Twinknit

I met my best friend Julie while I was living in the mountains. The first time I was introduced to her, I thought she was too cool for school. She has loooong red-auburn hair, and she wears shit-kicker cowboy boots pretty much every day (you can thank her for my final conversion to pointy boots, having previously only been a fan of round toe “work boots”). When I met her, it was like middle school — I took one look at her coordinated eyeshadow (she knows how to put on *make up*? Shit), her hip tee shirt, and the non-chalant way she smoked a cigarette, and I knew she was too good for me. Forunately, I can be a terrible judge of character, and within only a few weeks, she became one of my closest friends.

Julie was a salve for the extreme loneliness I experienced in the moutains. She made me laugh and she really got me. She taught me how to play banjo and how to flatfoot, and she taught me an incredible amount about the mountains (hopefully I’ve taught her some things too). We took many, many long road trips together, we shared beds, beer, and many meals. She has been strong for me when I’ve really needed someone to lean on and she has never been afraid to tell me when she thinks I’m full of shit (these are qualities I value in a friend).

All of this is to say that when I found out she was officially engaged to her charming and talented boyfriend, I knew immediately that I would be knitting her a wedding shawl. Julie values tradition and appreciates craft, and I knew that the beauty and effort of a handmade gift would not be lost on her. I sent her tons of patterns and yarn suggestions until I had a sense of what she liked, and then I set to knitting.

I tried my hardest, while knitting this shawl, to think of Julie while I worked on it. I thought of the fun we had together for the last two years. I wanted to knit every stitch with the love that I feel for her, in the hopes that (as cheesy as it might sound) the shawl would keep her warm inside and out. I couldn’t be more pleased with how it turned out (and she loved it).

Pattern: Wing of the Moth (on Ravelry)

Yarn: Zephyr Laceweight Wool-Silk in “Sage” (the bottom photo is the most color-accurate)

Needles: US 4, 3.5mm

Thoughts: This was, for the most part, a truly enjoyable knit. It got a little hairy at the end, mostly because the final push to finish my dissertation cut significantly into my planned knitting time. I had to pull a few *long* days of knitting at the end, but still found it a pleasurable experience. The last few lace charts were a read blast, and I loved watching the thing grow. I made one major mistake — the kind of mistake that is stupid and due entirely to lazily reading a chart and completely and utterly unfixable. Megan was there when it happened. I cursed a lot. In the end, I found a fairly organic way to fix it (fortunately, my mistake involved adding unanticipated pattern repeats, so it generally blends in). Megan might be able to find it, but no one else can, so I’m keeping my lips shut (FYI: It is not in any of the photos. Ah, the wonders of the internet, allowing us to edit our lives into perfection!). In the end, think this definitely takes top standing as “nicest thing I’ve ever made with my own two hands.” I’m pretty pleased. And so was Julie (which is all that matters).

Keep your eyes peeled on this here blog. My several weeks of bloggy silence has not been matched with knitting “silence;” I’ve made a lot of things lately. FO posts to come.