Wedgwood Shrug

I had to stay a little late at work last night and when I finally left, it was with the knowledge that I still had work to do when I got home. Ugh. On top of that, there were Metro delays. All in all it seemed like a bad start to the evening and yet, it was not a bad night at all.

I wish could show you the dinner that was waiting for me. Hubbo and the girls put together a delicious meal that included pepers and tomatoes from our garden. Yum.

After dinner I unpinned my shawl and I have to say that I am in love! It is everything I hoped for and I could happily talk about it all day long. I cannot wait to show it off.



As if that weren't enough, I finished Stinky's shrug that I'm calling her Wedgwood Shrug last night. From the very beginning of the project I envisioned it in solid blue with a few white flowers and leaves. It reminded me of Wedgwood dishes and the name stuck.



It seems like more often than not, at some point in each project I develop a fear of running out of yarn and this was no exception. Since I was planning on using the white to trim the shrug out anyway, I used it for 3 rounds in the ribbing. It turned out that there was plenty of yarn to make the shrug but now I'm happy that the white stripe is there. It works with the embroidery.

I modified the planned embroidery too and it's just perfect. I initially wanted to go all around the edge of the ribbing but as I started the embellishment I quickly realized that it would look awkward when the shrug was worn. I decided to keep it all on the back. Using one of Nicky Epstein's books as a guide, I embroidered two little flowers and a bit of vine on the back of the shrug. It's a little irregular and imperfect but sweet in it's own way and not half bad for my first attempt at embroidery. I would definitely do it again.

The pattern is the Two-Tone Ribbed Shrug from Fitted Knits and it worked fine for me. Right now it's a little snug on Stink-o but I'm sure that the cotton yarn and less than gentle wear it will get will stretch it out a bit soon.



The only down side of this project was the yarn. I'm pretty sure that I've used Cotton Ease before but it was harder on my hands than I remember. I don't regret using it though because the color is great, it will wear well, and since it was so cheap I can let Stinkerbelle wear it till it falls apart without one little bit of sorrow. It's all good.