Scotland the Brave

About 18 months ago I started a Shetland-style shawl with a Scottish theme in celebration of my first trip back in about 10 years. I made great progress through the center Saltire (the Scottish flag is called the Saltire or St Andrew's Cross). Then I breezed through the thistle (see Heradry section) border. But when it came to knitting off the edging, I faltered. Considering there were something over 1,000 stitches to knit off it's not surprising. About that time came along a number of other projects and the shawl got moved to the side table from which it would call and let out sad cries. I resisted. Until the last couple of weeks.

I finally got it temporarily finished last night. Temporarily because as I looked it over, I realized I'd made some major mistakes in the edging. Not little niggly things but major things. It's ugly. Real ugly. Heartbreakingly ugly. I was so focused on getting all those little stitches off my needle that I didn't notice. It wasn't the pattern. The pattern was gorgeous and easy. It seems that the places I hit bumps were:

1. When I picked it up after it sat for a year
2. When I knitted while my eyes were closing with exhaustion
3. When I was watching The Bourne Identity

I tried to pretend it didn't matter. I tried to pretend it was okay. But I knew it did matter and that it wasn't okay. I love the shawl and the design and the fact that it's 64" x 64". Just what I wanted and what I saw when I started planning it. You can see the thistles in the border but I also used a climbing vine pattern for the corner sections and am very pleased with how that came out. So there's no way that I could leave it. I'm doing the edging over, knitting it on its own and then I'll attach it later. I think it will go much faster that way. At least I'm telling myself it will.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the finished project:

(blocked on a red cover)


(in daylight and foled in half)