Peacock on display

It's been a little quiet on the knitting posts since Christmas, especially over the last 6 weeks, because I've been working more or less solidly (and at a frantic pace) on one thing. It's Jae Koscierzynski's Pretty as a Peacock Shawl from Some Knitting Required. Today is my mum's birthday, and I'm really pleased with myself for finishing, blocking and posting it not only on time, but a day early! Smug! I'm fairly sure she'll like it, this is her favourite colour and she's also quite a fan of peacocks - this pattern was the obvious choice really.

Ravellers can follow the link to see the details in my notebook here. For the rest of you, bear with me while I bombard you with a gratuitous amount of knitting photos. Yes I am proud :) Did you know that a group of peacocks is called an ostentation by the way?

Who can spot the mistake in the next photo??

Should have at least brushed my hair before the photoshoot!

Blocking such a large item was an interesting challenge, especially since it needed a severe stretching to open up the lace pattern and make the shawl grow as much as possible. I initially marked out a semicircle at what I thought was the right size and then tried to fit the shawl to it, but everytime I pulled one side, the pins on the other side popped out. In the end I went for several successive rounds of further stretching after an initial pinning to a medium size. I gave up with the tape measure and just stretched to maximum distance all over. If I'd had more time I might have incorporated another row of peacock eyes to make the shawl a little bit bigger, but it reaches bum length, so I think it's fit for purpose. Here's a series of shots before/during/after blocking...

For those interested in the technicalites of all things lace, Eunny Jang has a fascinating series of tutorials called Majoring in Lace. So much work went into that set of articles!