The Not So Blue Angel Shawl...

All of my quilting projects seem to be turning into long term projects, but I'm finding that my knitting endeavors offer more instant gratification.  That's probably because I've been sticking to scarves and shawls.  But it's cold outside, so that works for now.

Recently I finished another shawl.  The pattern is the Blue Angel Shawl by Stefanie Japel.  However, I went way outside my comfort zone and decided to make mine in bright orange!  I'm trying to stretch myself lately by using fabrics and yarns in colors I wouldn't normally choose.  By the time I finished this one, I wasn't even sure if I'd be able to wear it.  I'm happy to say though that I was bold and wore it to church.

I really love the lace edging on this one.  The pattern was pretty simple except that when you get to the edging, you're working off 2 different charts.  But if you can keep them straight, it's no problem.  My one complaint was this was supposed to use 1 skein of yarn.  I actually bought it as a kit with both the yarn and pattern.  When I saw that I wasn't going to have enough yarn to finish, I had to rip out a bunch of rows and make mine smaller.  In the end, I left off 16 rows.  (FYI - If you make this shawl, you can make it larger or smaller by adding or subtracting multiples of 16 rows and still have the edging work out correctly.)

I used Heritage Cascade Yarn in Mango to make this.  I could see making this shawl again, but in the future I think I'd pick a different color and perhaps a softer yarn.  This was a mix of superwash merino wool and nylon, but I bet it would feel great with some silk or baby alpaca in it.

The weather hasn't been great the last few days and Gabriel has been cooped up.  My husband usually takes her for long walks, but because he wasn't able to today, I bundled up (think 'stay puft marshmallow man') and took her for a walk.  Does that face say happy or what?

“No one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.” 

Mark 2:22 (NIV)