Comfort Shawl

This shawl has quite the history, and many associations for me. It's made up of my first wheel spun yarns that I made when I still lived in England. I started knitting this the first time I broke up with the negative guy a couple of years ago. I really needed something to keep me occupied, but didn't want anything that would tax my poor stressed out brain anymore than was necessary. Comfort knitting! Very basic pattern. I've seen the basic idea in a couple of places, but Gathering of Lace is where I got the idea. It's just garter stitch with a knit2 yo, knit to center, yo knit the rest of the row until it's big enough or you run out of yarn. This is definitely big enough. 101" from tip to tip and 40" from center top to center bottom. I can stretch out and have this thing cover me like a blanket if I lay it sideways.

So I needed some comfort knitting, Uncomplicated pattern sorted: I knew that I just wanted a basic shawl that would be warm and snuggly - a hug to wear. I decided to use my first yarns, because my handspun is just comfy as anything. These are mostly merinos and Blue Faced Leicester, that I spun up just hand blending colors and fibers as I went. The blue in the border is spindle spun from left over wool that I spun from the gansey that I made for the DCN (dark cloud of negativity). Which, by the way, he ended up returning to me last week?!? I'm actually quite glad to have that back! I spent months on that gansey! It weighs in at 2.1 pounds of 3 plied semi-worsted wool. I remember the first time that I put the thing on, I though I need one of these - now I have one!

Here's a pic of the border yarn getting spindle spun on one of my lunchtime walks. I think this one came out really nice. As you can probably see, I don't use a distaff. I just tuck the end of the roving into my bracelet, and wind the extra around my wrist.