Magic Shell Shawl

 This weekend I got around to blocking my Magic Shell Shawl, and I'm so excited to be able to share it with you guys.  The pattern is by Lefted Knits and is available on Ravelry.  Overall it was an easy knit, the pattern was straightforward and didn't have too many complicated stitches.  A lot of design interest for fairly straightforward knitting.   

I did have some problems with chart VI, I never could make my number of stitches fit the pattern, so I wound up with double the number of triangles in that section and as a result double the number of final points and double the number of stitches. It took over 4 hours to bind off, but the end result was worth it.

I used two yarns, one was a  single ply hand-dyed rainbow lace-weight wool that I bought many years ago on a trip to Austria, and apart from using it in this quilt, I never knew what to do with it.  There was just enough to be the contrasting color in this project, so I was thrilled to use it.  There's only a tiny bit left that I'm sure I'll incoroporate into something someday. It was tricky to knit with, there were lots of breaks in the yarn and lots of thin places, but since it was a nice fuzzy wool it was fairly easy to splice together.  I just had to be super cognizant of my tension when working with that yarn.

 The main fuschia yarn is a beautiful bright but-not-neon pink, really thin lace-weight yarn I had on a giant cone.  It was part of the Georgia stash and it knit really well.  Not sure what the fiber content is but it was great to work with and I still have lots left.

Here are a few in-progress pics

This is what it looked like after the bind-off.  There were well over 1100 stitches (!!), but of course it was pretty rumpled and shrunken.

And here it is nicely blocked out.

It had a new-to-me crocheted bind-off that I really liked. It added a little interest to the edge and I found it very easy.

Blue of course wanted to help with the outside picture taking

I've been knitting quite a bit more than usual during the pandemic, largely because I'm home more and because I usually knit during zoom meetings provided I'm in an easy section of the pattern.  I've just cast on a new shawl with more Georgia yarn, but it remains to be seen whether it's something I can work on while zooming.  Lots of short rows which aren't hard but require counting....