Darn Near Perfect

This evening is darn near perfect. The work week is done, I have a Netflix movie to watch, and I'm working on a knitting project I'm really enjoying!

I wanted to knit something for a friend who's retiring soon. I had two gorgeous balls of yarn that I'd been saving for some special project that were a colorway that I knew my friend would really like.

So, what could I do with 440 yards of fingering weight yarn? I knew the yarn would make a beautiful scarf, but I had knit a scarf for her for Christmas last year. Hmmmm. How about a shawl?

Happily I hopped onto the internet and searched Ravelry for something appropriate. I found lots of beautiful patterns, but most of them required at least 600 yards of fingering weight yarn. Phooey. I would need another ball of this yarn, and I've had this yarn long enough that the odds are against getting another ball of it at this point.

I narrowed my search to the yardage I have available. Nothing really struck my fancy. I perused the patterns I had on hand. Again, nothing really grabbed me.

Then it occurred to me that maybe I could work a feather and fan pattern into a shawl. Sure, why not? Just start with three repeats of feather and fan, and increase it each row until it's the width I want.

So far I've worked about six inches from the beginning, and I've increased enough on each side of the "center 3" repeats of feather and fan to make another repeat on each side (a total of 5 repeats now).

I've used about half of my first ball of yarn, so this may turn out to be a "shawlette" instead of a shawl, but it's looking really pretty. I'll give you updates as it goes along.

As for now, I'm going to pop in my Netflix DVD and get back to my sticks and string. Happy Friday, everyone!