Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Heirloom

Dear Mom,

As you know, I have the pleasure of teaching a knitting class on Friday mornings at the Village Yarn Shop in Zionsville. The classes have evolved from specific project classes to a general knitting workshop. I am blessed to have a group of "regulars" who I suspect take the class more for the camaraderie than for any knitting instruction I can give them. And with everyone at different levels of expertise, with different style tastes and body shapes, it just made more sense to let everyone pick the project of their choice, work at their own pace and get help as they needed it.  I do still choose a sweater project for the class as an option.

I've been blessed to watch new friendships blossom in class, to see confidence gained, knitting challenges accepted and conquered. We laugh with and support each other. I love the generosity of knitters!

Just recently I've been honored to witness the creation of an heirloom.

Over the last few months, Jody has been creating a wedding shawl for her daughter. The wedding is in August and Jody graciously brought the finished and blocked shawl in last week so we could admire it before she gave it to her daughter. Needless to say, I took pictures.


Even an experienced lace knitter would find this to be a challenging knitting project. Jody methodically set daily and weekly goals for herself and amazed me at how quickly she was able to knit this shawl. I am fairly certain that THIS book is the source for the pattern, and that this is the specific pattern.

Jody chose not to use the lace border as written. (And I don't blame her one bit! The pattern asks that you knit the border separately and sew it on!) She chose instead to pick up the entire border and work to the outer edge. I hate to think how many stitches she had on her needles on that last round! We agreed that this was the right thing to do. The shawl is perfect.
Jody used 2 balls of Juniper Moon's Findlay, in the color Fresco.  

I neglected to ask her what the finished measurements are. My photos do not begin to do justice to the shawl. And I am kicking myself for not getting a picture of Jody with the shawl.
This heirloom is, without doubt, one of the most unforgettable, beautiful hand knits I have ever seen. As I said, I am honored to have witnessed its creation!

Love,
Kim