Pattern, Languish No More!

While I currently have two other knit shawls on the needles, I’ve just completed my eighth crocheted shawl in Ravelry's 10 in 2010 challenge – with mere weeks left. (December 31^st at the stroke of midnight Norwegian time [!] is the witching hour; oh, the fun quirks of an international challenge.)

All my completed shawls in this challenge have a creation story, and this one is no different. A few weeks back (sometime before Thanksgiving), several of the crochet challengers were virtually chit-chatting about patterns and what we would next make. A few put forth new patterns, one of which was Lyn’s (Shepherd's Crook) Festival Shawl.  For those of you non-Ravelry readers, she also is CGOA's book reviewer. According to Lyn, she had worked on it a bit, but then just let it fall to the wayside, in a somewhat raw form.

Well, even though I am not too keen on triangular shawls, from the prototype photo she posted, it looked like something that I might find interesting to craft. I already could see the bead possibilities (which were not a part of the original design), and I wanted to complete at least one triangular shawl so I could learn about this type of shawl construction.

So, stash diving I went, and initially came up with about 800 yards of hand-dyed laceweight I had received in a swap, along with one ball of Drops Vivaldi in a honking green colorway. Hoping to be able to get my hands on more of the Vivaldi in online de-stash or trade, I tucked into the pattern. After using up all of my on-hand Vivaldi, here’s what it looked like:

Of course, I could not scrounge up any more of the Vivaldi, so I went to Plan  B. While visiting the frog pond (and it was quite a visit because Vivaldi is mohair), I ordered two balls of Drops Kid-Silk in an apple green colorway. My second attempt then looked like the next photo, prior to starting the beaded edging:

As I was working on the body of the shawl, I quickly got a vision of the completed shawl, and thought it would be perfect for a formal affair like - you guessed it - a wedding. So, after I added the simple, yet effective and very pretty beaded edging, as well as performed the requisite blocking spritz, I started to search for a place to take some photos. A few establishments into my research, on a cloudy and overcast Pacific Northwest early winter afternoon, I found Blue Sky Bridal, a consignment/new bridal dress shop with an eco-friendly focus. I knew my search was over even before I telephoned with my unorthodox request to take photos and received a warm yes from Jen, one of the co-owners.

I am so thrilled with the finished shawl. It has “formal spring affair” written all over it. Against the backdrop of a classically-styled off-the-shoulder gown, this pattern comes to life. I hope Lyn feels the same, so this beautiful pattern can be sent out into the crafting world. Yeah!

And, of course, thanks so much to Beth and Jen at Blue Sky Bridal for a friendly and fun photo shoot – even absent a blue sky.  Now, if only I could learn how to use my camera's flash ...