My family and me wearing our Penelope Shawls on Christmas night!
I suppose it's time I rose from the dead and revisited my poor little blog that's been languishing since when - August?
Yeesh.
Those of you who know me well also know that 2016 was a rough year for a variety of reasons I won't get into here. It wasn't easy on me and I even let go of the one thing in this world I love the most: knitting! Yup, that's how bad my 2016 was. It's not like I didn't knit (or crochet) anything at all; I just wasn't passionate about it anymore, which is really out of character for me.
But that's done with now and the black cloud of negativity has been removed from my life for good. I'm back in my groove and am knitting like a fiend. Mostly socks because that's what I want to do, and I figure if I want to do it, I just will. It's been a year since I truly loved something I was working on and threw myself into, so guess what? I'm going to enjoy my selfish projects for awhile.
One of my most recent projects was crocheting five Penelope Shawls as Christmas gifts for my family. This idea spurred from a) becoming obsessed with Caron Cakes and b) knitting in a local whiskey bar with one of my friends who was crocheting a shawl with said cakes (yes, that did happen). I got the sudden urge to crochet something, but I wasn't sure what - other than I wanted it to be a shawl.
After searching Ravelry for Caron Cakes projects, I came across a user who'd made a shawlette version of the Penelope Shawl. I was done. This is what I need to do. I started crocheting one at 11:30PM on a Sunday evening (as you do) and didn't look back. I think I finished it by the next evening and decided I'd be able to whip out at least five before Christmas: one for my family members and one for myself.
The pattern is super simple, though I had to fudge the edging a bit due to the fact I was making a smaller version; it was fine. It made for great Christmas movie-watching as the holiday approached and worked up really fast. Plus, by using the cakes, I barely had to weave in ends. Best of all, each shawl looked great in their already-designed-for-me colors.
I know you've all got massive Caron Cake stashes, so make sure to check out the Penelope Shawl as a possible project. I just crocheted until I had three colors left in my cake, then completed the final few rounds for the edging. There was usually a small amount left, but nothing I ever felt bad about throwing away
PS: There are 8 new Caron Cake colors!!!
In the meantime, I'm:
Knitting: Just Another Vanilla Sock - Christmas Edition
Reading: Red Queen, by Victoria Aveyard
Watching: Westworld