FO: Cabled Pocket Shawl

EDIT If you are looking for the pattern for this shawl, see this post.

Pattern: Cabled Pocket Shawl
Yarn: Lion Brand Chunky USA (discontinued)
Needles: US 7, 9, 10

I’m really happy with how this shawl turned out. My mom, who was the recipient, seemed to love it, which made me really happy. This yarn is discontinued, and I can’t say I’m disappointed. I love many of the Lion Brand yarns I have used. I use Wool Ease regularly. But this yarn really hurt my fingers. The pain was worth it, though, to see the smile on my mom’s face when she opened the box! And to be fair, the garment softened up a lot after a machine wash.

I feel like this project has come full circle since the start of my knitting days. As I stated earlier I’m sure, the main reason I started knitting was to make presents for people. Obviously this is one! After purchasing my first knitting book and making my first gift from it, I decided I enjoyed the craft enough to continue. I believe it was my second or third knitting book I got that had a pattern for a cardigan that I really wanted to make for my mom. I purchased this yarn to make that sweater, and I actually started the sweater twice. The first time my gauge changed while knitting and it was coming out the wrong size. I was a new knitter, so I guess this wasn’t a surprising development. The surprising thing is that I allowed it to happy again on a sweater I made for Tim even after that. But I digress. I started the sweater a second time, and I really didn’t like how it was turning out. Or, really, I didn’t like the sweater anymore. It had no shaping, so I knew it would just hang on her. And. the. whole. thing. was. in. seed. stitch. OMG. Bad times.

I put the yarn back into my small but growing stash, and forgot about it for a while. Then I got another knitting book that had a pattern for a cardigan, and I thought this yarn could work for it. And I gave it a shot, but again I wasn’t really happy with it, and I didn’t think my mom would be either. I frogged it (except for a sleeve, which I found when I was digging through my stash to find this yarn to make this shawl), and then forgot about the yarn again.

As soon as I saw this pattern I knew my mom would like it, and when I saw that it called for a chunky yarn I was thrilled. Finally I could use the yarn to make a gift for my mom, which was the whole purpose of getting that yarn in the first place. I feel like I was destined to make this shawl, and my mom was destined to have it.

Edited to add: I don’t have this pattern. I had printed it out long ago and lost it. It is available on Ravelry as a free download. If you have not joined Ravelry, it’s free too. Here is a link.

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/cabled-pocket-shawl