Mother's Day

For the third Mother's Day in a row I've designed a shawl to give my mom, had a photo-shoot with her, and released the pattern.  It started with Wicker Park, a bottom-edge cast-on, sideways-knit shawl, with which I was very lucky, being incredibly inexperienced and pretty much flying by the seat of my pants as I knit it.  I had to purchase a second, then a third skein of Malabrigo Sock before I finished it, and thank goodness I took some notes (but not enough--trust me!) so I could write the pattern.

Last year's pattern, Sheridan, benefited from an additional year of experience with reading and writing patterns; also my realization that I could write the pattern on my iPhone, if I was on the go.  I got some pretty great pictures of this one with my mom!  Below is my favorite action shot:

This year I had a new benefit; I had made not one, not two, but three prototypes before making one for Mothers' Day.  The first was fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants and didn't warrant notes.  I tried again, months later, making a simple change, and found it to be so much easier.  In fact, this is the Mothers' Day shawl that gave the testers the least grief, which I take as a good sign.  Another change--this year I'm offering it for free!  Here we are, on my parents' roof, enjoying our (not exactly) matching shawls:

Yep!  Year 3 of this tradition brings you Martinmas Shawl, a free Ravelry download--enjoy!