The love and hates of a swirl...

Now for my love hate relationship with the Swirl Starry Night Shawl, and trust me it is a love hate relation ship.

It started with finding this wonderful pattern of a swirly nature that I fell in love with.  I knew I had to make it.  It was the perfect shawl for me to make for myself.  None of the lace shawls I had looked at came even close to what I wanted to do.  They were too grandmaish, nothing I would want to wear.  But this was perfect little swirls, with enough challenge to keep me entertained.  So I got the pattern and started on my hunt for the perfect yarn to use.

I initially started with a variegated sock yarn that I spent a good hour finding in Threadbender, my local yarn shop.  But I was not happy with the results.  So I sadly set it aside, longing to find the perfect yarn so that I could knit this perfect shawl. 

This last August became inspired by Vincent van Gogh's Starry Night and decided to make the swirly shawl in it's honor.  I went to a fiber festival, on the hunt for the perfect yarn.  I found it.

So I started on the first of September with grand plans to finish it really really fast.  But there were a few hic-ups.  Casting on took time, knitting in a round and picking up stitches.

Then started my second row and I was way into October.  I need to be done with the second row and working on the third by now... but disaster struck.  I found I had dropped a stitch in one of the swirls in the first row.  I had to rip it out and some how save it.  But I managed, getting extra needles and casting on in between two swirls.  I managed to make it work.

And there I stood on the couch cushions taking a picture of my shawl and realizing I wasn't making it fit in one frame.

So I took a reference picture using my sixty inch long tape measure...

And again so that I could show how long past the end it actually was.

Then I started to knit.  I had two more rows to finish before the end of the month at least.  And in ten days I managed a few more swirls, even with a couple of cast on in the wrong spot issues.

That is my normal point with it but I am enjoying it more and more.  I also no longer need to pay as much attention to the knitting.  I have the pattern fairly memorized now.

I am also half way through the second row.  I am proud of what I am accomplishing and can not wait to show it off during the holidays.  The only thing is... what big project should I take on after this one?