Knitting: Nurmilintu shawl.

This year, one of my knitting goals was to learn how to knit lace. (Also, stranded colorwork, but I haven't gotten around to that one yet.) So far I'd only done the tiniest bit of simple lace in a couple of projects, like my Multnomah shawl. Up until recently, I'd always avoided patterns that only had charts unless I could find where someone else had posted the written instructions.

But it turns out that charts aren't so scary after all! :) I know that this is relatively easy lace, so it might have lured me into a false sense of security when it comes to reading charts, but I don't think I'll be avoiding charts anymore.

I love how this shawl turned out. First of all, the color is perfect. It's tosh sock in the Jade colorway, which is the perfect shade of green in my opinion. I'm picky about green yarn...most of it is too dark or too lime or neon, but this is perfect. I bought this yarn when we went to Georgia for the weekend last fall, and I knew I wanted to use it for this shawl. It's the Nurmilintu shawl, which is a lovely free pattern. I had about 40 yards less than the pattern called for, so I had to cut the last lace section short. It was supposed to look like the other two sections, but I could only manage the first third of the lace repeat before binding off (a picot binding, another first for me with this project). It still looks nice, though...I like having that little bit of lace right before the bind off.

I didn't have to stretch the shawl much while blocking it...it grew on its own, which is a good thing with shawls (not so much with sweaters). I'm really surprised with how large it turned out! It feels a lot bigger than my Hitchhikers, though those took more yarn (first one and second one). It's amazing to me that you can get a decent sized shawl out of one smallish skein of sock yarn. :)

I never thought I would say this, but I'm getting to the point where I prefer shawls to scarves or even cowls. There are at least four more that I'd like to knit soon. (In case you're wondering: Elder Tree, Stripe Study, Orbit, and Nordic Wind.)

Ravelry project page.