For Christmas one year, dad got me this stocking stuffer:

   He said that, when customers went into his store   and asked him how they manufactured this, he would whisper, “MAAaagic!”

   I was reminded of this little story when I had my first experience with blocking this weekend. Granted, this is a picture of the shawl in its early days but, try to imagine this shawl with about 12 more repeats. It looked and felt very much like an egg carton.

So after some soaking and stretching, what resulted was a beautiful shawl for my grandmother

Pattern:Shetland Shawl by Evelyn Clark from Wrap Style.

Yarn(s): Dream In Color, Smooshy

Colorway: Visual Purple

Started: February 25, 2008

Ended: March 9, 2008 (blocked)

Needle(s): Size 6 KnitPick Options

I did 14 repeats instead of the suggested 8. Unfortunately, I ran out of yarn in the cast off row so that made me do a crocheted cast off for the remaining part of that row. It probably wasn’t ideal but the end result still turned out lovely, I feel. The blocked shawl measures 46.5 inches wide and 22.5 inches deep. I really enjoyed knitting this as it was a quick knit but still a very beautiful pattern. Knitting it with Smooshy was fantastic too! It’s not too thick and not too thin. A great medium! I have sinced queued more of Evelyn Clark’s patterns on Ravelry.

To end this post, some pics of the quality controllers. One might have noted the technical judge inspecting my work. We also have an “overall comfort judge” to evaluate the final finished item:

I love dear Luna but this was my thought process upon seeing this, “Oh Luna, this is cute”/ran to get camera/flash flash/ shots taken/”OK Luna, get the @#(% off this before you destroy it,”/Laura proceeds to pick Luna up, carefully/then throws her out of room. Finally, a confused Luna, in our living room.

Granny, it’s safe to say it’s been adequately inspected.