Shawls for Smiles

So you might remember a few posts back I talked about spending the day with my friend Vhary. We went to St John the Divine and had lunch and went yarn shopping, and Vhary asked me if I would knit her something if she got herself some yarn.

Well, why not? Especially when Vhary has such good taste:

This is Malabrigo Sock in Indecita, which is really lovely. I understand now why it’s so popular. I took the yarn home with me and wound it, and picked out a pattern (Charlize by Vanessa Smith [rav link]) that seemed to meet Vhary’s requests: lots of lace, and long, almost more scarf than shawl.

I cast on on the train home from work a few days later:

and knit during commutes and on lunch break and at home:

(that’s the tail end of a lunch break, with my tea and chocolate, mmm) and then Vhary emailed and said she was going to be in town for a few days last week and would I like to meet for dinner? So I quickly blocked the finished object, and wrapped it up carefully and brought it with me and gave it to her after we had a lovely tea at Alice’s.

Vhary did this:

and then she did this:

and that is why I love her. Reactions like that mean I’ll knit for you any time, Vhary darling, just say the word.

So that was one of my mystery projects. I have two more that I am working on now, along with a Featherweight and socks that are kind of being ignored more often than not, and today I got more yarn for more mystery projects:

Let’s just say there are a lot of squares in my future. And thank goodness for Lion Brand’s wonderful discounts, because I walked out of there with a bag of 30 skeins(!). There is not enough time to knit all of my yarn, people. This knitting stuff is serious business.