Pi-shawl

Well, on Saturday I said I would post about my Pi Shawl "tomorrow" and it's now Wednesday. Anyone else ever had those weeks where they blink and several days have gone by?

Regardless of what day it is, I'm finally sitting down to write about it. My original goal was to finish the shawl by February 13th, so I could wear it to a friend's funeral. I grossly underestimated how long it would take me to finish the shawl. Even working like mad it took me until the 24th. I'm okay with that though because I think the shawl turned out beautifully.

It was surprisingly difficult to get a photo of it blocking. I had to stand on a step-stool to get high enough to get the entire thing in the frame. The shawl is just a bit less than 5 feet in diameter. As you can tell in the photo I use child's play mats for my blocking. This has the advantage of being much cheaper ($16.99 for 26 12"x12" mats) but I'm a little afraid of color transfer, so I only use them for my darker projects. As this one was done with black yarn I wasn't too worried. I also have to say if you ever make this shawl make sure you have a lot of pins handy when you block it. I used every single one of my pins to block this shawl. It's got to be lucky having exactly the right amount, right?

Here is a photo with the shawl thrown on my bed so you can see the lace pattern a bit more clearly. The pattern is Heliotaxis Pi Shawl and it's available for free on Ravelry. It's a great pattern, well written, and it's available charted and written out. I found it fairly easy to follow, although I did have to rip out this shawl at three different points. That is more on me because I refuse to use lifelines and occasionally I forget how to count.

And speaking of ripping out, I just have to gush about this yarn for a moment. I used Rowan's Fine Lace. This yarn is 80% alpaca, 20% merino wool. Normally neither lace weight nor alpaca is known for its ability to bounce back after being ripped, but this yarn handled it like a champ. It's also incredibly soft. I owe my boyfriend's mom a huge thank you for giving me this yarn for Christmas.It was a real pleasure to work with and I will absolutely use it again (and for the record, I am in no way affiliated with Rowan, but I do really like their yarns).

I hope you like my pi-shawl as much as I do. I'll be back "tomorrow" to talk about the pillowcases I made last weekend.