Silk Moon Crescent shawl from KnitCircus - Day 3

A new problem...

I’ll admit, the rows are getting longer. I know this is heading toward row=effort instead of row=progress, but I can’t say that I mind…yet.

The second color change—while subtler— was as delightful as the first. Some of joy comes from the fact that it didn’t take quite so long to get there, but most of the pleasure comes from the pure satisfaction of meeting a sub-goal. I love the ability to wave to a milestone as you pass it by, rather like when you enter a new state on a road trip.  Nothing substantial changes—you are still driving (or, in this case, knitting), but it feels different. If you’re the sort of person who loves the gratification of crossing items off your to do list (and I sure am), color changes give the same rush in a long stretch of garter stitch knitting. 

The eyelet rows do the same thing. I’d have been bored stiff through the long blue portion of this project without those eyelet stitches. Had the first pattern directions read “garter stitch for 100 rows” or such, I might have passed this beautiful piece up. That would have been a shame.

Ah, but here’s a new problem: the collapsing center pull cake. Because the color went from dark to light, I wanted to start with the blue in the center.  I know lots of knitters who prefer the stability of center pull, so you’re not continually watching the cake roll and tilt as you unwind. Only now I’ve gotten to the point where the cake doesn’t have enough center to hold the edges up.  It’s going to fall in on itself any minute, and I’m on the hunt for coping mechanisms.  If you’ve got any, please share?

Silk Moon Crescent shawl from KnitCircus - Day 2

Ch-ch-ch-changes...

Cue the David Bowie.

The color change I've been waiting for has arrived!

The steady increase of rows is fine, the regular appearance of eyelet increase rows helps break things up into manageable subgoals, but let’s face it: we were all waiting for the color change.  I thought it would appear around row 57—the 5th eyelet increase row—but it took all the way until the 80th row for that hue to shift.

The color change isn’t particularly sudden—you do see hints of it showing up for a few rows and I found I couldn’t exactly pinpoint when blue became purple. It’s not a slow gradient, either—the shift completes in one or two rows.  In a smaller piece, the change might be more subtle, but in these long rows it happens in a perfect rhythm. I get the marvelous sensation that this fiber and pattern were made for each other. Because they were.

It’s a lovely piece, and I’m enjoying myself immensely. I’ve got a holiday party December 8, and I’ve already decided this will be my accessory of choice.  Will I get it done in time? You’ll just have to wait and see.