Hue and Value shawl

Wow, I love this shawl!

I purchased a skein of 4ply sock yarn from A Stash Addict at Yarndale.  I knew I wanted to make a shawl with it and I knew I needed to use it along side another colour to make it less shocking.  I got hunting on Ravelry and came across the beautiful Hue and Value Shawl, isn't it gorgeous.

I just knew this was the shawl but for some reason never got around to casting it on.  That is until my parents offered to buy me a set of KnitPro interchangeable needles.  I knew that I would need to knit on them as soon as I got them so packed my yarn and off we went to Suffolk to see my family.

I did cast on straight away and made amazing progress over the few days I was there.  The shawl instantly grabbed my attention as it is such an interesting pattern.

Each section of the scarf is made of varying different slip stitch patterns, separated by a garter stitch band, one or two of my garter stitch bands turned into stocking stitch due to a lack of concentration but nobody would know just from looking at it.

As I worked my way through the shawl I kept thinking about the applied i-cord at the end, I have never knitted an i-cord before so had no idea how this would work.  I got to the end and considered just casting off because I have not heard great things about i-cords.  I am so pleased I didn't though as the final thing looks awesome.  It was a complete pain in the derriere but worth it in the end.

Normally I try to get away with not blocking shawls as they only get balled up around my neck anyway but this one really did need blocking, it was so curly that I was concerned blocking wouldn't fix it.  I gave it a go though and pinned it out.

I was so pleased it blocked nicely and have worn it as much as I can since I picked it up.  That is both days it has been unpinned from the floor.

I can honestly say I am chuffed to bits with this shawl, it only took me 2 weeks to complete and I didn't really devote an awful lot of time to it once I got home from parents.  A highly recommended pattern if you want to give some new stitches a go.