Two Stories That Tie In Together

I mostly knit things for myself, but once in a while I get the impulse to make something for another person, and recently I was thinking about Alison, who knits so much for other people, and that maybe it would be nice for her to get something for a change.

So I pulled out my copy of her book of shawl patterns, and chose yarn:

This is a skein of Emma's Yarn, which is a Florida dyer that I figured might not be seen too much in California. Isn't it pretty? The colorway is Hot Tamale.

The Hella Hank is 80/10/10 of superwash merino, cashmere, and nylon, and it feels so nice. (It gave me a slight pang to give it up, but I wanted to share it--this is happy foreshadowing.)

So I cast on the Julia's Shawl (Ravelry link), using many stitch markers to keep me on track.

The pattern suited me well! I enjoyed the knitting of it. At first, I could take spread-out photos.

But as it grew, that got harder.

Still so pretty!

Finally finished and off the needles, so I could see what I had. Well, pre-blocking, anyway:

I chose to do the alternate edging the pattern suggested, but you can hardly see it here.

A bit more so once pinned out!

There it is!

Check out the size of it before pinning:

Versus after:

I'm really pleased with how it came out.

So, about that second story? Well, I boxed this up last Wednesday, and that afternoon, my mother came home with a lot of yarn that had come in to the thrift store where she has volunteered for years: she isn't actually working there since her hip surgery, but they still keep an eye out for certain things for her or for me. The answer to "we got in a lot of yarn, it seems nice, do you think ccr would like it?" is always yes. A year ago, that 'yes' brought me a huge bag that was mostly mohair, not a favorite, but I certainly appreciated the sentiment. This year, it brought this:

Look at all that yarn! And it's lovely stuff, including skein after skein of Emma's Yarn. And very much including a skein that is the exact yarn I used for Alison's shawl. 

How's that for karma? Do good, get good. I couldn't believe my eyes when I pulled that one out of the box.

I had an absolute blast going through all the yarn (and frequently repeating, holy crap! holy crap!), which is mostly brands I know but a few I didn't. I decided to keep this much for me:

So much, so gorgeous! Then I sent off a few skeins each to my three close knitting friends up north, the ones I went to Rhinebeck with two years ago. And I still have two big bags to share with my knitting group down here. 

Happy yarny knitting stories.