Day: January 14, 2008

The alpaca shawl is downstairs drying on top of my ping pong table right now.

Truth be told, I bound off all the stitches on Saturday. For 24 hours, it sat balled up on the server next to the basement stairs. It was waiting for somebody to take it downstairs and wash it and block it. I knew I didn’t have a hope of Dan taking it downstairs. Dan never even sees items sitting on the server waiting to go down. The trick is to block the doorway; then, he’ll take it downstairs. So, the shawl sat. I did manage to log into Ravelry and mark my shawl as 100% completed; ah, it is funny how much joy that brought me!

When Nan left me a comment about checking in to see if the shawl was done, it provided the nudge I needed to pick up the shawl and take it downstairs. Thanks, Nan!

I washed it. Then, conditioned it (since, I felt it was a bit scratchy for alpaca. The mill had erred in following the instructions given and mixed the leg fur with the soft body fur. It is the leg fur that is a bit scratchy since it’s courser to ward off the elements [per my understanding – by no means am I a farmer]). Then, the hard part started. I pinned it to a sheet folded in half. I pulled and pinned. Then, pulled and pinned some more. By the time I was done, my back was screaming and Jake was whining from having his play time be interrupted (yes, I suppose he is spoiled).

Yet, it was all worth it (unless, of course, you ask Jake. He’s not sure yet).

Pictures!