My mother wanted to steal my bed shawl (keeps my shoulders warm when I’m reading/knitting in bed!) from me. I of course wasn’t going to surrender it, so I decided to give her one of her own for Christmas. I wanted something wide and long, so that it would keep her nice and warm, and a rectangular shawl, rather than a triangular one. I settled on the Fall Breeze Shawl.
The pattern recommended Caron Simply Soft, and since I wanted a washable yarn, that seemed like a good choice. I chose a color that would match my parents’ bedroom.
The shawl was going quickly at first, but then I got to the huge stockinette portion. Feet of stockinette is so boring, and the shawl got too big to be a travelling project, so I could only work on it at home. Additionally, I was getting really, really tired of working with 100% acrylic.
The pattern called for 1.5 balls of the yarn. It took me 2.3 balls. The pattern was a little ambiguous; it said to knit the stockinette until the shawl is the desired length, and that the designer’s was 55”. I assumed that that meant I should knit the stockinette until the shawl was 55” and then work the final lacy section; I’m beginning to suspect that the designer meant that her whole shawl was 55,” and that may be where the yarn amount discrepancy occurred. This caused a little bit of a problem, because I needed to go buy more yarn- although Caron Simply Soft is not supposed to have a dye lot, you can kind of see the difference. It’s not too terrible, though, and I didn’t have much choice, so I went with it.
I also had a little bit of help on this project. I took it home over the Thanksgiving holiday to work on it. I was in my bedroom, watching tv on my laptop and knitting away, when the dogs decided to come offer their assistance and test out the partially-finished shawl’s merits. As you can see, Mia decided it would make a good pillow, while Napoleon thought it was an excellent blanket. I made sure to make it long enough for a dog to snuggle under the ends while Mom uses it, if she feels like sharing.
Pattern: Fall Breeze Shawl
Yarn: Caron Simply Soft
Needles: US8
The Verdict: The end result looks great, and I love the way it turned out. However, I definitely do not think I’d knit this again- I got so incredibly bored during the stockinette portion, and it was way too big and heavy to transport!
