It Isn't Finished...

All together now...

...until it's wet finished.

But before that can happen, a whole lot of knot tying needs to be done.  By my calculations I believe there are 28 shawls in these three bins to be tied.  Doug has already done some sessions pressing what I've managed to get ready.  Of course, once they are wet finished, they still have to be trimmed and tagged.

However, the weaving part is now officially done.  I cut the last warp off the loom a few minutes ago but before I begin on the AVL...it's lunch time.  Or will be in a few minutes.  Because when you are self-employed, you get to choose when to take breaks, right?

End of the Line

This is it, the End of the Line.  The Last of the Shawl Warps.  #18 of 18.  Just two more shawls to weave and put a period at the end of it.

The rapid rate of recovery after surgery has slowed and, indeed, feels like it has come to a full stop, although I know that isn't really so.  It is just that now, recovery will be measured over weeks and months, not days.  I have been told by many that recovery from this surgery takes one to three years, depending on the person.  I know that after 13 weeks I'm only at the beginning of the journey.  Does that make me any less impatient?  Of course not.  Intellectually I know there is a ways to go.  Emotionally?  Not so much...

With the plateau I feel that it must surely be time to push the boundary a little bit harder.  Having so many of these 'easy' warps to do meant that I stayed the course, did not start pushing too soon but stuck with the promise to myself that I would weave all of these 'gentle' warps before I tried weaving more normally, i.e. with the same degree of physical effort I'm used to using.

As each warp came off the loom I found I could do a little bit more before I felt tired or achy, until with this one I didn't really feel any aches or pains at all.

These warps fulfilled several functions:  a) they allowed me to ease back into weaving, reminding my body very gently of the movements and effort I need it to perform; b)  I was able to clear three boxes of yarn out of storage - about 150 four ounce skeins; c) build badly needing inventory - about 50+ shawls.  All that needs to happen now is fringe tying, pressing, trimming and tagging.  They will be ready in plenty of time for the fall sales beginning in October.

This warp will come off tomorrow and then I will take a deep breath, turn the computer for the loom on and see just how far along in my recovery I really am.

Currently reading Murder 101 by Faye Kellerman

Odd Ball

Again, not quite true to life.  The woven cloth looks very 'pink' on my monitor when it's actually an orange/coral, more like the yarn in the shuttle.  The cone on the left is about the same colour but a lighter value, while the cone on the right is pretty close although it looks a bit on the lavender end of the colour chart.

In using up this yarn I had an assortment of 'odd' colours left over.  It's been a bit of a challenge at times to find appropriate combinations but since they were all dyed with the same brand of dyes, they are going together much better than I'd hoped.  The pale cone is nearly the same as the lighter bits in the warp so it should just be a pastel version.  Or at least, that's what I'm hoping.

The good news is that the physio was delighted with my progress and told me to just keep on, keeping on.  That what I was doing was working and that I just needed to keep doing the exercises/stretches and let my body take the time it needs to heal

More good news - there are now seven people who want to take the Lace Workshop.  I could possibly take one more, but with two brand new weavers in the class and several who haven't woven for a while and need a refresher, I think that seven will be plenty.  The Beginning Weaving workshop already has one person who is interested but needs to check her work schedule before she signs up.  After so many years of not being able to run a beginning class because no one was interested, it is very heartening to see interest in weaving picking up again.

Everything old is new again?

Currently reading Look Me in the Eye by John Elder Robison

Orange!

The colours in this photo are pretty true to life on my monitor.  The warp is a coral and kind of brick red, the weft a sort of pumpkin orange with a fairly bright yellow.  Not too much yellow because a little yellow goes a long way.

Let me be perfectly clear.  Orange appears in my personal colour palette...no where.  It's not my choice of colours.  It doesn't sing to me.  At all.

But that doesn't stop me from weaving with it.  Why?  Because although I only weave stuff I want to, I'm not weaving textiles exclusively for my use.

So I weave with orange and yellow and brown and all sorts of shades of beige, not because I want those textiles for myself but because I enjoy weaving and I enjoy making things that other people like and want in their lives.

So I weave with these colours and do my level best to make them as beautiful...and as beautifully...as I possibly can.  By selling my textiles I can afford to buy more yarn.  More yarn means I can weave more stuff.

And every time I push myself to work with those colours that don't sing to me?  I learn.  I learn more about how colours go together, which ones will play nicely, and which ones don't.

