Lacewing

My latest obsession: lace. Can you see why?

This is the Seraphim Shawl from MimKnits, knit for my Grandma in Florida (GIF). To me she's just grandma, but my kids have so many grandmas and great-grandmas, lucky kids, we have to be specific. Anyhow, Seraphim was the perfect project for Grandma because she loves angels, and for 2 craft-specific reasons:
1.) I used to cross stitch a bit, and my grandma over the years gave me I don't know how many patterns for gorgeous cross stitch angels. The most I ever actually stitched up were some little ones on a few hand towels for her. The patterns she sent, which I still have in some corner of the vast crafting stash, were beyond my skill level, or maybe just too much for my attention span. So, when I first saw this shawl over on Abigail's blog, I immediately thought of Grandma.
2.) When I brought Grandma the Hemlock Ring blanket I made for her, which was intended as a small lap blanket for watching TV, never meant to leave the house, she ::gasp:: wore it to church! As a shawl. Apparently there were oohs, and there were aahs, but that project did not remotely fit my idea of a proper wear-it-to-church lace shawl. So, Seraphim was the remedy to that situation, too.

The yarn is Knit Picks Imagination in the colorway Looking Glass. I chose it after seeing another Seraphim on Ravelry in the same colorway, and I even had my Christmas gift cert to buy the yarn with. (And oh, the irony of who gave me that gift certificate...and who got the shawl. Let's just say that transaction would never have happened without a middleman.) This is really an enjoyable yarn to work with, fuzzy but not too much, no snagging or anything. The colors don't quite photograph true to how I see them. I think it's the halo that makes it look a bit more pastel, where the real blues are diminished a bit from how my eye sees them.

When it came off the needles, I was sure it was a failure. Not quite big enough, and kind of scrunched up and unimpressive. Definitely not a church shawl. :( (Photo is a row or so before bind off, all scrunched up on a 24" needle.)


But the blocking, it is a miraculous thing! (And here, a big shout out for my fabulous husband, who upon hearing "I'm almost done binding off" and knowing that I intended to use the kids mats for blocking, straightaway went and got them out, dusted them off, asked me for dimensions and made them into an appropriately sized triangle, and there they were all ready for me to pin it out.)


Lilacs are blooming, makes a nice photo shoot.



So, I somehow (really not sure how this happened) found myself in Busy Hands on the way home from school Friday. They had 1.) a 20% off the whole store sale and 2.) a new shipment of Malabrigo. Now, I have 3 skins of Malabrigo lace, in search of my next lace shawl pattern.


My criteria for the pattern are 1.) it will look good with the little bit of variegation in this colorway (Ibiza), and 2.) it has to have points I can pin out when I block it! :D I'm considering Swallowtail or Laminaria, or maybe Gail, but I know there are so many lovelies out there. I'd love to hear your suggestions.