Yarn Along 23

I'm joining in Ginny's Yarn Along this week.

A while ago, I mentioned that I was test knitting a beautiful pattern for a designer, and I've been anxiously waiting to be able to share it with you.  Now I can!

Designed by Jean Chung, the Embrace Me shawl is a true delight to knit and wear.  Test knitting this pattern enabled me to use my one skein of Shalimar's Breathless, and I will definitely knit with this yarn again.  It's incredibly smooth, produces a drapey fabric (perfect for shawls), and a pleasure to hold on the needles. I've never knit with Shalimar before, and I bought this skein purely on a whim -- how great is that, right?

It was such an interesting experience to test knit this pattern as I wasn't provided with any advance photographs so I only discovered the various details and shaping as I knit along -- let me tell you, that was super fun!

Needing only 420 yards in fingering weight on US5 needles, this shawl makes a great quick knit.  I'll definitely be knitting another Embrace Me shawl for holiday gifts. Yes,I've decided to keep this little beauty for me!

As for reading, I finished Ghost at the Table while at the beach and it's a great novel -- the characters were well-developed and the family drama was one that I'm sure many of us can relate to. I liked this author so much that I've borrowed her second novel, A Perfect Arrangement, from my local library and will start that tonight. 

P.S.  Thanks for all the suggestions and encouragement to yesterday's post. I plan to call the LYS where I bought the yarn and hope they can send me the correct dye lot.  I'll keep you posted.