I’ve just completed my very first knitted shawl! The pattern is the Travelling Woman by Liz Abinante. The yarn is TFA Blue Label in Mallard. Thank you Tanis, for the recommendation! This was an ideal first lace shawl – the purl columns as well as the sk2po column make it easy to read your knitting and keep track of where you are.

I wish I had a nicer room to take photos in . Ah well, soon! In the meantime, though I loath the apartment I love the paint colour =o) I wasn’t kidding when I said turquoise was my favourite colour, I could seriously paint every surface in it and be happy.

The shawl reminded me of this silk sundress I have hidden away in the closet. I can’t wait for warm weather, I bet they’ll look great together. Yes, it’s a match made in heaven.

I was able to make the shawl a little bigger by doing 3 repeats of chart A – I have a feeling I could have squeezed in one more repeat – there is still quite a bit of yarn left. One skein of TFA goes a long way! Have I mentioned how much I love the way TFA blocks? It was like night and day, the shawl opened up so beautifully, and the details in the lace became more visible.

This was my very first shawl, crocheted in TFA Blue Label, in Grape. It was also the beginning of my love affair with this yarn. However, at the time I didn’t know much about blocking, and though the shawl was lovely it didn’t fit quite right. After seeing how much change blocking brought about on my Mallard shawl I decided to block this one and see what happened.

It worked like a charm! The lace opened right up and my painstaking beadwork is much more visible. It’s also better shaped, with longer wings. I can’t wait to wear it out!