A couple of weeks ago my sister posted a link to my En Fuego Shawl on her facebook. This generated a bunch of very kind comments complimenting it. Of course I loved the compliments or as I like to think of it "positive feedback to keep me going when I get frustrated designing" - yes, it's a long phrase. One of her friends in particular wanted to know if I knit the shawls for people, which my sister explained to her that generally I don't and that she (my sister) was posting a link to the design where you can buy the pattern and knit one yourself if you do that sort of thing. Well her friend isn't a knitter and my sister must really like this friend because she asked me if I'd consider knitting her friend an En Fuego Shawl. My first thought was "NO" and then I thought well maybe so I asked what color she wanted. Of course my sister said she (the friend) wanted black because everyone always wants things in black. Then I thought "NOOOOOOOO" but asked my sister if she'd consider any other color because black and the response I got was dark grey which is basically like saying black again.
Now, Knit Picks had recently come out with a new yarn line called Capretta and of course it came in a lovely black shade (though how lovely can black be really, it's just black) and I really wanted to try out this yarn line. The availability of this new yarn really sealed the deal for me. So reluctantly (though not really) I agreed to knit the shawl for two reasons: ONE - I love my sister and TWO - to challenge myself to knit lace in the color black. I have to admit that Knit Picks also prompted me, not by telling me to do it, but by posting a suggestion in one of their weekly emails that the En Fuego Shawl would look good in the Capretta yarn. It turns out that Knit Picks knows their stuff because the shawl looks really good in the yarn.
I made sure to always knit in VERY good light and NEVER when I was tired. I think it was sticking to these two rules that made the knitting move along mostly error free. There were a couple of times on the purl rows that I missed the purl but still managed to move the stitch so I didn't lose the stitch but just had to fix it when I came to it on the knit row, which wasn't a big deal at all. I blame this on the yarn being black for not realizing it when I did it. I also didn't think that it would photograph well, but I think the photographs turned out okay. You can't see the details all that clearly but it's good enough.
About the yarn, well I really loved working with the yarn and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the Knit Picks Capretta yarn. It is really soft and just yummy to work with. The 10% cashmere really adds something nice to the yarn. The stitch definitely is good and it works up nicely (for me anyway) on size 5 or 6 needles. I'm really lucky that I get to work with this yarn again for a sample that I'm knitting for Knit Picks and that's how I know it looks good on the smaller needles.
It should be noted that my sister has never asked me to knit something for a friend of hers and I think it's because she knows that I have certain rules about knitting for people, well for adults in particular because unlike babies who like everything, adults only like certain things in certain colors. This rule applies to everyone I know - even family members. I almost only knit for them when an item is specifically requested and in the color requested. I will admit that a few times I've gone "rogue" and knit items form them that they didn't request, but usually it was with left over yarn from a project previously knit for them so at least I knew they would like the color. I have these rules because it helps keep me from being disappointed when I've spent the time to knit something for someone only have to have it fall short of what they wanted or to hear "well I really wish it was in (blank) color". With my rules, everyone ends up happy including me!
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