I follow Stephanie Japel (glampyre) on Twitter and several weeks ago she announced that she was going to start offering classes online through ning.com. (http://stefaniejapel.ning.com/ for more info!). Her first class was for Mirth, a fitted raglan shawl. I’m a big fan of Stefanie’s patterns and have knit two from her book Fitted Knits. This is a rare thing for me…almost as rare as knitting the same pattern twice. I have a heck of a lot of yarn, love shawls, and was really intrigued by taking a class online. It was pretty affordable, so I signed up.

Next, I had to decide which of the many yarns I have that I was going to use. I knew I needed around 600ish yards, so I started digging around in the stash. I didn’t want to use two colors, but knew if I had to, I’m sure I could come up with something. Then, I dug out the Great Adirondack Lolita that I got ages ago. I actually had two giant skeins of this in Copper. One that Ed got me, and one I had gotten myself. I figured this would be a great way to use up the yarn…at least one of them.

I started a couple days late on the class, but I did eventually “catch up” (it’s an online class so you can totally go at your own pace!) and finished it and blocked it Friday night. When I was done, it was actually quite small and stiff and I was afraid what the results were going to be. (No, I didn’t swatch…it’s lace…it grows…I had faith. Plus, it was a shawl!) It let go of quite a bit of dye in the water and I was afraid it was all going to wash out, but it didn’t. I finally got it to run clear and had to set up some towels on the spare bed in the “yarn room.”

That’s a full size bed for size comparison. I could have probably used some blocking wires for this, but I don’t have any…also could have used the thread-yarn-through-the-edges trick, but I didn’t have the patience (it was Friday night after all!). It grew quite a bit and softened up nicely. It has a good weight to it, and I think that it will do a great job of adding an extra layer of warm when I want it.

Don’t I look so happy? :P

Here’s a “wingspan” picture. You can mostly see the shape on it.

I’m really pleased with the finished results. I love lace. It’s challenging enough that you have to pay attention, but it’s really taught my how to read my knitting over the past couple of years that I’ve been doing lace projects. Minnie liked it too!

As soon as I opened the door to the yarn room  she made a bee-line for the bed and was on the shawl!

Overall, I’d say the class was pretty great, and worth the price of admission. It helped me stick to working on just one project and took me just under the three weeks the class is running to complete. Stefanie posted many videos that were super helpful as well as some fantastic information on working with color that I’m sure I’ll be able to use in future projects. Having the ability to chat with the other class members was great too. Everyone could bring up and issues, see where classmates were on the pattern, and view their progress as they posted pictures. Since I’ve already knit lace and I’m familiar with raglan shaping, I didn’t run into too many issues, but it was good to know that the resources were there if I needed them! It was also good to have because there was the extra reminder that you have to do something different in parts of chart 2. (I needed reminding at the beginning!)

If I didn’t have so many projects on the list, I’d definitely consider taking Stefanie’s next class, which is re-purposing old t-shirts into yarn and creating projects with it.

I’d definitely consider knitting this shawl again, maybe even in the DK or worsted weight versions that are included in the pattern. While I was knitting this version, and feeling a little behind, I did wish that I hadn’t chosen a sock yarn because it is a bit more knitting, but of course now that it’s done I’m really happy with it! I actually have enough yarn leftover to probably make a scarf of some sort, so it didn’t totally meet my goal of killing a skein of yarn, but that’s okay! Oh, I used size 5 Addi Lace needles for this project. Love the tips – not too pointy like some other needles I’ve used, but they are a little too grippy for me. I generally like super slippery needles so I can go faster, even with lace.

Now, I have to finish the crochet project I’m working on for the store. It’s taking longer than I had hoped, but Mirth was a welcome distraction, and I’m glad I finished a project. It gives me the drive I need to keep going!