I had about 4 cones of this textured yarn in various colours that got put with different warps several times as I mulled over which of these 'odd' colours were going to be able to be used with the warps I had wound.  I think this single orange skein/cone got moved to four different warps before I finally decided that this warp was the one it would play nicely with.

In the end I'm satisfied I made the correct choice.  Now if the other dubious cones play as nicely with their assigned warps, I will be truly happy.

Unsure

Sometimes you just don't know what you are going to get until you start weaving.  So it was with this yarn as weft.

In the skein and on the cone it wasn't particularly appealing to the eye.  The pale areas were so very pale in comparison to the darker it looks quite jarring.  But I was short of yarns that would go on this dark blue warp so I threw caution to the wind and wound the bobbins.

As it happens, I quite like it.  Surprise!  (Sometimes they are pleasant!!!)

Again, colours aren't quite true to life but you can see how the variegated sections move through the cloth in a nice undulation.  Sometimes variegated yarns have colours that 'pool' unattractively.  This time I think they look quite interesting, and I'm pleased with this shawl.

The other two are going to be woven with two different shades of blue in what I call a 'semi-solid' and they are much 'safer' so I know they'll be fine.  No surprises, pleasant or otherwise.

Currently reading Ghost Boy by M. Pistorius.

Another Bite

Officially at the half way point as I begin to set up warp #9 on the great stash busting count down from 18.

This is the only blue warp in the run, which is a pity because I know I could sell a lot more than three blue shawls.  But the point of the exercise is to use up what I have and what I most had was a bunch of coral/rust reds.  So I will have depth of stock in those, some purple/pinks, a couple of magenta and a couple of turquoise warps.  I'm trying to break up the coral/red warps by weaving other colours in between.

Someone asked me if the very open weave I'm doing with this yarn will result in a stable cloth.  It is stable enough for shawls/scarves.  It won't survive getting caught in a zipper or snagged on a necklace or bracelet.  But most textiles won't, either.

One of my primary aims as a weaver is to make cloth which will fulfill it's function.  The yarn as mentioned previously is a highly twisted lower quality silk.  As such it is matt not slippery and the corkscrew twists of the yarn help to catch and grab onto the threads crossing each other.  That, combined with a good hard press, helps to lock the threads into place.

So while it is possible to disturb the threads from their path, there is sufficient stability for the job the cloth is intended for.  At least in my opinion.

One Bite

Again, not quite accurate to life...the orange is much brighter, more like the orange in the shuttle.

This is, in the count down from #18, warp #10.  When I finish weaving this warp I will be half way through the shawl warps.  And that much closer to recovery.  The exercises the physio gave me are beginning to do their work and I have less discomfort from protesting muscles and am beginning to feel stronger.  I even tested myself on a small hill on Wednesday and managed fairly well.  I can tell how out of shape I've gotten over the past few months, but the nice thing about muscles is that as you use them, they do get stronger.

I mentioned in the last post that I take private students.  Generally people come for 3 to 5 days and they work on the more subtle aspects of weaving, working to improve their physical skills, looking at issues of ergonomics.  Essentially most of the content covered in the dvd The Efficient Weaver, but personalized.  It's really hard to see yourself from the back for instance, so difficult to see if posture is good, if there are bad habits that might lead to repetitive stress injuries and so on.

People can either stay with me in our very modest house, or take a room at a nearby motel which is clean and fairly quiet and reasonably cheap.  Tuition is currently $100 per day plus an additional $25 per day if staying with us.  One student came with her husband who explored the area around the town while she was in the studio.  If you like hiking or the outdoors, we've got plenty.  Lakes and rivers abound, wildlife never seems to be far away (although no guarantees) plus there are other attractions, like Barkerville.  At one time it was the largest city north of San Francisco as gold prospectors flooded the area with the discovery of gold in the 1800's.

One thing though, this summer we are hoping to get some work done on the house so it might be a bit of a construction zone.  But the studio will still be here.

And it looks like there might be a Beginning Weaving Workshop here at the guild room May 23/24.

Pretty in Pink

The warp on the loom is actually a darker magenta.  I have three shades of magenta to use as weft; this is the darkest of the three.  The other two will look more like this does in the photo.

In the background are more warps waiting their turn.  There is just one more warp to be wound of this yarn.  I suppose once I'm done with these, I'll begin winding place mat warps.  I'm already seeing improvement since beginning physio.  :)

We appear to have achieved spring at last, although the temps continue to be on the chilly side.  We are supposed to have sunny days for most of this week so the flowers should start bursting out of the ground.  

