The Masochist Shawl

So, how did I spend my morning?

A while ago I purchased a beautiful hank of Cherry Tree Hill yarn. This yarn is called Baby Loop. The band on the hank describes it as "A light sport mohair boucle with nylon binder." It has 970 yards per 8 oz. hank. The colorway? Sugar Maple. The colors are gorgeous, especially for someone who loves red, like me.

I knew this yarn would be difficult to work with, but I've been determined to do it. I looked far and wide for a light airy lacy pattern to use it with. Originally I wanted a sweater, but opted for a one panel shawl instead. There would be less complications that way, and I was right.

Step One of the morning - wind it into yarn cakes. It would be a nightmare otherwise, you'll see what I mean in a minute.

Now when you do this, I thoroughly recommend that you have a two year old who is feeling ever so much better and has a lot of pent up energy to assist you in this endeavor. Trust me, it's the way to go. You can see in the pic below how amazing the colors are in this yarn.


Remember when I said you'd see why in a minute? Here's why. Look at all those tiny loops on the pretty string. Can you imagine trying to work from the hank with all those loops trying to grab each other?


Finally, after much trials and tribulations with the two year old and mega-grabby yarn, you have yarn cakes. Notice the weight on the postal scale. Yeah, I got gypped .02 oz. Can you believe it?



Step Two - Begin knitting.

The shawl pattern that I picked is from Tangle. It's a free pattern called The Purl Shawl. Being a combo knitter, purling is often easier for me to do than knitting and I thought that this would be a fun one to try out. It's an incredibly easy pattern, but it calls for bulky ribbon yarn. The cast on for this is 53 sts. I doubled that, otherwise I would end up with a scarf instead of the shawl that I wanted.

The first couple of rows were tough, but that's true for me with any pattern and any yarn that I use. The third row was no problem at all and I am so far very pleased with the outcome. It's just as light and airy as I wanted. Here's a sample:





For now though, I am renaming this one. My version is no longer the Purl Shawl, it is now called The Masochist Shawl, for only a masochist would make anything out of this yarn.