The Orri Shawl

I am fresh from family vacation, where I had no connection with the outside world for about 2 weeks. It wasn’t the kind of vacation that’s all about relaxing. It was more the making up for lost time kind of trip,and it was really good. I’m not sure if I needed to be so disconnected. I did all of the things I usually do- read, cook, knit, care for my family, get outside- but with a lot more outside than normal.

Anyway, I’m pleased to finally be showing my Orri shawl, by Lee Meredith, that I loved working on and have had finished for a couple of months. I just put off the FO photo because, guys, it is miserably hot here in the summer. Getting dressed in a knit and putting on makeup or doing my hair in any way other than bun hair takes dedication. I wear workout clothes and no makeup. Sometimes I brush my hair before my husband gets home. I’m thoughtful like that.

On top of that, it’s been raining constantly. And our Sundays, the day I usually try to take photos because I look almost like normal people, have been crazy. Anyway, the point is, I brought 2 shawls and a sweater with me on vacation thinking, “Certainly I will get the opportunity to wear these for photos in the mountains.” Two out of three isn’t bad.

Orri was a totally for fun project. I worked on it when I didn’t feel like doing anything else because I always felt like working on it. The lace stitch took some time to memorize, but I actually took it to the movies and worked a row or two without screwing up. This is the kind of project that’s easy on my budget too because two skeins were indie dyed and the other two were bargain yarn.

Details: I used US size 6 needles and Lovebird Lane‘s Fischer Dk in the One Sweet Love colorway for the lace stitch. I already mentioned that this lace stitch is one that requires no purling and looks really good from either side. And just like Lee said, it looks really great in a variegated yarn. The solid grey balanced it nicely and made the One Sweet Love colorway seem even more special. The grey is just Patons Classic Wool from my local hobby store, which is a worsted, but I found the two yarns worked fine together.

This is a great way to use up variegated skeins in your stash, friends. You choose how large to make your shawl based on how many grams you have to work with. The details for how to knit a weight based shawl are all in the pattern. It could easily translate to worsted or fingering weight. Personally, I wish I’d used a slightly smaller needle because my superwash yarn stretched some with blocking. I still love it, but would’ve liked to see the lace at a tighter tension.

Lee has a lot of patterns out that I’m sure you’ve seen by now. She is the queen of color and has even released a coloring book that seems to be a cross between coloring and paint by numbers. The images immediately make me think of intarsia knitting charts. Her knitwear is also constructed in neat ways, like the Tionne sweater, one I’ve had in my favorites for a while, is convertible- two tops in one. Also, I need to get my Scribbled Lines Headband knit up because I have lots of cotton and wool I could do this with and… bun hair…