on swaps, or: how to pry a shawl out of my cold, dead hands

I feel I should mention that the subject heading of this entry is a bit of a rhetorical flourish. I'm sure regular readers realize that I'm prone to, um, strong feelings when it comes to knitting and that I'm not actually blogging from beyond the grave.

That said, I knit this shawl a little while back and I had to give it away and now I'm just going to DIE if I don't get one just like it very, very soon.

This is Herbivore, a design by Stephen West. I have had a big huge crush on this pattern for the longest time, and when some local knitters decided to hold a little shawl swap to commemorate Anne's visit to Chicago and I drew Sara I knew Herbivore would be a great pattern for her. It's got nice clean lines; it shows off a nice semi-solid colorway; and it has a large wingspan for a small shawl.

The only reason I hadn't previously cast on for Herbivore is that, honestly, I thought it would be boring to knit. It's a bit of an idiosyncrasy, really - I love long clean lines, but dear lord are they ever boring. But for whatever reason I cranked this sucker out in just a couple of days. I think I was doing a lot of knitting on the bus, in which case a simple pattern that doesn't require me to keep looking at a print copy is always best, but I think the lack of boredom is also a result of the construction of the shawl itself. For whatever reason I didn't take any pictures that show this clearly, but you cast on for Herbivore at the top center point, increase along both edges and around the center stitch, and then add two more axes of increases in the middle of each half between the center and each edge. (That's not exactly the most clear written description, so if you're curious take a look at some of the pictures on Herbivore's ravelry page - you'll see what I mean.) This variation between twisted ribbing and stockinette around three axes was just enough interest to keep me going.

So you may notice I took quite a few pictures of this shawl. That's because I didn't want to take it off. I definitely didn't want to give it to Sara, but she's a good friend and she brought chocolate/salted caramel cake and beer over to my house, so I did. And the minute I get some time to make something for myself for once (sadly that won't be for a little while) I've got my eye on another Stephen West design: Daybreak.