A Larger Basilica

Remember how last week I talked about the long lead time of book projects and how they can pop up and surprise you when you're not expecting it?  Well, this sort of happened to me again recently.  In October I showed you my Basilica Shawl from Free Spirit Shawls.  (Oh heck, I may as well just post it again here:)

Well, I didn't forget about this shawl.  But, I did completely forget about the fact that just after I sent off the sample to Interweave, I made myself another Basilica, this time in Brooklyn Tweed Shelter (rather than the lovely Loft used for the original).  I had the Shelter in stash, liked the colors together, and wanted to see how the shawl would knit up in a heavier weight yarn.  I wore it around town a few times (not anywhere yarny of course!), put it away for the spring, and then totally, completely forgot about it until I unpacked it from some winter clothes a few weeks ago.

This Basilica measures 68" wide by 18" long (longer and wider than the original), and it looks like I only left off about 8 or 10 rows (if I took notes, I cannot find them, and I unfortunately don't remember the stitch pattern well enough to eyeball how many repeats I did.).  Something about knitting this in a heavier weight yarn makes the edges roll in much more than the original, but it doesn't bother me too much.  I kind of like seeing the back of the colorwork.

The skies are grey and this shawl has been getting some wear, mostly all wrapped around my neck.

While I was importing these photos, I also found a couple of my new-to-me-again large Basilica in action.  Neill just got a super fancy new camera so we were hamming it up the other night...

...and also becoming his unwitting subjects as he was playing around with settings. Note: the lovely blonde to my left is my sister in-law, Hillary. Yep, we have (almost) the same name.  I've only accidentally opened her mail once. (Also note that we are crouched around a laptop on a glider because our printer currently resides in the spare bedroom, where the glider has also been relegated, because I'm the only one who loves it.  Seriously, people, it's not the prettiest chair in the world, but boy is it comfy!)

Yay for rediscovered knits!