A while ago, I was visiting one of my fairly local yarn stores with my sister Irene. She loved to peruse the yarns and patterns there. As I was leaving, I saw this little bundle of wine-coloured fluff. There were 10 tiny 25-gram balls in the bundle. I managed to feel a little bit of one ball of fluff: it was so soft. Although it was mostly nylon, it also had a bit of silk in it. I had never bought anything with silk in it before, and here was a good amount of yarn marked down. Sold!
When I got the yarn home I realized two things: first, that I wanted to knit a shawl, although I had never made one before; and second, this bundle of yarn meant I had enough to dive in and make one. So I started looking at patterns. But I discovered most of them required me to start at the top and work my way down. Having never done a shawl before, I found the thought of casting on over 200 stitches very daunting. So I put the yarn aside for a bit . . . until I discovered that there was a yarn store in my own town! It was a five-minute drive away and had been there for a couple of years. I don't know what I had been during that time! So, on one of my visits, I told the store owner about this yarn and about my aversion to huge cast-ons; she suggested the "Bottom Up Birch" pattern.
I went home, found the pattern on Ravelry, and started knitting the shawl that night. Then another discovery: I noticed the yarn had tiny clear sequins! I loved it even more then. After all, a girl has to have some sparkle! The sequins have been so subtly placed that they do not take away from the either the pattern or the yarn.
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| See what I mean about the sequins not overwhelming the pretty pattern? |
I have learned much from knitting this shawl. The main lesson is not to be afraid of lace weight yarn. There are many beautiful lace weight yarns and you usually only need 1 skein for a shawl. And, if you really want to try something new, just try it!
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