I’m knitting a shawl as a wedding gift for my friend Roo. Not only is her wedding peacock themed, but these colors look really fabulous on her. The wedding is in August, but I’m getting as much of a headstart as possible!

Also, after hearing so many horror stories about knitters giving really expensive, time consuming gifts that are either never worn, carelessly ruined, or not worn “just right” for satisfaction, I’m just going to go ahead and preemptively not give a crap if it ever gets worn. It’s a good gift giving occasion, I love Roo to pieces, and I want to give her something on an important day in her life. And if it never sees the light of day after I hand it to her, I’m okay with that.

Knit double stranded.
7/23/12: So… I stopped and did the math and still don’t have enough to finish the shawl. However, I am alright with simply ending the shawl early because there are no more feathers in the pattern. I’ve now learned the necessary crochet stitches and am in the process of casting off!
7/19/12: Finished Chart H! FINALLY on to the last chart! Also uploaded a new picture that shows just how different the three dye lots were. I think this may keep me from knitting any sort of large scale project with MT in the future… :/
7/7/12: Finished Chart G! The new yarn is another dark shade, so I guess we’ll just have an interesting light stripe in it…
5/30/12: Oh noes! I’ve run out of yarn again! Not that I’m surprised, but just a few rows away from finishing Chart G! Guess I’ll need to buy my last hank next weekend.
6/20/12: After not finding it at the yarn store, I took to the MadTosh group and crossed my fingers and toes that someone would have some extra for sale. Lucky me, they did! It’s a darker shade, much closer to the first skein. So… I guess we’ll just have an interesting stripe in the shawl. Time to get back to knitting!
5/2/12: 50% done! Moving on to chart G.
4/24/12: Finished 41% done! 5 charts down, 4 to go. The new yarn is pretty obviously lighter than the first hank. Well, nothing to be done about it at this point! Maybe I’ll get lucky and the third hank will be even lighter for a cool gradient effect…
3/10/12: Finally had to buy a second hank of yarn. The color seems much lighter since it’s from a different dye lot, but I’m hoping it’s a close enough match to the existing piece.
02/21/12: Finished Chart D! I wound up dropping a couple of stitches (though thankfully not unravelling them) after Row 90 which meant having to rip back for 2 rows to fix the mistake. Needless to say, I kicked myself for not having a lifeline. After a bit of procrastination, I’m back on track!
12/19/11: Finished Chart C! Taking a short break to finish up some Christmas presents.
12/09/11: Finished Chart B!