More stuff that never made it to Ravelry

In the early days of Ravelry, the Edmonton Knitter's Group was formed.  It has been a wonderful source of contact, communication, learning and community to local knitter's and artisans.

One summer, round about 2009 or 2010 - I forget exactly - a local desinger and the group moderator decided to do an Edmonton Knitter's group only Mystery Knit Along.  

In the way of such things, each week we were sent one clue.  Easy peasy, right?

Not so much.  I learned more knitting that shawl than from any other project I have ever attempted.  I fought hard to knit to stay on track and managed to stay right up to date with each clue the whole summer long, and then I made an error and had to rip back.  I got behind and the lovely shawl sat, unfinished for a very long time.  About 3 years ago, possibly 4, I sat down and sorted myself out and finished it.  Then it sat, waiting for blocking, and waited again, for an extraordinarily long time. I finished knitting it sometime in 2012 and it then sat waiting to be blocked.  It was the bridge too far in my block-a-palozza of early 2013.

Somewhere along the line after that, I part blocked the body of the shawl and several months later, I finally blocked its magnificent edging.  And I never really talked about it much here because I always thought that I would do that when I finished it. There may be occasional appearances of it here as I was working on it and as I blocked it, but in general, I did not talk about it that much.  It always needed work.   Even once it was fully blocked, I felt the need to do it again and do it better.

Once I moved to my wee home, it sat in a corner on the pile of things to do, till my recent organizing spate, when I took it out, had a good talk with myself and decided to start wearing it.  And I love it.  I absolutely love it. It really is quite perfect as it is for the way I use it.

 It spans about 7 feet across and this laid out photo doesn't near do justice to its details.

 It is a masterful design in the Estonian tradition.

 A strawberry motif that starts it off merges seamlessly into a flower motif

that merges effortlessly into a fan type of motif

that expands to lay the foundation for the dramatic fan edging.

Each week we knit one motif and each week we learned a thousand new things like fantastic innovative ways to slip increases in sight unseen, to the innovative spine and edging, to beautiful and complex motifs.

It was an epic adventure to knit and I still dream of knitting a second in a laceweight that will really show off this skillfully designed project.  The yarn I used was Knitpicks Palette a soft fuzzy fingering weight, and not really suited for it.  Much of the drama of the patterning is lost in its soft edges which is sad for the pattern but a bonus for me.  I love the way this yarn drapes and clings to my shoulders, forming a warm and downy cocoon.

It still waits to be listed in Ravelry, and if it never does, I suppose that is ok.  At least I have shown it here.