Done!

Pink and purple perfect...

Before blocking

So, a funny thing happened on the way to the bind-off.  It’s a perfect depiction of everything I love about knitting.

I was finishing this project on the road.  I was staying with a colleague attending the conference I talked about in my last post.  It was a lovely little house, and I was sleeping in the granddaughter’s room—a delightful girl named Savannah.

Like most girls her age, Savannah is big into horses.  She even has one and rides it regularly.  Also like most girls her age, Savannah’s room is a festival of pink.  With a little purple thrown in for good measure.  You can see where this is going.  Funny that I couldn’t.

After blocking

The morning after I wrote the last post, I woke up feeling like a neon sign had fallen on my head:  I didn’t need to look or wait to see who should own the bandana, the perfect recipient was right under my nose.  Sure, Florida may not be the first place one thinks of to wear a woolen knitted bandana, but it gets chilly there too—especially when out in the pasture with your horse.  The moment the idea came to me, it was undeniable.  There was no point in even considering taking the piece home to block—it needed to stay right where I was.  No one would get more joy out of this pink and purple wonder than the little girl who had lent me her bedroom!

The happy recipient!

A quick conversation with Mom and Grandmom okay’ed the offer, produced a iron and board to steam-block the piece, and made the gifting complete.  The small size and little girl colors couldn’t have been a better fit.  I left with a huge smile on my face, and it seems like Savannah enjoyed her gift.

That’s the thing I love most about knitting—there is always, always the right person for whatever you’re making.

Thank you, Yarn & Stitches, for making this wonderful moment possible.

Blurred Lines Bandana Style Shawlette from Yarn & Stitches--Day 3

Pink think...

OK, enough with the pink already.  

It’s a very enthusiastic pink.  Not that I’m against enthusiastic colors—I wear them frequently, and even have a favorite cardigan in a shade as bright as this.  

But I’ve been staring at it for days. When even the camera on my iPhone is having trouble containing the color, however, you know it’s bright.  Fuchsia, even.  Hot pink.  The color my mother used to refer to as “menopause pink” although she never really explained why.  I can only assume that it’s vibrancy made it a favorite of women of a “certain age.”  A google search turned up a lot of interesting—and several disturbing—hits, but nothing to explain this phrase.

I was ecstatic, then, to spy the purple section of the yarn coming up.

Section 4 returns us to the YO-K2TOG pattern, and I can see that alternating these two stitch patterns is what is going to make up most of this shawlette.  The extremely detailed and clear directions—along with the smaller size—make this a good project for a novice knitter.  You’ll get a nice piece, as we'll as three new stitch patterns for your toolbox, in not too long a time.  And when you get to the inevitable endless finale of top-down shawl rows, it shouldn’t be too tedious—hopefully.  If you are a novice knitter, I would definitely suggest starting with the lighter color first, so that you can see the stitches clearly.  New stitch patterns are always a bit more difficult with a darker yarn.

Next up, we’ll see how the color change goes.