The ‘fruit salad’ shawl finished

It's got a bit cooler (thank goodness), but it's still not really the weather for standing in the sun wearing something woolly! But I have finished my Dandelion Air shawl, so it must be recorded.

Yes, I was a bit warm!

There's not a lot to say that I haven't said already. The pattern is a simple six-row repeat, and I just kept going until I judged that I should stop.

Yarn Chicken time, had I left enough?

The pattern has an i-cord bind off, but I chose to do picots instead. I did insert a lifeline a couple of rows before the bind off, so I could rip it all back if necessary.

Phew, yes I had

It blocked larger than I was expecting; the overall area is a fair bit more than my Close to You shawl, which is made from the same yarn.

Showing the full size

When I first started knitting, I knew very little about yarn choice beyond weight. It was pure luck that I chose to knit my Dahlia shawl in a yarn with a very subtle colour variation, which allowed the lace design to be the star of the show.

The Dahlia yarn - mostly blue, a little black

This yarn is far more variegated however, and definitely needed quite a plain design to show off the colours. The Dandelion Air pattern was perfect for the job.

Reds and yellows and pinks, oh my!

The pattern lets the colours shine

It must be said that it's not my neatest work. In particular the tension in the centre spine stitches varies hugely.

That's a lot of different stitch sizes

It gets better further down

It's not surprising, really. A lot of this was knitted while I was visiting Mum, either in hospital or the nursing home, so it regularly got put down mid-row as I attended to something. But for all that, I do associate knitting it with the laughter and happy conversations we had over those last months rather than the more fraught times. I'm certainly glad that I chose to use up such a cheery yarn from my stash at that point in our lives.