Some patterns tend to take the knitting world by storm. The Bee Keeper's Quilt, Hitchiker, Wingspan, Jaywalker Socks... all things that everyone seemed to be casting on at once in the thousands.
In late 2016/early 2017 THE THING to be knitting was a shawl known as Find Your Fade. Minimal lace work, almost no purling, absolutely massive, AND it was written using 7 different colors. Dyers everywhere started making Fade kits in droves and ravelry was just filled with people's projects.
At the time, I didn't really want to make one. It didn't really appeal to me. Not to mention the very real concern that my loose knitting would mean I'd end up with a finished object that would better be served as a sail rather than a shawl. So I gave it a hard pass.
Well, until this year at least.
After finishing Mojito and wanting to sob from all the intricacy, I needed something plain to soothe my poor battered soul. I started pulling skeins out, looking for inspiration, and loved the idea of using a bunch of colors, but didn't want to do actual color work. My brain snapped to Fade and I decided why the hell not.
It was intended to be a long-term, travel project. Instead, it became the only thing I wanted to work on. I was also deep into planning for the D&D campaign and my character ( a tiefling bard named Aralith) had a whole fire and water thing going for her, so this shawl quickly became
Aralith's shawl.
It took me quite a while to finish it, as I've said in a previous post. But last Wednesday (at 3 in the morning, mind you) I finished my bind-off and finally laid Fade out.
And...
Well....
I'll just let the photos speak for themselves.
When I measured it before blocking, it was already 112 inches wide.
I really shouldn't have been all that surprised since I really should have been using something like a size 2 needle instead of my usual 4's.
But could you imagine doing a large scale fingering weight project on the knitting equivalent to toothpicks?
Blocking itself was a total nightmare, with nothing going right, and a frustrating lack of room. It was the closest I ever came to having a total meltdown and just throwing a whole damn project out.
It's final measurement was a whopping 12 feet and 8 inches wide.
At first, I was angry and upset and just so damn frustrated. How the bloody hell was I supposed to wear this thing?! But as I kept playing around with it, draping it in different ways, I figured out exactly what this was.
This was
FUN.
Listen, this thing is absolutely ridiculous. It's never going to function as a "proper" shawl. But it
IS just so dang enjoyable to toss around me in various dramatic ways.
It's great for tossing around multiple people, too. Especially ones you like to snuggle with.
And I just absolutely ADORE the way all of the colors work together.
Especially because this shawl was 5/7ths stash yarn.
It also fits my character perfectly, but alas, I can't say too much since my party reads my blog.
So thank you, Fade, for being as ridiculous and over-the-top as your creator.
Stars know we could use some levity in our lives right now.
P.S. Isn't my new letter board totally awesome?! I can't wait for the various shenanigans that the possibilities of this board holds.
