Behold the Holden!

About 2 weeks ago I finally finished my Holden Shawlette. I may have mentioned it before...once or twice...how madly in love with this thing I am. It's my first attempt at lace work and I will admit there were times I thought I'd have to put it away until I had more time to pay attention to the pattern. Possibly around the time my children began moving out. Then a friend asked to see it and renewed my enthusiasm and hope for the project. A year ago she wore an amazing dress all done in lace work and using a lovely fluffy, fine wool. She has 3 children, all of them still living at home and she managed to finish a whole dress. A whole dress! There was hope!

I first saw the Holden at On The Lamb, a great wool store in Uxbridge, ON. It was done in the same wool I ended up using and it was gorgeous. I was with my friend and her mom, it was my birthday weekend and we were drooling over it (maybe it was just me drooling ;)) My friend's mom asked me if I would be able to knit something like that and I said I could probably do it. Anyone can follow a pattern was my reasoning. Before I knew it I was choosing the colour of wool and being handed a shopping bag with wool and pattern. Happy Birthday to me! I bought a set of circular needles and began that night. 

It was actually not that difficult once the pattern gets going. 

The wool I used was Lang's Mille Colori, socks & lace luxe superwash. The colour is 6992. I'm sure it has a beautiful poetic name but that's all my ball band gives me. The wool knit up nicely although I had to be careful during the times I frogged it because it would get sort of fluffy and hard to deal with. The moral of that story is: don't frog it, pay attention and for goodness sake put in a lifeline every few rows, Amanda!

I haven't been able to find someone to take a picture of me wearing it yet but I feel like it will show up in a post soon. Stay tuned!