Last month, we celebrated my mother's 70th birthday. Well, Dad celebrated by taking "his girls" (Mom, Lisa and me) on a British Isles cruise. My Aunt P and a friend of hers went along for the ride, too. It was a wonderful trip.
Since I'd knitted a sweater for my dad's 70th, and a lace shawl for my Aunt M's 70th, I needed (or wanted) to knit something for Mom's 70th. She already has a lace shawl I'd knit her, but she lives in the South and I wasn't sure she'd have much use for a sweater, so I asked her what she would like. She decided on another shawl.
Of course, then I had to come up with something spectacular to surprise her, so after much deliberation and consultation with Lisa, I chose the Icicle Lace Shawl (also known as Slow Bee Mystery I on Ravelry) by Monika Eckert. I ordered three skeins of Fiesta Yarns Ballerina lace weight (Alpaca and Tencel) and silver-lined crystal beads from Earthfaire. I only ended up using two skeins of the yarn, with not much left over from the second skein.
Ten weeks later I had this:
Yes, ten weeks. I knit a 139,852-stitch (not counting cast-on or bind-off), 3,498-bead lace shawl in ten weeks. And I'm currently employed, so I wasn't sitting around on the couch all day. It was INSANE. But I had a deadline, right?
And my Mom is SO worth it, every stitch.
These pictures are taken on the verandah outside our cabins on the Westerdam, somewhere in the middle of the North Sea, on our last sea day.
And here's a detail hot as it ws being blocked, so you can see the beads a little better:
Happy birthday, Mom! I hope you enjoy the shawl as much as I enjoyed having to go on a cruise to give it to you. :-)
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