Post Shawl Musings

I crawled into bed last night at around midnight. I was exhilarated, but exhausted. So much work had gone into the shawl and suddenly it was finished. Like all projects, I felt that fleeting sadness. Sadness that comes from knowing that I will never work on this project again (guess that makes me a process knitter). Yes, I may knit this pattern again, I enjoyed it, but THIS shawl is finished.

The night was filled with dreams of yarn over’s and knit 2 together’s. Of lace shawls being nibbled by little mice while I was so peacefully sleeping, of gremlins reblocking my shawl into an obscure and bizarre shape.

I woke up and you cannot believe the level of self control it required to keep me from rushing over to my shawl right away. No, I was strong. I peed (hey when ya gotta go, etc) put my contacts in (wouldn’t do me much good to go look at the shawl when I couldn’t see it) and took the dog out. I put my makeup on, got dressed, brushed my hair and THEN I allowed myself to go see if the shawl was dry and ready to be unpinned.

Oh the magic of blocking. Well, you saw in the pictures what it looked like while it was pinned. Unpinned it looks exactly the same, except… it floats like a gossamer web. Settles lightly upon the shoulders of the wearer and makes you feel like a fairy queen.

Channeling the Yarn Harlot (See The Sheep Shawl chapter) I went tearing around the house to show someone. But I’m all alone and Abby, the dog, didn’t seem too interested. So I packed it up and brought it to work with me.

Bearing in mind that I work in a construction company with the manliest of men, my shawl has still not been properly appreciated. No… these men care for shawls and lace about as much as they do for doilies. (And in case you were curious, I’ve yet to see one of those around the office) so mostly I’ve been getting rather overwhelmed nodding and vacant smiles and a lot of “nice…” or “good job” pat pat on the shoulder. So I wait eagerly for the other 2 women who work here (yes, we’re very low on estrogen here) to come in. I know THEY’ll appreciate my work.

Aside from the pure euphoria of finishing my Olympic project, I’ve also realized that this is my 3rd finished object of this month. The wool peddler’s shawl, my grandmother’s scarf (no pictures of that one) and now my Kiri shawl. And it’s only the 24th… I think I may be able to fit a pair of socks in by Tuesday.

But how have I grown in this process? This past month has been a very knitting intensive experience for me and I’ve discovered something.

I. Am. A. Yarn. Snob.

There. I said it. And I’m proud of it. You see… I used to think that being a yarn snob meant you were snooty. You looked down your nose at other knitters who don’t shell out as much cash as you do. But it’s not… or at least I’m not.

What it means to me is that I have more faith in the quality of my knitting. I’m not afraid to spend the extra money on the better yarn because I know that the product will be worth the expense. I’m not knitting garter stitch scarves anymore. I’m not afraid to try something hard because if I mess up I’ll quit.

I have faith in my skills.

I don’t knit.

I’m a knitter.