Creative Constraints

One of the purposes of this shawl run - other than to increase my inventory of shawls, of course - is to use up this textured silk yarn.

Each warp takes four cones (four oz each), then each shawl takes one cone for weft.

I was getting down to the dregs when I wound this warp.  I had two cones of the same terracotta semi-solid, plus two cones that had the same terracotta, but different shades of grey.  I agonized over it for a while, then decided that it didn't matter if one side of the shawl had a lighter shade than the other.  In fact, a customer might like the wearing options this would create.  By folding or twisting the shawl, it would have a different look to it.

So I went ahead and wound the warp using up the two co-ordinated but slightly different variegated yarns.  I actually think it's going to look just fine.

The blue is 'waste' yarn that will hold the yarns in place until I can get the knots tied.

Just two more warps to wind.  The first batch of shawls are being wet finished today and Doug will start pressing tomorrow.

I had hoped to weave all three shawls today but after a busy day yesterday I'm coming up short for energy.  Perhaps I'll settle for two woven, one warp wound...

Count Down

Colour isn't accurate as it looks more pink than it really is.  The warp is a deep scarlet red, the weft a darker, browner red.  It looks very magenta on the bobbin in the shuttle.\

I've woven enough warps now, which are in various stages of 'finishing' that it's getting harder to keep track of the woven ones, and much easier to see how many warps are left.

So I'm now officially counting down from 18.  This is #13 on the countdown.

There are three more warps to be wound, all of them various shades of coral reds.  There are a few cones that are going to be left over - not enough of any one colour to make another warp.  They will go into my knitting stash.

Seems like there is no end of yarns that are too much to throw away, too little to weave with.  I bundle strands together and knit with them.  But knitting is so much slooooower than weaving, it seems like I've got the same sort of problem with the knitting as I do with the weaving!  Too much yarn for the time available.

That said, I need to put in a yarn order.  I know.  Hardly seems credible that I would with one breath complain I have too much yarn and with the very next say I need to order more.  But it's true.  For a good deal of the yarn I have on hand, I need to order more yarn in in order to use it up.

And that's why my stash never seems to grow smaller!

Currently reading (after binge reading to finish the C. J. Box this morning)  Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Spools not Fools

I've never really liked April Fool's pranks, so April Spools suits me much better.

Bobbins wound for the last of the shawls on the Deep Purple Haze warp, now woven.

Tomorrow I will dress the loom with the next warp, #6.  Or maybe I should be counting down?

Currently reading Endangered by C. J. Box

Deep Purple Haze

Silly me - I miscounted how many warps there are (or are going to be - I still haven't finished winding them all) and there are only 18, not 20.  I'm actually happy about that.  I'd decided that, in the spirit of recovery, I would weave all of these warps before I tried something a little more, well, physical.  So having two less than expected was actually quite a nice discovery.

I saw the physio today.  She spent nearly an hour talking with me about the surgery and how healing has been going, then did an extensive evaluation of where I am right at this minute.  She was pretty amazed at my range of motion, to which I think the massage treatments should be given credit for how well I can move my arms.

She will draw up a personalized exercise program, then let me have at it for a couple of weeks after which I'll go back for a re-evaluation.

Heard from the cardiologist's office today and she is sending me for more tests and unless anything untoward pops up, I probably won't see her for three months.  So I'm really glad I went ahead with starting physio (after getting approval from my family dr).

I'm looking forward to working on upper body strength.  I've really noticed how difficult some things are, that never were before.  Obviously I've lost a lot of muscle tone.  But muscles that are worked get stronger.  You just have to curb your impatience...

Weaving by Feel

the breast beam shows through this very open cloth - click on the photo to biggify

As mentioned previously, this yarn is being woven very open.  It is a highly textured silk, a bit stiff and a little coarse feeling, due to the high degree of twist and the torquing that happens as a result of that high twist.  In order to encourage the cloth to drape, the epi/ppi is about 10.  I say about because mostly I'm weaving the weft in by feel more than anything else.

This is truly a situation where "If you can't be perfect, be consistent" is a big factor.  And the way I can get the closest to being consistent with this cloth is to feel how the beater pushes the weft picks into place.

In previous posts I think I've talked about beating a very open cloth.

