Earlier this year, I made a shawl. Regrettably, I forgot to take pictures. I used Kodama by Andrea Jurgrau; the yarn was a lovely, now-discontinued heathered oatmeal, and the beads were silver-lined russet. It was a beauty (of course, I can get away with saying this because there are no pictures to verify it…)
I gifted it to a friend as a ‘just because’ present; her sister was getting married and her life was about as busy as a blender turned up to max speed. I think she loves it—at any rate I’m certain her mother did.
The long and short of it is that her mother asked me to make her a shawl for the wedding. Normally I don’t make the same thing twice, particularly large projects and especially at close proximity. But it was for a wedding, and I’ve never made anything for a wedding. Sign me up!
The wedding was in June (and you don’t want to know how warm the South is in June), so the shawl had to be light; and it was a wedding, so it had to be luxurious. We picked out the perfect shade of Knit Picks Luminance Lace to go with her dress, and pretty pearlized seed beads, all very wedding-esque.
Seven weeks go by, in which I work at a leisurely pace. It needs to reach her elbows, so I add two more tiers of leaves to the lower chart. The shawl is done four weeks before the wedding, and I am enormously pleased with myself—so pleased that I have now nearly forgotten about the four hours spent on my hands and knees, blocking.
Here it is, photographed in funky lighting; I was (rather justifiably) in a hurry. Seldom have I been more satisfied to say all done.
I don’t know exactly how it happened, but before the bride and groom came back from the honeymoon, I had promised another Kodama. The bride’s godmother’s birthday was in less than three months; could I make her a shawl in time? From the same pattern? The bigger, modified version?
We chose another color of Luminance, and off I went again. My brain was beginning to be addled; but I didn’t know that until I realized that I had made THIS Kodama with 6 wedges instead of 5. “So that’s why I used extra yarn!”
But the hugeness of it looks quite elegant when draped, and it made for better photos than the wedding shawl, so all in all I think it was a success.
But you didn’t think that was the end, did you?
Before the third Kodama was bound off, I agreed to make another. A friend from church wanted a special Christmas gift for her mother, and she loved the shawl Mrs. Mandie wore to the wedding—
Might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb.
This is Kodama No. 4, cast on this week amid great anticipation and fanfare. So far all has been uneventful and there are five wedges, just as there ought to be; though I have four weeks to finish instead of seven, and last-minute fiascoes are hardly a new evil under the sun. And yes, this is the big version.
This has all been very thrilling, and I hope I am not averse to some sanctification when it comes my way; but if I touch another Kodama as long as I live….
Call me a sheep.
