Last weekend was my best friend’s wedding. I was her person of honor. It was very exciting to see something we had discussed and planned so meticulously executed. We spent most of Friday decorating the lodge, where both the marriage ceremony and reception took place. The big day was Saturday, September 14. Sunday was spent cleaning up and recovering from the festivities.
Not long after S asked me to be her person of honor, I inquired about knitting a wedding shawl for her. I love lace; After almost 15 years of knitting, it’s about the only thing that I find challenging. Not that I don’t make other things, I also love to knit socks, scarves and the like.
There’s something about the intricacy of lace I find appealing. The tiny gauge and fine yarn just makes me happy. It’s absolutely frustrating at times, like when you drop a stitch or spend an hour knitting one row and find you have miscounted and there’s an extra stitch you weren’t expecting, but you have to take the bad with the good.
Being a dude, I rarely get to knit lace for such a specific purpose. Usually I make it and just give it away, so I jumped at the chance to put my skills to such auspicious use. I found several patterns on Ravelry and we sat down a few months ago so S could pick out which she liked best. She made an excellent choice with the Heartland Lace Shawl by Evelyn Clark.
I was a little leery about this pattern because of the large gauge. It’s been forever and a day since I’ve knit anything on needles larger than US size 3. This pattern called for size 7 and DK weight yarn. I substituted Knit Pick’s DK Swish for the suggested Buffalo Gold 2 ply. It was a little more economical, and Swish is superwash so I didn’t have to worry about the shawl being felted when it came time to clean.
After I started knitting it, I absolutely hated how it was turning out. It wasn’t as lacy as I wanted it to be. I worried about it being too warm (It’s been a hot summer here in Iowa.) After some aggressive blocking I was much more satisfied. I did lightly starch the points of the edging so that they wouldn’t roll.
Image Credit Rose Haley’s Studio
All in all, the shawl really complimented the radiant bride. The ceremony was beautiful and we had a wonderful time celebrating. I am eager to get back to my smaller needles, however.
artwich 