# 1 of 10 shawls in 2010

For those who did not see it on ravelry or on flickr yet, here's my finished first shawl for the 10 shawls in 2010 ravelry group. It's the Haruni shawl. This became an instant favorite on ravelry. Listed at the end of December 2009, it has now (as I write this) 74 projects, and 1352 queued, not bad. What made me knit this lovely shawl, was the edge, no doubt about it. The main body is a bit boring to knit, but necessary to get to the edge! The only relieve is, that the stitch pattern is easy to memorize and can almost be knit in your sleep. I like how people block out the crochet edge differently.



I thought the two leaves looked like flower buds, just opened. Very pretty. I took a chance in choosing this yarn. It had many different blues in it, from almost white to almost black. I was going to dye it, if I didn't like it. I have some blueberry blue dye, that would have done the trick. But - I don't think it's necessary. While knitting, the yarn was harsh, stiff, and stained my fingers, and inside of my hands. I took a picture of one of my hands, but decided, since it looked like the hand of a Zombie, you don't need to see that. Use your imagination! I was hoping that the stiffness was due to too much dye left on the yarn, and I was right. After finishing, I put it in a warm, soapy bath, the water was almost black. I rinsed it 6 times, and the water still was cornflower blue, but I gave up after that. One thing it did though, was to even out the color overall. The almost white spots are gone now. I did find a knot as well, in the middle of knitting the edge. I was all ready to dislike this yarn, but when I picked it up after it was dry, it had soften up quite nicely, and I thought it was beautiful.



specifics:
free pattern: Haruni by Emily Ross (The name Haruni means "grandmother" in Quenya, Tolkien's Elvish language, says so on the pattern)
yarn: Spritely Goods, Sylph Fine Fingering, limited edition Ryujin, 110g ~ 560yds, 100% sw merino. I weight the finished shawl and the left over yarn and it was 119g. The shawl was 103g, which means I used 477yds for it. I have another skein, so I can use the left over yarn for a bigger shawl (or something). BTW - I love her dyed yarn!
needle: 3.75mm
size after blocking: 53" x 24"
start/finish: January 3 - 7, 2010
mods: I just knit the first stitch of each row, instead of slipping it; nothing else.
Row 17 of chart B gave me some trouble, but I think there are some helpful hints posted on the rav page for it.



Can you see the snow flakes on the shawl?
Well, what's left to say about this little darling of a shawl? I like it so much, that I can see me knitting another one some day.

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