Happy Groundhog's Day: Time for a Mermaid Shawl KAL!!!

Ironically Knit Knut posted asking about the Mermaid Shawl Knit-a-long I had talked about a few months ago. I was just thinking about that!!! So since it is my favorite holiday of the year, Groundhog's Day, the day that distinguishes itself by not demanding that I do one single, solitary thing to celebrate it, I figured it might be time to get this show on the road.

I first wrote about my Shawl Fit for a Mermaid on October 4th and I was amazed at how many people wrote and said they wanted to make one too. At first I thought about trying to write the instructions but the reason I knit the way I do in the first place is because I can't follow instructions. So I thought if I started a knit-a-long maybe we could work this out together so this is my first feeble stab at that.
(All these photos can be enlarged by clicking on them. They are, from top to bottom, the front draped, the front undraped, the back, and a detail.)

The original Mermaid Shawl is knit in Knit Pick's beautiful Suri Dream, a Suri alpaca and wool blend in the color they call Ocean. It is so soft and warm! Every time I wear it everybody wants to touch it. I used 8 skeins which, at 143 yds per skein, comes out to 1144 yards. However, since I was afraid it would be too difficult to show what I was doing with a very fuzzy yarn (which does have the virtue of masking mistakes) I decided to try something less furry. So I just ordered a bag of Knit One Crochet Two's Angora Soft which is a viscose-angora blend that is very soft but not as fuzzy. I picked the color called Dove because I figured it would show up well and I like gray. Webs has it on super sale right now. Hopefully I will be in possession of the yarn in a few days and can try out the gauge to see how that works.

So this is fair warning, if anyone wants to try knitting along --- knowing full well that I don't know what I am doing --- well, I'll give it a shot. I promise to post at least once a week and to photograph as much as I can. We'll see how it goes. So get your yarn --- 1144 yards of something in worsted weight or even a bulky mohair, size ten needles, a bunch of little stitch markers, and heaps of patience and we'll try this thing out. I'll make a place on the left side of the page here to put all the blog entries in. This could be fun or .... well, let's just focus on the fun part.

So anyway, I hope everyone has a Happy Groundhog's Day. Here in New England we've had a mild winter so far but.... it is only the beginning of February. So fire up those knitting needles!

Thanks for reading.