What Would You Do?

Baby Shawl Beginnings
Originally uploaded by Sheepish.

I am finally nearing the end of one of the most tedious projects I've ever knitted. I've never been a huge fan of garter stitch. Sure, it has it's uses, but I don't particularly enjoy doing it for a whole sweater - even if it is just a baby sweater (Chris guessed correctedly, by the way, that my mystery project was the baby kimono from IK). So, since I've only got one little section to finish (that last shoulder/arm bit), what am I doing? Casting on for something new, of course.

For quite some time now, I've had a huge desire to knit a larger lace project with some real interest to it. I just hadn't been sufficiently inspired by the patterns I'd seen and the yarns I have on hand to go for it (plenty of patterns have interested me, but none of them are suitable for the yarns I already have on hand - and this has to be knit from my current stash). Then, last night inspiration struck. I could make a baby shawl! Sounds time-consuming, but I've still got about 4 months till my due date (and, certainly some of that will be sitting-down-time toward the end).

I've made a baby blanket before, and it turned out lovely, I think, but I love the look of a light, feathery covering for a baby. It suits the delicate nature of the baby, itself. I found a pattern for a baby shawl online, and it seemed pretty simple. It just wasn't quite exactly what I would have chosen, myself. That's when it hit me that I could design my own. I've got two Barbara Walker stitch dictionaries to sift through, so I should be able to come up with something, right?

So far, so good. In this picture, you see the stitch pattern I have selected for the center square. It's the English Mesh Lace from Walker's first book. I've done some calculating and know how many stitches to cast-on and how many rows to knit for this section. Now, I just need to find and swatch for the border section(s) that look nicest with this. Wish me luck in my hunt!