It has been several weeks since it was completed.
I
have not blog-posted about it before now because I have been in a ridiculous
quandary – do I post it as a “pattern critique?” My decision not to has much to do with my
decision to cease the knitting pattern critiques, but that’s for another post.
When David, my son, and his girlfriend-of-many-years got engaged in March of
2008, I initially had many ideas of what to knit for Katie. That thought was overruled when I chose to knit
an afghan for both of them; one that would create lifelong memories. I selected the Fir Cone Shawl from my most
favorite knitting book, Cheryl Oberle’s Folk Shawls. 
After all, I had knit my best friend’s 50th
birthday present, the North Sea Shawl, from that book so it already had a special
place in my heart.
Soon came the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. There, I was on a mission to find the perfect
yarn. I vividly remember the moment I
found it – Brooks Farm Willow, a blend of wool and bamboo. In the off-white color, the bamboo provided
an amazing sheen – subtle but obvious.
They did not have enough of the yarn there, so I ordered
more to be delivered. However, it
arrived when I was out of town and sat outside in the pouring rain for 2-3 days. The red and blue of the USPS package bled
onto the yarn. Amidst tears, I washed
the yarn carefully that evening. The
next morning, my fears turned out to be unfounded as I ran to the basement only
to find the yarn, hanging in its beautiful white luster on the clothes line. I swear by SOAK.
The next day, I cast on the afghan.
Fast forward several months.
Katie asked me to knit a shawl for her to wear to the rehearsal dinner.
Her first choice was one using the Fir Cone pattern, using Lisa Souza’s Baby
Alpaca Silk in the Black Purple colorway.
I totally lied to her. I
didn’t want to knit a shawl for her using the same lace pattern as the secret
afghan. As a beginner knitter, she
“fell” for my story that I wasn’t getting gauge in the Fir Cone pattern and would
need to select a different pattern. I
cast on Evelyn Clark’s Flower Basket Shawl
and never looked back.
Meanwhile, I knit happily away on the afghan.
The December 27 wedding date was weeks away but I realized that I wasn’t
going to have enough yarn. Phew! Brooks Farm had more of the Willow in the natural white. It was delivered while I, again, was out of
town. And again, it sat out in the rain
in a USPS package. This time I knew what
to do.
The greatest challenge to this project was the edging. I had never knit a lace shawl with the border added on with the SSK method of attaching it. Thank GOD for Ravelry!!! In the Folk Shawls Forum, there was a thread on the subject of the edging and none other than Cheryl Oberle had added her comments.
The week before the wedding, my life revolved around finishing the afghan. Forget Christmas. Forget food.
Forget sleep.
Ta-da, the night
before we had to leave town, I finished the afghan, put it in the bathtub with
SOAK, and laid it out to block on our guest bed.
I turned on all the fans and went to sleep,
hoping that it could travel the next day.
Ah, the ends still needed to be woven in and the edges steamed, since they did not fit on the bed for blocking. All this could be done on the day of the rehearsal dinner, where I was going to present the afghan to David and Katie. I packed my good iron; the Rowena with a great steam feature. The morning of the dinner, I wove in the ends. Then, I realized that I didn’t have anything
to wrap it in! We ran out to a store in
Philly to get a gift bag.
A couple of
hours to go and the only thing left was to steam out the edges. I ran out of time and asked my husband to
steam the edges while I got ready for the dinner. At 4:55 PM on December 26, 2008 the wedding
afghan was officially finished. At 6:55
PM, I gave it to the bride and groom.
beautiful Martha. they must have loved it!
Posted by: lisa | February 15, 2009 at 07:24 AM
Gorgeous! And a great story of the best of knitting gift experiences.
Posted by: Rob | February 11, 2009 at 06:22 PM
Oh, Martha! This is so absolutely beautiful!
Posted by: The Purloined Letter | February 09, 2009 at 09:16 AM