A Bluestocking Knits

Well, I don’t know if it was the effect of the Addi Turbos,

but I have taken to calling them the Nickel-Plated Beauties.  I finished the shawl on Tuesday, and worked the border Wednesday morning.

It’s about 62 in./1.5 m. across, which around my shoulders is just slightly small, so if anyone wants to make this with Koigu and US6 needles, I would recommend 10 skeins just to be safe.  I did want a rather warm everyday shawl, and so of course a looser gauge would take less wool.  (Another option might be to increase the needle size at the increase rows, thereby making a shawl that is actually more than a circle, sort of crescent-shaped when folded in half, which would make it sit on the shoulders better.)

David came upon it stretched out to dry on the floor, and stared at it for a few minutes, mesmerized by the rather psychedelic sensation of falling into the center, both from the increasing/decreasing eyelet rows and the color smudges.  (The curious funnel shapes in some of the larger plain circles are actually a result of resizing the photos, one of the downsides of my camera’s phobia about straight lines, and are not in the actual shawl.)

I really enjoy the Gull Stitch, as it’s both very simple to work and very pretty.  I can see, though, why Elizabeth didn’t care much for the crocheted-loop finish — she starts off by saying that it’s "good," and goes on to describe the method, but then adds, "I no longer finish shawls in this fashion, so have not much of an opinion to offer" — it seems a bit anti-climactic here, although in other situations I think it is quite effective.  I didn’t want to do the sideways knitted-in border though, as it made the Koigu’s color smudges go in a different direction all of a sudden, which I found rather jarring.

Laura is quite taken with this shawl — purple is her favorite color!