Have you ever visited a place about which all you can really say is that it’s cute? Cute, that relatively condescending adjective. I have to admit it: That’s how I feel about Norway.
But then, I also identify as cute myself (I mean, aren’t I?), so I’m in conflict. And Norway probably outdoes even me for pretty.
As many of you have heard—since it’s been all over the news, Twitter, and Facebook—the East Coast got socked with a blizzard the Sunday after Christmas. It’s too bad it couldn’t make for a white Christmas, but it sure did make things pretty. During the day on Sunday, when the snow was falling but there wasn’t enough on the ground to play with, I was consumed by an uncontrollable burst of creative energy that had me bouncing off the walls. I tried starting a blanket, but the yarn wasn’t right. I sewed for a few hours. And then I pawed deep into my yarn stash, came up with a skein of bulky, and I cast on for a hat!
When my friend Emily asked me to knit her a wedding shawl, I was beyond excited: No one had ever asked me to make them something so important before! Many of my friends are not the “knit shawl at their wedding” kind of girls, but Emily has a real appreciation for handmade, and she told me that she especially wanted me to be “in” her wedding somehow, even if she wasn’t having attendants (hallelujah! no bridemaid dress for me!).
I threw myself into the planning by . . . giving Emily my Ravelry username and password and telling her to go for it. Actually, that’s not true, I sent her links to about 15 different shawls, plus my Rav name and password! I wasn’t sure what style she wanted—triangular? rectangular? lacy? textured? . . . so I gave her lots to choose from. Perhaps because it was first on my list and because I said “this one is gorgeous!” she went with what was secretly my top choice: Echo Flower Shawl by Jenny Johnson Johnen.
Back when I posted the Jury Duty Mitts (the Cabled Mitts from Crochet Today), I got an email from my grandmother, who my cousins and I call Nanny, asking if I could make her a pair of fingerless mitts, because her hands are often cold. She saw the post (yes! my savvy 80-something-year-old grandmother follows my blog) and realized how perfect something like that would be for her. I had no intended recipient for the mitts, so I said I’d mail her one of those pairs.
But, like a bad granddaughter, I never got around to it. And every time I picked them up, the scratchiness of that wool turned me off. I couldn’t mail those to her! So this weekend I finally took the time to make her something worth having.
Thank you for coming to get this free pattern! The pattern is a FREE download through Ravelry. CLICK HERE to get the pattern.
The Potholder Swap 2010 is in full swing—what fun potholders are you making? I can’t wait to receive mine from the swap, and making the ones I’ll contribute has been a lot of fun, too. I have even tried my pattern out, and they function pretty darn well!
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