FO Friday: Raina Shawl

It's been a while since I've done a FO Friday post. This one means a lot though as it was a labor (mostly of love). You can check out my project page on Ravelry here.

Pattern

Pattern is the Raina Shawl by Andrea Mowry. I actually bought this pattern a long time ago, knowing that after my first two-color brioche project I'd want to be doing it again. (If you're wanting to try you hands at brioche, I have a free, simple knitting pattern available here). I found the pattern overall easy to follow, though I wish it had included some instructions for one-pass two color brioche. I tried very hard to find a youtube video or instructions that worked for me, but I just couldn't master it. I expect using the one-pass method would have cut knitting time down significantly.

Yarn

I used Malabrigo Yarn Mechita in Polar Morn and Natural. This yarn was so beautiful to knit with -- very soft and with a lot of fluff/pouf factor. I'm a little sad when I blocked the shawl it lost a little bit of that. Looking back, I probably wouldn't have blocked it. 

Knitting

Overall, I really enjoyed this knit. It was addictive both in construction and in watching the color changes. I find I really enjoy any knit with color work or cables, anything where the progress is very obvious, and I've been seeking out those patterns more frequently.

I do wish that I had done a wrap and turn during the brioche sections... to me the gaps in the knitting are noticeable enough that I think it would have been worth the extra effort. 

That said, the applied brioche border was a slog. It's beautiful and I think the shawl needs it, but I found it a struggle to maintain the energy to complete it. Unfortunately, the biggest mistake was putting it down for a while, as I found it difficult to re-learn the pattern and ripped back a bunch due to all my inevitable mistakes.