FO Friday!

I totally didn't expect to have an FO post this week! However, in a fit of productivity Wednesday evening (and having had the bad experience of having to rip out a good two hours' worth of progress on my cross stitch) I managed to finish my Elise Shawl!!

And, to go off on a side note for a moment, it's remarkably difficult to photograph a shawl!!

Anyway, I finished the project from the one skein of Jellybean yarns, with about 5 metres of yarn to spare... which made a lovely little pompom, but I digress. It's a little small for an actual shawl, but perfectly sized to be used as a scarf, which is what I wanted... safe to say I'll be making another with a larger supply of yarn (I already have one in mind).

Blocking it was also a rather frustrating effort - involving a bath sheet, the majority of my living room floor space and a squirty bottle full of warm water... but, this was always going to be a piece that needed a fairly heavy amount of blocking - both to open up the texture and to make the picots show up around the edge.

Here's the before picture:

Please excuse the slightly crumpled background and poor lighting - this was at about 11.00pm Wednesday night... and I certainly didn't have the energy, time or patience to iron the towel before I started blocking!!

And here's right after it was pinned and sprayed with warm water (I prefer to pin most of my crochet when it's dry and then wet it, rather than pining after soaking in water):

Hmm... and I didn't realise the top edge was that wonky when I pinned it!! Actually, the more that I look at it, the more I realise that that's possibly one of the worst pieces of blocking I've ever done!!

Anyway, 18 hours or so and some hunting for a coat hanger later... Tah Dah!!!

I'm unbelievably pleased, impressed and charmed by it! :) So, uh, have a few more photos!