Damson

So, I have a project finished. And a non-ranting and overshare post. Just a shawl. Nothing that should make you squirm too much. Although there is a tiny personal back story to this shawl.

September 7th, 2010 was a rough day for me. It was the day I got the call from my lawyer my divorce was finalized. After three years of tears and the bottom falling out when you don't think it has any further to fall; two years of separation; two and half of wanting to kill each other, making up, and repeating that cycle a few dozen times; almost a year of papers going back and forth between lawyers, the ex, and the courts; and a refusal at one point from the courts to accept our papers; you don't think it will hit you as hard as it does. But it does. It knocks the wind out of you. It dazes you. It spins your world in whole other dimensions you didn't know where still left to turn. And it makes you feel very alone. It makes the smallest acts of kindness the biggest things someone could ever do. Like a friend sending you patterns you've queued to let you know they are thinking about you. Even though you've never met them in real life. Something about someone else telling you they know you hurt makes the pain feel a little less. This shawl was part of the gift package on a day where I will always remember right where I was and what I was doing when my phone rang.

Project: Damson by Ysolda Teague 

Yarn: Aslan Trends Santa Fe (3 skeins)

Colorway: 1334, Tango Reds

Needle Size: US6

Ravelry Project Page

I'm a more of a small project girl. All about the instant gratification, so I think this may be the largest/most yardage project I've finished in my knitting career. I worked on this during some trainings, which seemed like a great idea at the time and a pretty ingenious way to score a extra hours of being paid to knit, but resulted in me getting some of my yarnovers off a stitch or two and not realizing it for awhile! (At this point you are thinking, "Why the hell do I read this blog of a crafter who seems to mess  things up constantly, life included?" No worries, I'm with ya.) I like the pattern, but I'm unsure if the pretty blue skein of Smooshy I bought to make a second will go with this pattern or not.

I'm not sure how I feel about the squared off shape of this. It makes it kind of akward to wear as a front facing scarf, which is how I prefer to wear my shawls. I may feel this one out for awhile longer. And I somehow went through 100 yards more of yarn than the pattern called for. In the whole midst of knitting during training I did do a few ridges extra, so I'm thinking that ate up more yarn than I thought it would with the lace section. Simple math if I would have stopped to think about it. Which I didn't. Still satisfied though. With the project that turned out not quite like I planned that is, the life thing is still a ways from being termed "satisfied".

P.S. This is not my first finished project of 2011. Close, finished late New Year's Eve. (I was sick, really, there was a reason I spent New Year's on the couch with the cat, tissues, knitting, and maybe a little wine even with the sick. A good reason. Don't judge me.) So it's the last finished project of 2010 I guess. The first finished project of 2011 is yet to appear!