FO: Mrs Tumnus shawl

Back in February, Eskimimi release a gorgeous shawl pattern inspired by C.S. Lewis's Narnia book, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, specifically by the character Mr Tumnus and his red scarf. As soon as I saw it I knew I wanted to knit it, so when Mimi decided to host a KAL I jumped at the chance.

Skein Queen Blush

I decided to get my yarn at Unravel, as I didn't have anything suitable in my stash. The lovely Nat over at Misadventures in Craft helped me choose this gorgeous red merino/cashmere blend. I was worried about yardage, as it's a sport weight rather than fingering and to get gauge I had to use 5mm needles. A few people in the KAL talked about running out of yarn, or almost running out.

Turns out I shouldn't have worried! I ended up using only 363 yards, including my excessively over-estimated long tail cast on.

The shawl is knit from the outside in, which meant the cast on and first few rows were tortuous. It took hours to do just a couple of rows! Which explains a lot why I cast on in March and when I picked it back up a couple of weeks ago, I had only knit about 15 rows.

Fortunately, as the border grew, the pattern suddenly made sense and I sped up significantly.

The shawl is an interesting horseshoe shape, which is created by using short rows to knit the body once the border is finished. I whizzed through the short rows and the closer I got to finishing the more I wanted to finish. Even before blocking it was beautiful, but now... well, I just love it to bits.