At any rate, it is a subtle thing and you really need to pay attention when you do it.

When weaving a very open cloth, the beater is moved towards the fell slowly rather than the usual crisp tap.  The whole point being you don't want the weft picks to be side by side but with a space between them.

So as the beater comes forward, slowly, you should feel resistance as it gets closer to the fell.  This resistance usually happens about 1/4" away from the fell line.  When this resistance is felt, the beater is then squeezed, very gently - and with the same degree of force each time - closer to the last pick.  How close will depend on how much space you want between each pick.

With such a textured yarn, the warp and weft threads are not going to be perfectly straight.  I think that is quite clear in the photo above.  There will be some deflection of the threads, again, partly because of the high twist of the yarn and it's tendency to torque, partly due to the texture.

Bottom line, consistency.  That is what is going to work to make such an open cloth from this yarn.

Currently reading The Christmas Wassail by Kate Sedley

All About the Therapy

Two shots of the same shawl.  The top photo was taken with the ordinary flash, the bottom using the 'red-eye' feature of the flash.  The bottom photo is much closer to real life than the top photo.  I discovered by accident that using the red-eye feature gets me better representation of reds, especially.

This shawl has been wet finished and in the bottom photo you can see how open and airy it is as the blue of the table top shows through the cloth.

Some people get bored very quickly with weaving and won't even weave four place mats with the same threading/tie-up/treadling.

OTOH, I find weaving the same thing over and over soothing.  I don't mind any part of weaving, including weaving repeats of a textile to develop a line of scarves, place mats, shawls.  The colours may, or may not, vary.  Weaving the same quality of textile then becomes a working meditation or, as in the case of these shawls, very much therapy as I try to reclaim my physical fitness after surgery.

I'm still far from recovered, but healed enough that the work of rebuilding my muscles can begin.

On Tuesday I will start physio, but in the meantime I am gently working my way through these textured silk shawls.  My colour selection is limited to what I have left in inventory, but that's ok.  I have four shows coming up in Oct/Nov and if shawls continue to sell the way they did last year, having depth of stock will be A Good Thing.

And I am determined to use up as much of my stash as possible.  I have promised Doug I will not win the estate sale contest.  To that end we are doing two fibre shows this spring to try and sell off more of the re-sale yarns I have.  Whatever is left after those sales will have to be woven up by me, preferably as quickly as possible.

Since I am officially turning into a 'senior citizen' this summer, coupled with the long list of health issues that have suddenly (it seems like) reared their heads, I have some serious thinking to do about the future and how much I am willing - or able - to do.  But I really don't want to think about that too much until I find out what my new normal is going to be.  In the meantime, there will be a lot of repetition as I use up my rather extensive stash.  And that's ok by me.

Currently reading To Dwell in Darkness by Deborah Crombie

Getting Ready

I've spent a couple of quiet days, resting and working on getting some inventory ready to ship for the show in September.  There is now a box of hand dyed silk gimp yarn ready to go and this bucket of hand spun is on it's way.  I spent much of the afternoon weighing the skeins, counting how many strands in each and will calculate approximate yardage and then write it all out on the hang tags.

I've also got enough shawls (two different designs) ready to pack up as well.  Once those boxes are out the door I need to concentrate on some writing projects - an article promised for a magazine, and of course, Magic files. 

While I'd hoped to have more handspun ready by now there is more on the wheel and I can always mail another box later in the month.  The show goes on for 17 days so not everything needs to be there for opening day.  :)

The last day of steroids is tomorrow and my energy should start to pick up again although all the warnings given about energy flagging appear to be true.  But I'm 5/8's the way through now - only 3 more cycles left and then - look out world, here I come!  :D

Currently reading Dead in the Water by Aline Templeton

Of Comfort Zones

shawl warp #4 on the loom

#4 off the loom

I'm down to the last 3 shawl warps done with the silk gimp hand dyed yarns.  All three of the last warps are the same sort of blue/green as this one.  The problem, if problem it be, is that I'm all out of 'safe' colour choices for the weft and am having to go beyond my comfort zone in choosing weft colours to go with the warps.

For shawl #4 I chose a pink varigated that changes value, not hue, and think it turned out okay.  I suspect that once wet finished there will actually be some irridescence happening.  You can just almost sort of see it in the off the loom photo.  The colours aren't quite true in either photo - the actual shade of pink is somewhere between the two.

