Tales Of The Unexpected Shawl

Once upon a time there lived a ball of wool.  A very prettily-coloured ball of wool called Noro S188 Kureyon Sock.  (Her parents wanted a boy.)

say hello, noro

Noro lived in a big bag full of her friends, and some acrylic*.

One day she was trolling through browsing through some threads on our favourite website and stumbled onto a pattern** that stole her breath away.  For two reasons.  The first being good: a combination of a swirl of colours and wonderful form.  The second being bad: because it was a shawl.  

A SHAWL.  

Now, it is well known to all the Yarn that bides in the Bag that the Hands That Make were averse to the knitting of anything Lace.  ANYTHING lace. Except  lacy socks.  But then, all the Yarn that bides in the Bag knew that the Hands That Make were a bit weird when it came to making socks, so tended to look the other way when double-pointed needles came in to play.

After 'accidentally' leaving the browser open on the pattern page, Noro waited with bated breath Japanese zen-like patience to see whether the Hands That Make would fall as wildly in love with the pattern as she had. And thanks to her cleverness the plan worked, and within hours of the pattern being displayed she was introduced to some fine Taiwanese wood bamboo circular needles and they got busy to work.

making sweet, sweet lo stocking stitch

And more work.

still making sweet, sweet stocking stitch

Until the pattern said to stop with the sweet, sweet stocking stitch and start to add some holes.  Noro and her Taiwanese friend decided to play it cool and just add a few little yarn overs to give the Hands That Make a gentle transition to the scary lace.

the gentle art of making holes in knitting

But it wasn't gentle enough and all the Yarn that bides in the Bag felt waves of panic start to emanate from the Hands That Make and sent their swiftest messenger (some delicious purple Malabrigo - used to running fast to get away from hordes of screaming fans) to find some stitch markers before it was too late.  

stitch markered for your pleasure

And once joined with the stitch markers, Noro and her bendy Taiwanese companion continued on their journey to eyelet heaven.  But, as in all tales of epic epicness, our heroine lost her dear friend to a change in the pattern just as they were beginning to see an end to their Herculean adventure. Seeing the pattern change from a distance too far to be able to prevent it, a shining knight of metal hookiness rode forth to rescue the damsel in distress from her devastation, and between them they began to weave an end to the tale worthy of the saga gone before. Or something.

 noro and the hooker

After many hours toil of monumental proportions Noro and the knight were able to look back on their hard work and see the surprisingly beautiful fruit of their loins travails.  Noro named it 'shawlette' and saw that it was good.

stretched and pinned for glory

Small, but good.

 daylight deliciousness

*They tended to rub each other up the wrong way.  

**'LazyKaty' by Birgit Freyer.