Off to a good start

I did it! I finished my Lothian shawl, which was my Scottish 60th birthday present to myself, a whole nine days before I turn 61. I'm sure that for some people this would be regarded as cutting it fine, but for me it's a triumph. (This is probably not something to be proud of, but it's how I am, and it's unlikely to change now!)

First make of the year, completed on 3 January!

I spent both Christmas and New Year at my mum's, and a lot of the time was passed just chatting and knitting the final border rows. I still can't knit anything too taxing and hold a conversation, and this is excellent pattern for having something to do while not being anti-social. I decided early on to weave in the ends as I went, and this was definitely a wise choice.

So many ends to weave in!

The pattern for the border consists of two rows of each of the first four 'route' colours, separated by two rows of the background colour. Then one row and the bind off are knitted in the fifth 'route' colour. However, because I was using variegated wools, I decided to do something different to give the shawl a clearer edge. I knitted two rows of the fifth colour, two rows of the background, and then one row and the bind off in a plain grey.

My border

As ever, there was a bit of a difference between the unblocked and the blocked shape.

Unblocked

Blocked

One thing which only became obvious once the shawl was blocked was the colour difference between the two skeins of the background colour; the second skein is slightly lighter. Fortunately, the change occurs at the start of the first 'route', so it isn't at all obvious on one side of the shawl.

Spot the skein change

Because the background yarn is grey with dashes of yellow/gold, and three of the contrast yarns are yellows with odd speckles of grey, there is a fuzziness to the overall colouring which I really like. It certainly captures the notion of a grey Edinbugh sky with glimpses of sunlight through breaks in the cloud, which was exactly what I wanted.

As I explained here, the pattern really appealed to me because of its connection to Edinburgh buses and their routes. I wore the completed shawl today when I went over to Liverpool, and realised that its yellow and grey colour scheme is a fairly close match to that of Merseyrail, the local train network. So I have made something with links to both my birth city and my adopted city - perfect!

When you match your mode of transport