As I struggled a bit choosing the weft colour for this warp I started thinking about comfort zones in general and wondering how someone like myself who craves security as much as I do wound up in a profession with as little of it as a craftsperson has.  I mean really, how insecure can you be - relying on your own creative abilities to craft something, offering it for sale, hoping that even one other person will like what you've dreamt up and created enough to plunk down their money in order to purchase it?

Even the teaching and writing I've done is a bit of a crapshoot - just because I think something is worthwhile writing down or offering in a workshop doesn't mean anybody else will value it. 

So how did I wind up here, anyway? 

As I look back on my life it all seems terribly irrevocable.  When I look at the choices I've made in my lifetime, I wonder how I could have made any other choices - and remained sane.  Oh sure I could have opted for the security of a 9 to 5 job in an office somewhere - and died a slow smothering spiritual death.  I was, after all, headed that direction when I suddenly veered off the beaten track and chose weaving as a career!

My life has not been a string of successes, either.  I've had my failures.  The challenge, in the end, is to not get defeated by the things that don't turn out the way you hope.  To pick yourself up again, try something else, keep going.

Again I come back to Winston Churchill's advice - when you're going through hell, keep going!  For one thing I've learned is that nothing, and I do mean nothing, lasts forever.  Not the good - and not the bad, either.  Comfort zones are just that - a zone.  They too will end.  But so, too, will the discomfort zones.....

Something to Look Forward To....

By the time you read this (I've scheduled it to be posted Friday evening) I ought to have arrived in Montreal - barring travel challenges.  This is, however, an 'easy' trip - from here to Vancouver (at 6 am - there otta be a law!) and then from Vancouver to Montreal, arriving there around 5 pm local time - there is a 3 hour time difference between here and there.

In between packing I wove off one shawl and then dressed the loom with this teal blue/green.  I got it threaded before dinner and just now finished sleying and tieing it on.  I was going to wind bobbins, too, but I still have a few more things to do before bedtime and 4 am is going to arrive mighty early!

We get home late (very late!) Sunday evening June 12.  Monday and Tuesday are crammed with appointments and then Wednesday June 15 is the next chemo.  With 4 weeks between treatments I don't anticipate any further delay and that it will go ahead as scheduled.

I've got half a dozen paperbacks in my suitcase plus two library books in my Alberta bag.  Yes, I'm hoping to get a lot of reading done on this trip!  Long plane and road trips are good for reading. It's about 10 hours from here to Calgary.  I'm also hoping to steam roller through the silk gimp warps that are already dyed once I get home, although that will depend on how I'm feeling.

But mild exercise is recommended to help speed the chemical cocktail through my system, so weaving these warps will provide that mild exercise.  And since they are more plain weave and gentle beating, I ought to be able to weave a little bit every day.  One day, one shawl/warp is my goal.  Once I'm feeling better I'll dye the rest of the warps so I will have them to finish off this summer.  One way or another, stash is being reduced!

As mentioned previously I'll do another run of tea towels in an effort to use up yet more stash.  The singles 6 cotton torques in the wet finishing due to twist energy left in it.  I'll be coning off from the mill cones into smaller packages and will offer it for sale later in the summer as well.  If I can't use it up myself, maybe I can sell it?  :^)  Yarn with stored twist energy is desired for fabric collapse effects so I expect other weavers may be interested in weaving with it, too.

Also in the pipeline is a silk scarf warp.  Plus I have a whole bunch of dyed 2/20 silk to either use or sell.  I expect one of the things I will be doing over the summer is stocking my Art Fire store with yarns like the singles 6 cotton and the dyed 2/20 silk.

All in all, I've got a lot to look forward to when I get home.

Too Dry!

On this warp I'm using a singles 12 for weft. Unfortunately when the humidity drops below 50% linen gets a bit wire-y and unco-operative. At the moment we are have a cold snap and the relative humidity is currently at 45% (I know, I know, laugh now all you desert dwellers!)

In order to make weaving easier I wind enough for two towels and pop them into a baggie with a wet cloth and let them sit. The longer the better, although these only sat for a few hours. As I finish the first set of bobbins I wind more and put them into a 2nd baggie and then rotate through using the ones that have been sitting in the moist environment the longest.

When I got back from my trip I eagerly started hooking up my computer to the loom and - woe! - could not find the crucial adapter that would allow me to plug the Compu-Dobby in! Doug and I drove all over town looking for one and could not find the correct adapter. At which point I tore the van apart. Lo and behold, the adapter had snuck out of the bag I'd put it in and was lurking under the packing blankets!

