It is finished

Well, after more than 7 months, I've finally finished the Peacock Feathers Shawl! I took a break from it in March or April and sent it on vacation and that seems to be just the thing it needed because I don't feel like it took long to finish, once I started it again. I finished the crochet bind off yesterday afternoon and then pinned it out for blocking. You can see that my blocking supervisor was present to make sure it was done right.

It only took eleventy million pins to get it pinned out. The finished shawl measures 88 inches across the top side and 43 inches from the top edge to the bottom point (measuring down the center spine of the shawl), so its a pretty big shawl. This morning, this is what I had:

Isn't it gorgeous? I love the way this looks! The little crocheted loops don't even look too wonky. None of them is freakishly bigger or smaller than the rest so I must have been fairly consistent with them. Here is a close up of the tip of the shawl:

I love how she designed a feather to go at the point as a way of finishing out the center YO, k2, YO thing. Those big eyes in the lower peacock feathers? Those are triple Yarn Overs! You can probably drive a Mini Cooper through those but I love the way they look. To recap, the pattern is from Fiddlesticks Knitting. The yarn is 4 ounces of Jaggerspun Zephyr Woolsilk in Peacock. I used the needle sizes called for in the pattern which I think was a size 4, but I did it all on straight needles (14 inch Crystal Palace Bamboo) since I have issues with circulars. The pattern is very well written, all mistakes are my own. For anyone who wants to do this pattern I would suggest two things: get a bunch of stitch markers and put them where she says to, and copy the charts using a mirror image function so you don't have to reverse the shaping in your head. I'll try to get some pictures of me wearing the shawl later today (when I'm wearing something other than PJ's).