Shawl Slaw

For my birthday in October my friend, Rhonda, gave me three balls of Bernat Soft Boucle in Grey Shades, Blue Shades, and and Softest Straw. After a failed attempt to make a prayer shawl for my mom with the Softest Straw (boucle didn't really work or show the pattern and it started to frustrate me) I put all three balls of yarn away.



Then I got wild hare to knit a shawl for myself using the increase/decrease one dish cloth pattern only I didn't decrease. It came out pretty well (only there is one row where I dropped a stitch and it did something extra weird). It's very cozy. For a while now I've been thinking about how nice it would be to have a knit shawl to wear while I'm knitting. I'm all for sitting under a blanket and saving on the heating bill. But it's hard to knit with your arms under said blanket. My new Grey Shades shawl does me well while I'm knitting. Keeps the back & shoudlers warm and leaves my arms free. It's also nice layer that is easy to shed if I get warm. When I arrived at my parents house on Saturday wearing the shawl my sweet mother actually asked, before she had even hugged me, "Is that mine?" NOW I have a good use for that Softest Straw Boucle!

Sunday I wore the shawl to the church my dad was "substitute preaching" at and I got so many
compliment after the service. Then I wore it to my friend Jennifer's baby shower...MORE COMPLIMENTS! Plus, it's a nice conversation starter with other knitters who recognize that knit-by-hand look. Two of which approached me at the baby shower. (I know what you're thinking...I do wish I had something handknit to give to the mother-to-be. And I didn't. I found out about the shower kind of last minute b/c mother-to-be's sister had the wrong address for me...but anyhow....). Now I want to try the simple pattern in all kinds of yarn so I have a shawl for every day of the week. Okay, maybe not.