FO: Koi Reyna Shawl

Don't we all just need a project o the needles? I find that with knitting being a big stress reliever for me, I am actually a little sad when I finish a project. I brought my Copycat Jaywalker Socks with me when I was playing D&D all day with the boyfriend and his peeps back in July, but knowing I would likely finish the socks that day I decided to pack an additional project to start in the event that I found myself with some unoccupied knitting time. D&D leaves a lot of time in between your turn when you play with a decent sized group of people, so I find I need to have knitting on hand :) Anyway, in packing for that trip I decided to pick a yarn from my stash I wanted to work with first and then find a project for it. I wanted the project to be simple knitting and to be something I could throw in my purse and bring with me without a lot of bulk. I'm still dealing with my current sweater project drama, so it needed to be something different. In the end, I picked up one of my favorite skeins of yarn - Knit Picks Stroll Hand Painted in the Koi Pond colorway. 

I fell in love with this colorway back in 2016 or so when it was introduced, so when  succumbed to the big sale they had in February of 2017, I grabbed myself a skein. It sat in my stash for a while with the fate of becoming a pair of socks (I was having a big sock moment at the time), but I saw another knitter I follow made a pair of socks with the same yarn and colorway and I just didn't love them as much as I thought I would. This being a "hand painted" yarn instead of a "self striping" yarn, the colors are a bit more prone to pooling than I like, and when you look at the project on Ravelry made with this yarn, it's about a 50/50 chance that you will end up with lovely striping of the colors or big pools of colors. I just didn't want to risk the pools because that's something that really bugs me and I knew I wouldn't be happy with the result. SO instead of socks, I decided to make a shawl.

This is the Reyna Shawl by Noora Backlund, which is a free pattern on Ravelry. I believe I had seen this pattern over the years, but it wasn't until picking out this yarn and looking through finished projects made with it that I decided I wanted to make this up. It's a very simple triangle shawl that alternates between a 2 row mesh stitch pattern and garter stitch. Not only did the finished shawls in this yarn look great, but it was also simple enough of a stitch pattern that I could pick it up at any point and easily find where I was. It checked all my required boxes, so even though I always seem to swear off making shawls every time I finish one, I went for it this time. Spoiler alert! I did not hate making this shawl as much as I have hated making ones in the past, lol, so maybe I'm growing as a person.

Everything seriously went great in making this shawl. It was a fantastic purse project - easy to knit, no charts to follow, and small. I started this that night of playing D&D and worked on it little by little  for 2 months. The only "need to wrap my head around it" moment was when I finished the pattern but still had 1/3 of the skein. The whole reason I wanted to knit this was to use up this lovely yarn, not have a "too-tiny-for-other-projects" ball left over. So I decided to made the widest mesh section as written, then I did the same number of garter stitch rows as the previous section, then I did the mesh pattern until I only had enough left to bind off. I wound up using all of this skein except like 12 inches, which is awesome.

I really love how the color is distributed in the shawl. I was a little worried about some pooling in the first sections, but as the shawl grew it only had a few dark areas here and there that were pretty small - no big distracting blobs of bright or dark colors :)

As far as the shawl itself goes, I like the versatility in theory, but realistically I will never wear it in the traditional "shawl" position like this, lol. It's nice to have the option, I guess, but I will always wear them as scarved. That said, I do like the size that this one turned out. It would've been good as written, but I like that extra bit of length that the rest of the skein added. I love that it was so easy to use up the whole skein with this pattern, so if you, like me, hate leftovers that languish in your stash after a project, I highly recommend giving this pattern a try.

As far as the finished project, this yarn was just as lovely to work with as it turned out. This is just such a soft and deliciously squishy yarn. In fact I liked this so much that I've been eyeing a few of the newer colorways, lol, which kind of defeats the purpose of getting this out of my stash, but I still have a gift card to use so, lol. We will see.

So that's my newest shawl :) Interestingly (to me, at least) I enjoyed making this so much that I cast on another shawl immediately after finishing this one. I just love that they are small projects, portable, not a crazy time commitment, and will help keep my neck warm in a few months when I can actually wear them, lol. I never thought I'd say this, but Yay for shawl knitting!

Summary:

Yarn: 1 skein Knit Picks Stroll Hand Painted in the Koi Pond colorway - $11.00

Pattern: Reyna by Noora Backlund - Free

Time: 2 months

*This post contains affiliate links and I will receive a small commission if you make any purchases at Knit Picks. That said, I purchased this yarn with my own money and my opinions are 100% my own. I just really love this yarn :)