I got a book of prayer shawls called “Knit prayer Shawls, 15 wraps to share” shortly after I graduated from college in 2017. I have slowly been working my way through it making different patterns and I decided to make the prayer shawl “Sunny Days Ahead” last year. Despite getting the yarn for it I only got through the first few rows before having to put it down due to other projects and events needing more attention. This year I’m determined to finish it, preferably before spring when a light shawl would be best.
The yarn I am using for the shawl was one I got a couple of years ago from a yarn store near me called “Wool & Co”. I really love their yarn colors and selection, even if I don’t shop there all that often due to the yarn being more expensive than my budget can afford. After having worked with a lot of dark color yarns with the baby blankets recently I am really liking just looking at the lighter colored yarn as I work with it. The only worry is that the picture of the pattern I am working on shows a cream colored yarn while the one I am using has different colors scattered through it. There’s a chance that the speckling will be too busy for the shawl, but I am hopeful it will look well.
The actual knitting is a little awkward right now because the only needle I had in the right size for the project was a metal circular needle. Funnily enough I got this specific circular needle back when I was first starting out with knitting. I know this because most of the needles I started knitting with were all metal needles. Maybe a few months into learning to knit I managed to get a hold of a bamboo knitting needle set and I ended up switching over to using only the bamboo. I find those needles are easier on my hands and have a better grip on the yarn. Whenever I work with metal needles I always worry the yarn is going to slip off, especially when it comes to a project like this where I am using a finer yarn.
Still it’s lucky I kept all my old metal needles, otherwise I would have had to wait to start the project until I could get a circular needle of the right size. So far I’ve almost completed the top part of the shawl which would be near the nape of the neck. Once I finish this section I’ll be moving into the actual body of the shawl, which looks like it’s mostly going to be a variation of a feather and fan pattern. Once again it looks like this will be a pattern that will make a second appearance on the blog once I finally get the project finished and blocked. Let’s see if I can keep up with that spring estimation of finishing the project.
