Sunday, December 11, 2005

virgin no more!

i have finally blocked something!

meet kiri.

kiri shawl

this is my kiri. i made it out of rowan kidsilk spray. it is actually the varigated kidsilk haze. it is gorgeous. color is # 576 - vino.

with this shawl, i think i have a new favorite yarn. or at least a top contender. :) i know others think this yarn is a pain in the ass, is difficult to work with, etc. however i did not have any issues working with kid silk haze. i was a little concerned with what the yarn did to my needles... a little bit of pink going on there...

bryspun needles...

and i was not surprised when this happened to the water as i soaked it. this was surprising to me, because in the knitter's review yarn profile of the rowan kid silk haze she states that the yarn didn't bleed at all in the blocking and washing... i hope i don't need to worry about it crocking onto my clothing...

our little kitty sasha helped me out as my kiri was soaking.

kiri shawl & sasha

kiri shawl & sasha

i did find that my K2TOGs were much easier once i got some bryspun needles (LOVE these needles!).

the pattern was very easy to follow (once i got past my issue on the 3rd repeat, no idea what my issue was, it seemed to resolve itself and then i had no issues) and polly, thank you for a beautiful pattern! i ended up binding off with a size 13 needle. i wanted it loose enough that i could block the points of the shawl out as that was one of the features that drew me to the pattern in the first place.

blocking went well, took longer than i expected but my wonderful hubby helped me out and things went well. let it dry under the ceiling fan in a room closed to the kitties overnight. (i think they were dying to know what was happening in that room!) :)

it blocked out a little bigger than the pattern, pattern states 77" wide, 36" down the center. mine is 84" wide, and 41" down the center. this is fine with me, i'm tallish (5" 7") and hate things that are a little too short. this is just right.

and the whole reason why i did finally block it. i wore it to a holiday function i had tonight. i was quite surprised actually. everyone at this function knows that i am a voracious knitter, yet not one person commented at all on my shawl. now i'm not expecting that people out in the real world care about knitting as much as 'we' do, i'm not that silly. :) i was just surprised, if i know that a person is a big baker and they bring a pie to a function, i ask them, "hey, did you bake that?" and if so tell them how good it is or whatever. it just kinda bothered me, but i'll blame it on the hormones. :)

i LOVE this shawl. this shawl is like wearing a cobweb, it is gorgeous. i adore it.

more pics below.

kiri shawl

kiri shawl

kiri shawl

kiri shawl

kiri shawl

kiri shawl

kiri shawl

14 comments:

heatherfeather said...

gorgeous gorgeous!!

i cast on last night, got to row 29, realized i screwed up at 25, frogged back ro 25, got to row 35, and saw there was a hole and two live stitches attached to nothing around row 3, so frogged, restarted a few hours ago and am at 45! whew.

yours is lovely lovely lovely - the colors, the extra fine yarn are all beautiful!!

Anonymous said...

very beautiful!! although, i've been seeing it in all stages, so i knew it was going to be pretty- but it's very lovely all finished up. make me one!! :)
lyfs

Anonymous said...

Oooh Your shawl looks gorgeous! I just randomly found your blog..

renee said...

It's really lovely - good job!

InkyW said...

that is so beautiful!! it's the 2nd finished Kiri i've seen and I'm dying to make one. lovely work!!

oh, and what's that weird white stuff on the ground? LOL

noricum said...

Wow! I bet they thought it so fabulous that they figured it couldn't have been made by hand. ;)

Unknown said...

That is a really REALLY beautiful shawl. Love it. AHHH forget those people...they know nothing...We all know that is a masterpiece. Great job.

alltangledup said...

it's beautiful, absolutely gorgeous.... you know why no one probably commented on it? they probably all thought that it was store bought. lots of people just think that if you're a voracious knitter, your repetoie would just be scarves and hats. Someone once said, you made that sweater, I thought people only knitted scarves. thanks for emailing me!

Knitty Gritty Thoughts said...

Just beautiful! Such amazing colors and I love the blocking job!=)

Laura said...

Absolutely gorgeous!

MikKnits said...

Your hard work shows! Your Kiri is absolutely fabulous!

IvanovaKnits said...

That's a beautiful Kiri! Did you do anything special to get the points so pointy? If you're worried about the color bleeding, rinse Kiri in water with a couple of teaspoons of vinegar. The acidity encourages color retention.

katie said...

Your kiri is absolutely beautiful! I love the color and I think yours definitely looks better than some of the slightly smaller ones I've seen.

Anonymous said...

Beautiful! What a work of art.