When my grandpa was alive, he used to tease my grandma that she “didn’t use up yarn; she wore it out,” because of all the stops, starts, frogging, etc. And I – I take after her. I can never just crochet a thing successfully from start to finish. Such is the story with this shawl.
I bought this yarn… (thinking) 7-8 years ago with an entirely different pattern in mind. The yarn is some kind of wool, but I lost the wrappers somewhere along the way (I’ve also moved twice since I bought it). So I was crocheting along, trying to make this basketweave bolero thing and not succeeding. Gauge issues and all kinds of problems. Lots of ripping out and starting over. This yarn did have a brush with fame as I sat crocheting in the Pittsburgh airport five seats away from Zachary Quinto. I debated striking up a conversation, but he was pretty grumpy because his flight to Paris had been delayed repeatedly and, from what I gathered, he had spent the better part of the day sitting in the airport. So I figured he didn’t need some rando bothering him, plus, “Heroes” had just ended and I didn’t want him going all Silar on me (ok, to be fair, he was super polite and patient with all the airline staff and mostly I’m a chicken).
When I finally conceded that I was not going to accomplish that pattern, I found the “sidewalk shawl” pattern on the Red Heart website. I don’t know what sidewalk has to do with anything, I just thought it looked nice. It took me 3 years because projects without any kind of deadline continually get bumped for more urgent projects. I finally finished crocheting this spring and got around to blocking it mid-summer and then tied on the fringe a couple of weeks ago.
Lovely colors! You did a beautiful job, worth the wait!
I admit I had less restraint than you when I met Burt Reynolds about 15 years ago. He kindly gave me his autograph though! (And Zachary is waaaaaaay cooler… sorry, Burt.)
Thank you, all! @MistressJennie I think, in the end, it’s a good thing I ended up making this and not the original basketweave thing – it just didn’t show off the colors like the shawl does!
Aw, thanks. I was having a pretty good hair day that day. Sometimes I love it, other times it makes me weep.
I was having a pretty good hair day that day. Sometimes I love it, other times it makes me weep.