The Zen of Lockdown?

Near the beginning of lockdown, probably when I was making my Abrahamish Shawl, I knew I would need something yarny to look forward to. I had seen so many gorgeous hand-dyed yarns on Instagram and especially those dyed by Frances at Burrow And Soar so I decided to treat myself and bought two stunning skeins… Zen and Peacock.

Once the Abrahamish Shawl was done I decided I wanted to knit another one skein shawl and a few people gave me suggestions for patterns. Helen (Sewblackbird on Instagram) suggested the Close To You shawl pattern, a free pattern on Ravelry that I had never seen before… I’m still pretty new to this knitting business! It’s quite a simple pattern, lots of basic knitting with just a few special stitches to make it interesting. I really like a pattern that fits on one side of A4 paper!! I decided I could manage it, looked up the new-to-me stitches on You Tube and got cracking.

It was simple and straightforward and incredibly addictive watching the colours appear. I kept note of which row I was on in the pattern in case I had to put it down and discovered that my knitting was getting a little faster and that I was doing more of it by touch rather than eye – certainly in the plain section. This meant I could zoom along whilst actually watching some tv- rather than just listening which is what I normally do.

I played yarn chicken at the end and lost with only a few stitches to go!! I un-knitted the whole picot cast off row and changed to a smaller needle size and tried again… with success this time!! That is one useful tip to remember for the future. I think that most of my outdoor pictures don’t really do the colours justice… the colours are brighter than they show.

I did get a little slowed down and distracted by other projects… there was a little sewing (which is not yet finished) and there was planning for the next yarny project too – but I did enjoy it very much. One skein shawls are a perfectly sized project… not overwhelmingly large and not too small, they keep you going for a while but not so long that you get bored. It certainly helped me find my inner peace for a while. I can definitely see me making more of these.