The Raspberry Shawl

I love knitting, plain and simple.  It relaxes me and even better, only positive thoughts come to mind while I knit.  I believe that handmade naturally means that the finished product is going to be full of good energy because people who like to make things are happiest when doing just that.  So yesterday I looked for a shawl pattern that would be a bit of a challenge for me.  Can't let the brain dry up they say so try something new.  Well, it turns out that for the last 20 some years I have been knitting differently than most of the knitters in the world.  This wasn't apparent until I tried out a new pattern and found that I knit from the back loop while everyone else knits from the front to the back.  Unfortunately, that was a fatal flaw for this particular pattern.  I figured that I would simply learn to knit the way most people do and for the next 3 hours I really tried.  I tried so hard that I was sweating and swearing.  Not the good thoughts I want for my shawl.  I finally gave up and looked for a different pattern that would accept me as the knitter I have always been.

This is the first round of the pattern and I love this one!  It remains to be seen whether it will look like the pattern I'm following but even if it doesn't, I'm happy knitting this one.  The yarn is to die for and I bought it in the town where my mom used to live (Viroqua, Wisconsin) from an adorable shop called Ewetopia.  http://www.ewetopiafibershop.com/.  I can't find the information for this yarn but it's a gorgeous cotton.

 I have this vision of wearing the shawl while I sit on our balcony at night looking into the valley and the mountains and drinking a glass of red wine.  Now, if you know me, you will understand that this vision will probably not come to be for another year or two.  I have a problem with starting projects and then leaving them to start another one. However, I'm going to try to improve that poor track record so  I'll give a shawl update in a couple of weeks to see what it looks like and to keep me going on this one.