North Sea Ombre wrap finished

Today is a banner day! Yesterday I finally soaked and stretched this wrap, and this morning I was greeted with a dry, fragrant (thank you Soak yuzu...) and finished piece. 

I cast on in late June 2022 and bound off the last stitch on a train somewhere between Chicago and home on July 14, 2024. That isn't a terribly long time for something like this, which is 1100 yards off light fingering weight yarn contorted into beautiful lace, and certainly not the longest I've taken on a project. The interesting thing about this is that aside from a quick hat and a julekuler, I did not work on any other knitting project while this was going. I really felt like I wanted to stick to one thing and get it done. Problem was, I definitely got bored along the way. The first section of green especially seemed to take forever. Lamenting whether any color changes were actually going to happen before I got to the end of the written pattern, I kept chugging along. Then I got to the end of the written pattern. And I had a lot of yarn left, and no navy stitches at all. What to do? The pattern, and a bunch of things on Ravelry, gave me the impression that I had the perfect amount of yarn. It's a gradient, I don't want to split it up and use it on something else because I think it will look half baked without the full swoosh of colors. So, I did what any stubborn knitter would do - I added a whole extra repeat of the geometric center panel and then knitted the waves until I ran out of yarn. 

I'm pretty thrilled with the end result. It measures 22" wide by 110" long. The pattern indicated 72" in length, which indeed my "end" of the actual called for pattern does coincide with that length. I like the extra though. Is it maybe a foot too long? Yeah, probably. But it wraps comfortably, I can move in it without it unwrapping, and when I let it hang off my shoulders it makes me look elegantly tall. 

The book it came from is a compilation of folk shawls from around the world. The Shetland shawl I made also came from there. I am certain I will be making more pieces out of those pages; these are two of my favorite pieces now that they are finished. The making (of both) was sometimes tedious, but the end result is well worth it. 

Pattern: North Sea Shawl, by Cheryl Oberle (my Ravelry page) 
Yarn: Scheepjes Woolly While in 'sugar sizzle'
Needle: US 5 (3.75 mm)
Size: 22" wide x 110" long