Let me tell you the story of the shawl. Ever since I started producing knitted items worth wearing my Mom has wanted a shawl. Lace weight. I have made her a couple of other knitted items and a shawl sized Mustard Scarf but she wanted a lacy shawl.
First I started a Forest Canopy shawl. I knit for a while and had about a palm-sized piece of shawl finished. I began to feel like this was beyond my beginner-lace capabilities so I frogged it. Sorry Mom.
Next I cast on a Weekender wrap. I knit a few inches and just wasn’t loving it. Not pretty enough for my Mommy.
This summer my Mom bought 3 skeins of Poems Wisdom Sock yarn for me to knit her a shawl with. Okay, okay, I get it. Mom’s getting impatient.
After much deliberation I cast on a Feather and Fan stole with the yarn. It was beautiful and soft and I could just tell that this was going to be the most beautiful shawl ever. Except for the yarn. It tangled, it was impossible to tink, it split, the ball fell apart and turned into yarn snarls, it even broke a couple of times. About 6 inches into this stole I had the mother of all knitting tantrums, tore the shawl off my needles and hurled it at the TV cursing and carrying on to Randy about how I would rather never knit again than knit one more single stitch in this devil yarn. I gave my Mom $60 to cover her cost of yarn and cleared my conscience.
9 days ago I was lounging about, pawing through my stash and wondering what to knit. I came across a lovely skein of Gloss laceweight yarn and it hit me. Crap. My Mom’s birthday was only a week away and I had no shawl. I had promised a shawl. I had been promising a shawl for quite a long time.
So I cast on a Little Collonade and knit every spare moment for a week. I neglected my children. I didn’t cook. I ignored my husband. I knit until my hands ached. The morning before my Mom’s birthday I had but 3 rows left on the shawl. My children woke up at the unspeakable hour of 5:45 am so I put on Sesame Street (brought to us today by the Letter L and the number 4 which quite excited 4 year old Logan) and made a pot of coffee. I came out from the kitchen to find wee Lily with the shawl in her hands. Harmony needle tips snapped off. Stitches dropped. 24 hours until I needed to hand this present to my mom.
Well, to make a very long story short. I fixed the damage and finished the shawl. Gave it to my Mom. I’m pretty sure she loved it.
So if I have ever promised you something knit. Rest assured that it weighs heavily on my conscience and I will get it done someday. I just have this problem of promising way more than I can possibly produce.
