Lonely Tree Shawl

I finished my knitting last week!

Here's my shawl, originally mentioned and linked to the pattern here, when I finished it:

Looks alright, but not perfect, and you don't really get the gist of the pattern.. so I had to block it.

And apparently this is the bit where most knitters turn away in horror, or so I've read in other blogs!

To begin with, the blocking was a bit of a nightmare.

I remembered reading on Lucy's blog, Attic 24, about blocking acrylic with steam, which she had suggested for the bunting for yarndale, which has just passed by!

Remembering this, I realised I'd need an iron, and ours, sadly, is not capable of producing steam, due to a crack from it being dropped (thankfully cold) on to our floor...

So, I had to borrow my Mum's, which meant waiting until the weekend to be able to wear my shawl!

Once I'd gotten hold of Mum's iron though, the blocking process was fairly straight forward, if a little time consuming.

I pinned the shawl one section at a time to my ironing board, hovered the iron over it, pressing the steam button far too often, then let it dry, unpinned, and repeated.

When it was finally done, I had my finished shawl (almost.. I sewed in the ends in the car as I was so desperate to wear it!)

So there we have it.. and now I would happily try knitting something again. It gave my fingers a welcome change from my awkward style of crocheting! :)