Shawl from a Vermont summer

When we decided to head back to Vermont for the summer, it made the decision for me about my knitting. For months -- nay, the past year even -- I'd been coveting a skein of madder-dyed lace yarn from A Verb for Keeping Warm.  And now I had my reason to get it: I'd bring this Oakland yarn across the country for a shawl in Vermont, knitting together my different geographic footholds.

For the record: yarn is VFKW Floating in color 'Transnational Fury,' pattern is my own Vermont Shawl, knit on size 5s instead of the usual 6s to ensure that I could make the whole pattern in one skein.

I had an interesting experience knitting this one.  There was a time when I'd knit this so many times (one, two, three) that it was second nature. But it's been a few years now.  To tell you the truth, this time I mucked up the complicated maple leaf lace pattern and had to rip out inches of knitting. Painful! I tell you what, though, it made me appreciate my own designing work. This is one complex piece of lace!  And most of the time it was a pleasure to knit, curled up on the porch with my cat.

I finished it on one of our last mornings in Vermont. Sitting outside with my morning coffee, just as the sun started to break through the morning mist and give everything a soft glow. Here's the shawl all scrunched up on the little circular needle just before the bind off ...

And here it is just after the bind off, spread out on the table and encroaching on Mountain Man's journaling. Knitting these shawls is not for the faint of heart, because after all this work it still looks blobby and small until the blocking ... 

But once the blocking is done, you realize you've made magic.  I unpinned it, tossed it over my shoulders, and took it for a walk in the forest.  Winding through the trees ...

to the waterfall. It was a moment of pure delight. Mossy aromas. Spray of fresh water. Cool air.  And a lovely new shawl!