Hey you guys: wanna see a magic trick?

My Summer Mystery Shawlette went from this:

To this, after being blocked:

What a difference, no?

I worked this tiny shawl using the free KAL pattern provided in bits by Wendy Johnson. I used the recommended yarn, Madelinetosh Tosh Sock in the Tern Colorway and size 5 needles.

Here are a few more shots of the results.

I ended up with about 30g of yarn and my only wish is that I’d made this a little bit larger (Wendy offered tips for knitting a larger shawl as part of the pattern notes).

It’s a little hot here to wear this today (98F/36C…argh), but come fall, I think I’ll probably be living with this little shawl on my shoulders. All in all, this was a very satisfying and fun project. This is officially my first lace shawl that I’m keeping for myself, but it likely won’t be my last.

My project notes on Ravelry

In late April I cast on two cheery pink knit gifts.  One was the socks for Mother’s Day and the other was a soft and airy shawlette in Malabrigo lace.  I finished the shawlette and delivered it over the weekend.

Sometimes I finish gift knits in plenty of time, but more often it comes down to a last minute knit binge where I do nothing but work on the last rows of the project until very late at night and then rush to get the thing blocked. The pink Lavalette shawl was definitely in the last minute category, leaving me very little time to get good pictures of it for you. Here are a couple of iphone shots of me modeling it on a cloudy morning:

Fortunately, even with the less-than-awesome photo quality,  I think you can still see that this project turned out pretty great!

This pattern, Lavalette by Kirsten Kapur, was just what I was seeking for this project, which went to live with a young family member who has been in the hospital since March and still has a bit to go before she can (thankfully!) go home. It also seemed appropriate that Kirsten uses the pattern to encourage donations to Alzheimer’s Research in honor of one of her family members who suffered from it.

I followed Kirsten’s pattern as written, but after I had worked the last written repeat, I still had 19g of yarn left and decided to make it a little bigger. I worked a full extra openwork chart and half a stockinette chart before adding the edging.  I neglected to measure the shawl before handing it off to the recipient, but you can gauge the size a bit from the photos.

This was my first time using Malabrigo Lace, and, yes, it is everything wonderful that everyone says it is. It’s soft, lofty, a little smooth and shiny, and the color was amazing. All that and it isn’t even that expensive: Full price this yarn is about $9-10 a skein (and I made this shawl from just one).

The shawl was a big hit at the hospital and that made it easy to give away (but now that I look at the photos again, I kinda want to make one for myself…).

Ravelry project notes