Lace Milestone!

The many hours of silky, slippery knitting have come to fruition with the completion of the Swallowtail Shawl!

It is officially cast off and tails woven in :)

I felt so happy and to be honest, proud too, when I finally bound off and had my finished shawl in my hands. It feels a very special sort of thrill of excitement and anticipation that I'll be gifting the shawl to my paternal Gran :)

Living with a scrumptious tradesman has numerous advantages, one of which is the amount of unusual and specific toolery present in the household and workshop! Including.. Stainless TIG filler wire or in a knitter's perspective - blocking rods!

I very careful threaded the top edge of the shawl onto two of the rods, slipping the rod through the little eyelets at the very top, then doused it in water to soak. The rods made this a little more tricky but there was no way I was going to be threading rods into lace when it was WET!

Then to the blocking - my first real attempt at blocking something other than a long straight scarf.

Aided by the scrumptious Skoot I braced those top rods and then began pinning out the lace on our spare mattress.

Slowly the lace opened up more and more, like slow-burning magic, or watching a flower bud in time-warps photography - awesome!

Gently drawing out the yarn, and meticulously pinning the shawl would have to be the most exciting knitterly moment so far, I have to say. As I crawled around on the mattress I was overflowing with then excited tension of the moment and thinking of nothing else! A very mindful moment, really :)

Overall I am completely smitten by lace work, and very pleased with how the swallowtail shawl came out. At this stage it feels just a little bit little, but that's ok.

So all that remains is to unpin the shawl this morning, now that it is completely dry. We're having dinner with my Gran this evening, so I shall unveil her secret knitted goodie to her :) I have to admit I'm a little hesitant about unpinning the shawl.. it feels as if when I let loose the pins the whole shawl will spring back to it's shrunken original size! But I will have faith in the Blocking Gods.. I will..

p.s. I've just realised looking over the post that I'm wearing my Ravelry shirt in the blocking photo! Completely unintentional, but very fitting I must say!!