In bloom

Just in time for my department's graduation party, I completed the Rona Lace shawl.

It may also be called my most favorite FO ever. It was wonderful to knit, and the constantly changing pattern kept me interested. In fact, one of the reasons I picked this pattern was that it combined various lace motifs. Y'all know how quickly I get bored. And this did not disappoint! I barely got the urge to knit something else at all, and, in fact, I had a very hard time putting it down!




The second reason I picked this particular pattern was that I thought that the flower motif would complement the bright, spring-green color of the yarn. See, I bought the yarn first -- an impulse buy. I apparently am completely incapable of resisting alpaca. It's just so soft! And the color was nice and springy (I bought this on my husband's birthday...in December). And it was on sale. So, yeah. In the end, I think that the pattern and yarn worked very, very nicely together.

Plus, the color of the yarn complements my favorite dress, which has embroidery of that exact shade of green in it. And, when folded in half, the shawl is the perfect size for me to wear, measuring a little over 5 feet in diameter, or just long enough to reach my hands and cover my whole back.



I love how it looks worn. And it's warm without being at all stuffy or sweaty. I should know -- I wore it last night :)

Of course, the specs:

Pattern: Rona Lace Shawl by Anna Marie Jensen, distributed by Knit Picks
Yarn: Misti Alpaca laceweight, colorway Maize
Needles: Boye Needlemaster size 5
Crochet hook: Susan Bates size H (the pattern didn't specify, so I just picked the size that seemed closest to the size of the needles)
Notes: There are apparently mistakes in the pattern, but I didn't notice. There is an errata page, and this has been covered on the Lace Shawl KAL blog.

Because I just can't get enough, here are some detail shots:






It certainly looks nice blocked (though I couldn't, for the life of me, pin it into a nice circle, and I ruined the peaks on the edges), but it didn't look TOO bad before blocking, either, though a bit too ruffly:



And speaking of things blooming, my husband and I had a lovely date last weekend at the Chicago Botanical Gardens.





Beautiful, no?

And here's my handsome husband: