wip wednesday: opaline

Opaline on Ravelry

One of my Christmas presents to myself was a skein of madelinetosh pashmina in the Opaline colorway from Webs.  I generally do not like variegated (is that the word I'm looking for?  Should I use handpainted?) yarns.  I generally do not like how they knit up, it usually just looks kind of cheesy to me.  BUT.  The colors in this skein were so pretty that I just couldn't resist, and I wanted to try a madelinetosh yarn.

My next problem was finding a pattern that was simple enough that the color variations in the yarn wouldn't overwhelm me.  Problem partly solved with the Sand and Sea Shawlette (Sass!) from Coastal Knits, so the book ended up being another present for myself.  But that just led to another problem: the pashmina is heavier than the yarn called for in the pattern.  So in my usual way I blindly forged ahead and started the shawl on size six needles anyway, figuring if I couldn't get the shawl out of the one skein I'd buy a contrast color for the edge. I should be able to make a reduced lace section with what I have.

I've become so obsessed with the color changes in this shawl that within five days of starting it I'm already two rows from finishing.  Last night Don told me I've been watching too much TV, but really I just wanted background noise for obsessive knitting.