Shawling around

I have just returned from a lovely visit with my Mum where she celebrated her 60th birthday. My schedule was free last week (no classes) so I took the ferry over to the Mainland for a few days. I had a nice, quiet time with my Mum where we went out for a few meals, window shopped, and watched a lot of home improvement shows on television.

I also gave her the Leaf Lace Shawl I made for her. I think it turned out lovely for my first lace knit shawl! The pattern (if you don't know already) is from Fiber Trends and was a great pattern for a first lace knit project. The other lovely aspect of this pattern is that it is knit from the center back (top) outward, binding off at the outer bottom edge. I used yarn from my stash: the squishable and lush Heirloom Alpaca 8ply in a cherry red colour (shade 905 - discontinued), 5 balls. The shawl was knit on Denise size 10 (5.6mm) started in December and completed in February. I had to eliminate about 2 rows of the final chart so as to not run out of yarn, so the points are not as pointy as they could be. Here is a pre-blocked closeup of the lovely leaves:

And here's a picture of the leaf closeup:


And, finally, the shawl blocking (this gives the best depiction of the colour):


I hope it gives my mum many years of warmth.

I will post a bit later on some thrifting finds I picked up while away!