virgin no more!

i have finally blocked something!

meet kiri.



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...



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.





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.