Grand Shawl Plans for November

It's another month gone by, and the boys are 17 months old today! They are of course celebrating this milestone by being fussy teethers who don't want to nap.

I am celebrating by lining up four shawl WIPs that need to make their way over to the FO pile ASAP.

1) Westknits MKAL 2017, Speckle and Pop

This one is on it's second last row, something that has been determined by that wee little ball of my main colour 1. And while that should mean it'll be a quick finish, you should know I have something like 820 stitches to bind off with a multi coloured icord.... so you know. Fun.

2) The Traveller

This is a shawl I've been planning for years, I have three beautiful skeins of natural coloured BFL handspun, in about a DK weight, that I knew needed to be a rustic shawl. Babbles Traveling Yarns is having an Outlander KAL, and well it was time to get a move on on this one. I'm just about done the first section... although I may need to spin some more of the oatmeal colour.

3) My homespun Marled Magic

This one hasn't even been on needles for the last month, just the stitches on holders, waiting for me to spin up some more yarn. I've got the next skein ready to go so time to put it back on needles. Well maybe after I finish my other Westknit.

4) My Starting Point (ironically my finishing point as well)

Just keep knitting, just keep knitting, just keep knitting, knitting, knitting.

A FO, from start to finish: the Girl from the Grocery Store Shawl

I watch a lot of knitting podcasts on YouTube. So this year when the Grocery Girls teamed up with Joji Locatelli and the Girl from the Grocery Store shawl was born, I drank the kool aid and planned to knit one.

Now I have a lot of shawls for myself, so I also thought maybe I better cast this one on for someone else. I won't say who, only that they will be getting it for Christmas this year (and yes it is never too early to start on Christmas knitting).

I also wanted to dye the yarn for it myself.

I dyed up three skeins of yarn on Knit Picks Gloss Fingering (a beautiful 70% Merino, 30% silk yarn) and took them to Instagram for opinions on which to pick. The gold and the wine colour won out the day.

Alex and Dom agreed. Oh and notice how little they are in this pick, heck they still had their NG tubes when I cast this shawl on back in January!

This was a long term WIP, I knit most of it in the car, since it is a predominantly garter stitch shawl, with a consistent pattern, it makes for perfect car knitting.

But this month, I knew the end was in sight and that I'd better just get on with it. So I knit monogamously for two days and finished it off.

Dom even offered to model it for me, how can anyone resist those lips?

So here's my finished Girl from the Grocery Store shawl.

Not my favourite knit (all the garter gets boring once the rows get longer), and maybe not my personal style, but a beautiful FO. And I know the recipient will love it!