Socks...and Shawls

I have knitted quite a few pairs of socks over the last few months and so far, with the exception of three pairs knitted for my grandsons and one pair for my husband, none of them have been worn.
I love knitting socks. There are no size issues for a start. Whatever size they turn out to be, they will fit someone and even if both pairs are not exactly equal, well, most people have slightly different sized feet. And there is no seaming. When it's done, i'ts done.

During this sock craze I have accumulated three large plastic bags full of sock yarn. All sorts of sock yarn - cashmere, silk, wool, mixtures of these.....lots of it.

Now I'm not saying I am stopping knitting socks, but I am just admitting to myself that a new interest may be appearing. It's quite subtle how it begins. It starts with just looking...then perhaps downloading a few patterns and it escalates from there.


Its shawls.

Now I'm not a lacey sort of person and not even a shawl-y person.

But it seems that it's lace shawls that I'm very interested in now.

Shawls obviously fall into the same easy-going category as socks with no seaming and no size issues and there are some really lovely designs calling to me.

I have to admit that I now have quite a nice little collection of patterns and my stash of "suitable for shawls" yarn is growing exponentially.

I've already started "Little Arrowhead Shawl" from Interweave Knits Summer2006. I'm using HandMaiden Lace Silk in shade Paris on 3.75mm needles and I'm at the stage of not believing that it can possibly be going to be big enough. But I have heard that blocking is the key to it all so I'll see when it's finished.

Here is the "progress" so far. It's a bit squashed up on the needle and you can't really see the pattern so I'm hoping that the blocking does all it's supposed to.