cottington's so crafty: Doodle THIS!

A finished object?! What's THAT, you ask?! I do, indeed, have one ;)

I was knitting away on my Doodler Shawl by Stephen West of Westknits (FB page) fame when the whole move thing happened....and ate away at my LIFE. I had some laundromat time to knit, and that was lovely, if I was on my own (not gonna lie: there were 2-3 times I skipped down to the laundromat, conveniently located 3 minutes from my house, SANS children. BLISS. TRY IT.). Then it was hot, and I was quite the negative nelly about knitting - and preferred, instead, to pick up the Harry Potter books and the Outlander books and while away the hours, LOL.

Trying to really impress you with those wrinkles! Poor shawl!

But. I LOVE the shawl! Hooray to me that it's DONE (albeit after three months). I did make the process only a TEENY bit more painful, in that I'm not a huge garter stitch lover. I wanted to see some stockinette in there. I incorporated the stockinette on the wedges, which clearly slowed me down a bit, what with all the purling, but it was honestly not a big deal to me. In the end, I DO see how the all-over garter stitch pulls it all together, but I like having broken it up a bit. I was pretty tempted to knit the long cable in stockinette, also, but I said a big EFF THAT SHIZ and forged ahead with garter. I wanted that thing off the needles. I would have been done so much sooner, but for the move.

LOL, funny little brother

The pattern is clearly awesome. It was super well-written, and I did just fine. I needed to watch a quick tutorial for the cast-on, but I think that was it??? LOL. I am a bit sad that I didn't pick up quite right for the i-cord edge in the middle of the shawl, so, there isn't a cool i-cord look. That loveliness is more obvious on the WRONG side. Bah humbug. Ah, well.

I did try to make the most of my lovely yarn, which is from The Wool Barn. I used the Silk Sock base in the colorways Sage, Autumn Delight (Maya is way awesome and custom-dyed that colorway for me!) and Metal. I do overall think I should have used a purple, rather than the Metal, but that was my choice and nothing doing now. I have realized over time, though, that I'm not a fan of 50/50 wool/silk blends. I like a bit less silk in my yarn, mostly because I want it slightly less shiny. The yarn itself is awesome, though, and everyone who has seen the shawl has loved it and commented on it, which is nice!

Overall, it was a lovely project, and now I dream of casting on for another Stephen West design, the Exploration Station...when I have time on my hands. For now, I work on the Across the Pond shawl by Mina Philipp.

In life/family news, we are better organized around the house, though there is still so much to do (I know I'm a broken record, LOL). Matt's dad helped put in the tub, which is one of the last things to be finished in the bathroom. The clawfoot is lovely, but we are naturally experiencing some leaks, so, I hope that is remedied tomorrow. We also hope to complete a bathroom door and cabinet doors for the hall cabinet over the next week or so. My sister will be visiting with her husband and children (new baby, too!!), and I'd love a cleaner and neater space for them to all run around in. I will blog about that visit and hopefully another project in just a couple of weeks!