Tuesday, November 16, 2021

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.

5 comments:

  1. A glorious shawl and look at all that pretty yarn and thank you thank you thank you!

    I got that box yesterday and went, whaaaaaat? Opened it kind of holding my breath and then was just speechless! LOVE it! THANK YOU!!!

    Go have fun with the rest of that, and your Emma friend does nice work, too.

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  2. What a fun story! Now the big question is what are you going to do with the NEW Hot Tamale?

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  3. That thrift store seems very special. Who is getting rid of so much incredible yarn?

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  4. Sorry I meant to add my name ... Lisa RR in Toronto

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  5. What delightful serendipity! And that shawl is stunning! Love the edging!

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