Monday, February 05, 2007

Cameron!!

Well, here's the finished Cameron. A bit wonky photo, I apologize; but the makeshift clothesline was all I could muster at the time.

Finally, finally, it is done!

Cameron has been modified from the original pattern a little. I added a different edging. The substitute is a bit wider than the original, and I needed to add some repeats to ease it around the corners. It took an extra 450 yards.


This shawl seemed to take forever. I started it around the first of November, and got about halfway through the border by Thanksgiving. December almost didn't count for knitting - too much Other Than Knitting stuff to do.

January finally saw some needle action. The border was finished, and the endless edging marathon began. The finale came with four, count 'em four, flights during the last week of January to get DH and me to Sydney, Nova Scotia. I finished the last row of the edging as we were taxi-ing to the gate in Sydney. Jumping the gun, without proper tools, I tried to graft edging at the hotel. I made a a mess. Back home last Monday, I ripped back and did a much better job.

I took my heart in my mouth and began to wash and block. Because the Cameron is knit of single-ply cobweb, I was very timid about blocking it firmly. I had a nightmare about the single-ply popping apart and spilling stitches all over the floor.

Another thing: my shawl-blocking has always been done in the basement because I have a nice, wide-open, carpeted place to spread out my gingham sheet which serves as a blocking guide. You can barely see it in the photo, but I wanted to show the blocking wires, which can be made out. Anyhow, I can shut the door to the basement, giving no cats will have a chance to bed down or pee on my work. I cannot tell you how surprised I was to discover that one of my cats, Myrtle, had learned to open the basement door (yep, I watched her do it!), letting in the shawl-snuggling horde. No damage, luckily, but I can assure you that the shawl was off the floor post-haste.

For my daughter's amusement, I pulled it through my husband's wedding ring before folding it safely away...



7 comments:

Vicki said...

Jess, it's truly a work of art! I was so happy to be able to see it in person on Saturday. You are a lace knitter par excellence!
Hugs, Vicki

e's knitting and spinning blog said...

Yay!!! I knew it would go through a wedding ring:-) It such a beautiful Heirloom!

Opal said...

What a masterpiece! You must be so proud and rightfully so. It is drop dead gorgeous.

Jenny Raye said...

Gorgeous!!!! A true work of art!

Anonymous said...

Now that is one beautiful shawl. Simply gorgeous...and you pulled it thru a wedding ring! Awesome job!!

Sarah said...

Your'e it!

THE RULES: Each player of this game starts with the ‘6 weird things about you.’ People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave a comment that says ‘you are tagged’ in their comments and tell them to read your blog.

Also, that shawl is amazing.

Anonymous said...

Jess that is simply beautiful.