First Pattern EVER

Well, first that I've written and shared with you that is I've finally gotten off my bum and have decided that since it is typed up, made twice, and I still like it, you should have it too!
So here it is, the Merci Beaucoup Shawl
I designed this pattern with my mom in mind, she wears shawls all the time, and it made sense that after helping me move from VA to NC, she needed one. And it might have been mother's day. Can't remember, the important part was helping me move. Not the easiest, not the worst, but I think the most exhausting move I've done so far. She's a brilliant woman, my momma. Hers is the shawl below in the grass, hopefully someday we will remember to take a proper photo shoot with her in it.

Hope you enjoy the pattern, and if you have questions, please leave a comment and I'll try my best to answer it. Please remember that I've made this shawl twice, but no one else has tried it, so be gentle if I've missed something! It's easy to knit through you own pattern and not notice glaring mistakes.
And a close up:

Edited to apologize for the weird html crapola that was appearing throughout the pattern. I will try to figure that out and will put it back up in its rightful place on this page soon. For now though, it is available on Ravelry.com as a free downloadable pdf. Right here, in fact. If you don't know what Ravelry is, it is SO worth signing up for. It's a vast pattern library, community, project journal... and an hour eater :)

***** Edited to add a correction to Row 3.  It should read as follows:

5 stitches in Seed st, P9, K2, * P1, purl into front of first YO, purl into back of 2nd YO, P1, K2* Repeat from * to last 14 stitches, K2, P9, 5 stitches in Seed st. 

************

xoxox

“It is written: He who makes the best egg salad shall rule the heaven and earth.”

Have you ever seen What's Up Tiger Lily? No?!? Well, if you want to learn the importance of a really good Egg Salad (yes, it IS a proper noun), and what role it can play in Japanese gangs, I highly recommend it. Oh, and Woody Allen is involved. Need I say more?

Yes. I did just make some Egg Salad. It will be perfect tomorrow. Not that I want to rule the heavens and earth, too much to do!


Anyways. I've just become involved in a MOST exciting project, which I'll tell you about later when more is firmed up and sketched out.



( I mean, wet yer pants whilst doing the happiest of dances kind of exciting here, people.)
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More importantly, I have also realized that I'd forgotten to give the artist part of me the attention it deserves. I've always been one, but damn is it easier when you're a kid and your mom gives you her seed catalogs to cut up and paste on to cardboard, or to be completely satisfied with a swath of watercolor paint across a page with a single, precious, velvety white rabbit sticker leaping across it. If I had it with me, I'd tell you what I dictated to my mom as the title. Maybe next time I'll grab that giant portfolio and start taking photos of it. I realized this the other day, and there was probably little I could have done about it if I had realized it sooner... I mean, I bought a house (eeep!), then the holiday daze kicked in full swing and work was CRAZY with trade show prep. My poor little brain had no room to stretch out, and I aim to fix that. To make solid times that are for drawing, doodling, photographing, writing, whatever I please, as long as I'm using that artist side of me. I need to let that bird fly wild and high! She's been perched on her... erm, perch too long!

Which leads me to my next mission: to build a mini light box and start taking photos of the art that I have managed to squeeze out over the past year. I need to finish most of them, well, no, they're done, but I need to get them ready for the public's eyes. I can't keep these pieces of fabric folded up forever, that wouldn't be fair! These stitches need some room to breath! To be seen!

So. That's what's that for now. I think that this blog will be taking a turn from the knitting blog it was born as, and I'll try to use it as my artist statement. There will probably be some strange, twisty thoughts. But I am willing to let you see them. They're art too.

Pondering again

I've been wondering if I should close this blog and start fresh. I have so many new ideas and think about the world in such a different way than when I started this blog... I want to start a new beginning, but I don't know if the blog-o-sphere is where I need my thoughts to be. There's so many things to think and talk about, I'm just not sure if these pages are where I want to be.
For now, though, I'll change the layout and template, see if that helps shake the dust off this poor thing.


Yarn is good, yarn you make (from almost scratch) is better.