It’s friggin gorgeous here right now. There’s something simply amazing about Pacific Northwest summers. Sunshine and warmth (that’s not stupidly hot) and lush greenery everywhere thanks to the rain we get the rest of the year. And I’m not wishing it away. I swear. But if there were to be an unexpected middle-of-summer cold spell, I would wrap myself up in my new Ribbon Wrap shawl. Because it’s so fabulously me and I just finished knitting it and I don’t want to wait months to wear it!
I like knitting that is complicated and takes a while so generally you’ll find me knitting myself lace or cabled or colorwork sweaters. But there are certainly exceptions to every rule and this shawl is one of them. I tried to knit a sweater. I had some gorgeous hand spun off-white wool that I bought in Australia picked out for it. And then I swatched it six times for four different sweater patterns and no matter what I did I couldn’t get the gauge right for any of them.
As I was on Ravelry, desperately searching for another sweater pattern that I liked that might work with this darn yarn I wanted to use, I saw an add for the Ribbon Wrap pattern by illitilli. And I immediately said “that’s it. I’m done with all the swatching for now. Big easy shawl it is!” and I got to knitting.
Most of the yarn came from my stash. The pink and black I inherited from my mom at some point. The off-white is a handspun that I bought at the same time as the Australian wool I was so hoping to knit into a sweater. I ducked out to the Pharmacy (the only place to buy yarn on my island) to buy the grey right before going on a trip. It’s not the exact tone I would have picked were I able to choose whatever I wanted, but it’s close enough that I’m happy with the end result. (All the yarn details are on my Ravelry project page.)
The post Ribbon Wrap Shawl is by Tuesday Stitches. If you have found it elsewhere, please let her know!
