Forest Canopy Shawl - how it all blocked out

Done!

I cast off this baby very, very carefully to keep the edge sufficiently stretchy. I admired my work in its pre-blocked state: but it didn't look like much. Kind of bubbly, and it was hard to see how it would be a triangle with pretty scalloped edges.



I used blocking tips from Stephanie and Eunny. I wove in the ends but did NOT cut them off yet. I threaded some clean hemp garden string through the top of the shawl, with lots of extra on either side for stretching room.



Then a nice SOAK for about 15 minutes.



After I transferred the shawl to a thick, thirsty towel for a roll to squeeze out excess water, I found it was almost dry. I set the shawl on fresh bed sheets to start pinning (with rust proof applique pins). First I anchored one side (the string) to a few pins, pulled the string straight, and anchored and pinned the other side. Then I carefully arranged the stitches so they looked even and slightly pulled so they opened up the design nicely. (sorry for the blurred photo)





Once I was happy with the straightness of the top of the shawl, I pulled the bottom point into place. From there, I pinned each side, alternating between the two, and measuring along the way so that things looked close to even. Here it is all pinned into place (on my side of the bed).





I knit this pattern exactly as written by the designer. I wouldn't have known what to modify anyway, since this is my first lace shawl. First of many, I hope! I'm quite pleased with the colour distribution of this yarn, there's no excessive pooling going on. The finished shawl (46" x 21") is a little smaller than what the pattern dimensions are (52" x 23") - (perhaps because of my blocking?), but very pretty nonetheless. After it was all dry (about 4-6 hours), I did one more weave in of the ends, then snipped.

Here's how it turned out!



Love those edges.