So this morning I finished setting everything up and was able to weave this afternoon.

While the bobbins were soaking up some H2O I wove a shawl on the small loom and then dressed it with another warp. One warp, one shawl.



I don't have quite the right shade of purple for this warp but as it has just a touch of a greyed green decided I'd use this skein of a sort of pale blue spruce shade.

In reality I ought to have been taking photos of the River's Edge spinning fibres while the sun was shining so brilliantly. But I'd been away from the looms for too long and weaving won the day.

Currently reading Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews

Gimp and Boucle'

When I was learning to spin, I was told that the yarn on the left was called a 'gimp' and the yarn on the right was a 'boucle' (accent over the e').

Since I'm not really a spinner I don't know the finer points of distinction in how they are constructed but they are both spun.

To my eye the biggest difference is that the loops in the boucle' have lots of air in them. They are a true loop.

The gimp has a much stiffer hand which leads me to believe that it has much more twist in it. It *looks* like there is a core around which the tightly spun silk is spun. The little knobs have no space or air in them and they are like a little bead in comparison to the loop in the boucle' which is very soft and lofty.

The two yarns have very different hands. The mohair loop is lovely and soft; the silk gimp is harder and much more textured to the touch. They both weave up nicely - I don't think I've had a broken end in either yarn - but they make drasticly different qualities of cloth.

Some people feel the silk gimp and they do not find it tactilely satisfying at all. They wonder what on earth you could make that would be nice. They decide that it isn't a good yarn.

But it actually makes quite a nice shawl set at 10 epi and woven square in plain weave. The little 'beads' of the gimp help hold everything together - although the cloth is 'delicate' - I think it's actually quite A Good Yarn.

Currently reading A Play of Piety by Margaret Frazer

Queen of Procrastination

Apologies again if this photo isn't in focus. While I'm doing well with other tasks, the computer is still a bit of a blur - although it's getting better. :}

So, it's confession time. I've been avoiding the AVL and the two shuttle DPW - and the shuttle boxes that started misbehaving for some unknown reason. It's intermittant, so I just get going nicely and then the boxes don't align properly which means the shuttle gets launched into the stratosphere and winds up on the floor on the right hand side of the loom. You know, the side that is inaccessible unless I run aaaaallllll the way around the loom to get to it. :}

In spite of my best intentions to fire it up today, I wound up
a) finishing my book
b) weaving another rayon chenille scarf (finishing warp #2)
c) packaging up a copy of Magic (only 84 copies left - let your friends know that there is one week left in the special offer as outlined in my May 9 blog post) and mailing it
d) running to the annex to pick up my lace stuff, more silk boucle to wind into skeins
e) winding skeins
f) visiting with the neighbour and knitting while she hand sewed on a dress for her grand daughter
g) well, by now it was dinner time
h) you get the drift..........

So, my intention for tomorrow is to Fire Up The AVL! I have bags full of painted warps that need to be woven into shawls because another box of painted warps is en route and due to arrive in a few days.

Not to mention all the other yarn that I already have. Like the yarn in the above photo. This is a lovely wool/bamboo/silk blend that knits up wonderfully. I'm trying to get a sample shawl done in case I decide to sell the skeins I've been dyeing. I bought it to weave with, but it's a little heavier/denser than I like to go with the Bambu 7. :(

However it knits up into a luscious textile that feels quite wonderful. I'm using a size 7 (American) needles with about 7 stitches per inch and the shawl is coming along quite nicely. The skeins are 4 ounces, and I'm about half done the skein and the shawl is a nice size so it goes a long way.

With 15% bamboo, the yarn takes the colour so it has a nice tweedy effect (what I imagine the abrash the rug people talk about in rugs would look like) - solid but not quite.

And yes, the shawl is shaped. I started with 251 stitches, reduced two stitches on either side of the centre until there were 211 left and now I'm just knitting in the knits and purling in the purls until the shawl is the length I want.

Since I'm used to knitting scarves with about 36 stitches, I was afraid this shawl was going to take forever, but my AVL avoidance has resulted in my spending more time knitting than I would do ordinarily. :D Silver linings - there are always silver linings - even if you have to dig deep at times to find them. :^)

Currently reading Alexandria by Lindsey Davis