The Last Christmas Present

I stayed up until 1 am last night to put the finishing stitches into the Oslo Walk Shawl for my bf's mother. We're having Christmas with them early, so everything needed to be finished, and this was the last WIP! Two weeks ago, I couldn't imagine that I would be able to get the knitting done, and now it is...



My skein was silk and cashmere, soft, thin, and easy to work with. I had to tink a few stitches and it wasn't unduly "sticky" when undo-ing the lace.

Here it is, folded in half because it is so long it drapes over both ends of the guest bed I blocked it on:



I use a striped towel for blocking, so that I can take advantage of those straight stripes to line up the edges of knitted pieces.



The lace itself fooled me when I was in the middle of it. It was so scrunched together, I thought it looked nothing like the pattern photo and was so surprised when I blocked it out, that I could actually see the lace work there! The pattern goes very quickly, because the lace itself is only 34 rows long.



The neck edge pattern, the colonnade - looking one, is about half as wide as it is supposed to be. This section is made with short rows, and knits up relatively quickly too because of that. Even so, by 1 am I was so tired that I was falling asleep over my needles, so I worked the pattern to row 29 (of the 49 specified) and then knit 4 rows of garter stitch before binding off.



So, it will be more of a scarf than a shawl, but it is still wide enough to cover the shoulders in a drafty cathedral - a setting that my bf's mother frequents. She can wind it around her neck, or throw it over her shoulders, or drape it around her coat collar.



I hope she'll like it.