Purple Flounces

Last night I was finishing up a shawl that I was working on. Some of you might recognize the yarn from my post a few weeks ago. I wrote about the problems that I had when starting it. After a few false starts, the pattern worked up fairly quickly and easily. Although the pattern is simple I had to keep reminding myself to count the stitches. There are several increase and decrease rows that give

the shawl it's shape and create those fun flounces. After all the problems that I had at the start I realized that the time it took to count the stitches after one of these rows was worth it. Better to spend a few minutes counting every ten rows or so than to rip out entire sections multiple times.

This is one of the yarns that my friend was kind enough to bring from Turkey. She sent me some pictures and although I had no idea what I was going to do with this yarn, I told her to grab me two skeins. Something about this yarn spoke to me. I think it might be because it is a wool blend. The wool gives it that fuzzy look. It would definitely be a yarn that I would be distracted by in the store. The "ohh fluffy" kind of distraction.

So, I knew this yarn was coming and I didn't know what I would do with it once it got here. I just knew that I didn't want to throw it in the yarn bin. It was too good for that. No one knows when I might get around to touching some of that yarn. Soon after this I had one of those light bulb moments. There was a conversation at church about how people show love differently. That is when it hit me. I show love through knitting. I had never really thought about this, but knitting is one of my love languages.

After coming to this realization I knew this yarn would end up being a gift. Not long after that I had a person in mind and some thoughts about what I wanted to make her. I wanted to do a simple shawl and quickly found Fairy's Shrug on DROPS Design. The pictures showed a shawl with a fuzzy halo effect that I knew this yarn would produce.

One problem that I had with the pattern is that I didn't like how it looked when knitting it. As I was going along I thought the flounces looked uneven. It hung awkwardly on the needles. However, I kept at it. I have knitted long enough to know that sometimes a work in progress looks different than a finished project. If you ever question how a project will look off the needles, then remove the needles.

This can be done in a couple of ways. 1) You can just remove the needles and try to pick up the stitches. This method can result in a lot of frustration and some dropped stitches. 2) You can thread yarn through the live stitches. This technique is also known as a lifeline. When the needles are removed the stitches are held by that scrap yarn. There is less of a chance of loosing the stitches when you have a lifeline. I will also do this when knitting a top-down sweater or dress. Having a lifeline allows me to try on the project and see the fit before I finish.

As I was binding off I realized that the increases and decreases gave the shawl its structure. It began to curve as I was taking it off the needles. This curve was impossible to see when it still being worked. Now I love the way it looks and think the flounces hang beautifully.
                 
Although I had some trouble with this pattern at the start, I think this would be a great beginner knit. The pattern is simple and does not require a chart which can sometimes be intimidating. If you can knit, purl, and count; you should be able to make this pattern. It does have some increases and decreases, so this is best for a beginner who wants to branch out. The online pattern also has some videos that demonstrate the more complex techniques. This makes the pattern even more accessible to anyone willing to try it.