2020 has been quite the year, hasn’t it? While the COVID-19 pandemic has put a big crimp into life as usual – working from home, less socializing, being strategic about shopping and so on – it hasn’t slowed my knitting. The lack of posts is not from a lack of material, just getting me sidetracked. Story of my life!

Anyway, I’m planning to catch up with a few compendium posts of the pieces I’ve been completing, starting with shawls – which, by the way, are perfect for dressing up a ratty t-shirt or hiding a stain for the multitude of videoconferences!

This purple, I mean PURPLE, number is the Dewberry pattern by Hilary Smith Callis. It’s a shawl-cowl hybrid: it looks drapey like a shawl, but it’s knit in the round and wears easily like a cowl. The yarn, aran weight acrylic Bernat Premium in the very unsubtle Ultra-Violet colourway, was a Christmas gift from my darling son. I believe this was my first project to be started post-Christmas as he was very eager for proof that I like his present.

The next shawl pattern and yarn I bought deeply discounted last Black Friday from Bluprint.com (the once and future Craftsy.com). The Dappled Sunlight pattern by Jennifer Weissman offers a simple knit with enough variation to keep it from being tedious. This pattern would also look fantastic with a long, gentle gradient. I used a single colour, the rich burgundy of Cloudborn Highland Fingering (100% wool).

I haven’t decided yet if this is a keep-for-me project, or perhaps a gift for someone else. It’s folded up neatly and placed away from the melee of my overcrowded and riotous shawl drawer. I usually know when I am creating something who I am making it for because I like to direct my good intentions for the person into it. This time, it’s filled with more generalized positive thoughts and mellowness, but hey, in this world that can’t be bad.

Speaking of making gifts for someone special, I made the Moonlit River shawl, pattern by Paula King, for that same aforementioned darling son’s darling girlfriend at his request. It was during the height of the social distancing/stay at home orders, so they hadn’t seen each other for weeks. (Multiple video calls and continual texting don’t count!)

He described the kind of shawl he thought she’d like and picked the pattern from an array of possibilities I showed him. He also selected the yarn from my stash, a very nice skein of The Blue Brick Niagara Silk ( 75% Merino wool/15% Cashmere goat/10% Silk) in the delicate Flora colourway. I very much like the resulting long, elegant shawl and may just make one for me someday.

Finally, this last number I decidedly made for ME in a style and colours that I adore. The yarn is another delightful Blue Brick creation, this time The Blue Brick Killarney Sock (80% Merino wool/20% nylon) in the Nicaragua gradient colourway. So pretty, very me colours.

I used That Nice Stitch for the pattern, adapting it by making it several stitches wider and casting on using Judy’s Magic Cast-On with a spare circular needle rather than waste yarn. This idea worked like a charm with a flawless Kitchener stitch to seam the ends together. EXCEPT that I boneheadedly had managed to twist the ends so I had a moebius loop shawl. GAH. So I had to unpick the join and redo and, naturally, it wasn’t quite as neat the second time around. But at least it was done and ready to wear. This little number has already seen many video conferences in its young life. I am confident it will see many more. (Actually, just realized that I’m wearing it today.) It has even - gasp! – left the house on more than one occasion.