Knit Along, Little Dogie

Maria and I met at Sock Camp this year.  While she is a legitimate knitting phenomenon (check out the little lace number she's sporting below - I actually heard Anne Hanson  tell somebody it was the prettiest thing she had ever seen in that colorway), she's also an outstanding and lovely lady.  Mom to five (5) children, wife to one extremely lucky fella, and now, friend to me.  We were separated at birth by seven years, sharing a birthday, mutual dislike of garter stitch, and a healthy regard for the well-made margarita.

When Maria found out that I have never knit a shawl, it was flatly more than she could abide.  She told me that she was going to make it her personal mission to cause me to become a shawl knitter.  When the mother of five children tells you how something is going to be, the safest course is to just shut up and nod.  As the youngest of five children, I learned this early and well:  Don't struggle - it'll only hurt more.

So it came as NO surprise to me when this morning Maria called and asked me if I was ready to start our "Teach Mary to Knit a Shawl For Pity's Sake Knitalong".  I was.  Somebody told me that this pattern was a good bet for somebody new to shawls, and marginal at lace.  What do I know?  I downloaded a copy and submitted it to my daughter for approval.  I already knew that the yarn would be the handspun I made for her last year, and that it had to be "the triangle kind, otherwise it's not really a shawl".

Lindsay wants me to make a shawl almost as badly as Maria does, so I know when resistance is futile.

So, who among you, Gentle Readers, will take up the call?  Join me in my march toward Shawl Knitterhood?  Or my prayer for the sweet release of death, whichever?  Come on - I'll bet it hardly will hurt at all.  Maria is making one too, except she had to add beads to hers to level the playing field.  Good sport, that Maria.  At the end, we'll either all have shawls, or more respect for them.  What could possibly go wrong?  Join us, Do!