Pattern: Cactus Flower Shawl
Designer: Romi Hill
Yarn: Woolen Rabbit Opal
Colorways: Mourning Dove and Red Hot Chili Peppers
Needles: US 4 and 5
A while back a group of fellow knit bloggers from the beginning of blogging time got together and knit a mystery shawl together, now called Algiers which was designed by Kirsten Kapur. We had such a nice time cheering each other on that some of us decided to continue on with another shawl. Some of us chose this Cactus Flower and others chose to knit Kirsten's Germinate.
I think that all of us have finished, but not everyone has finished pictures up yet.
I'll be honest with you, I have been finished for a little while. This beautiful shawl looked at me in her unblocked stage for about a week before I finally filled up a pot of warm water with some wool soak and gently put her in….and there she sat looking at me for almost another week. Can you believe it?
Finally, I shamed myself into just doing it. Procrastination is my middle name at times, just sayin'. After seeing how Margene had blocked her beautiful version, it made it so much easier for me to envision just how to block this shawl. It took close to an hour to get it all blocked, but taking the time to do it right makes such a huge difference in the end, so it's time well invested.
The color in this picture is probably the truest color of all of the pictures. In the top picture I played around in Lightroom for a class picture and I just loved how it came out, so I have used it, but this is a truer example, although the real color is somwhere between the two. The gloomy skies of November can be challenging to shoot pictures in.
I will be heading down to Southern Maine this weekend for my youngest grandson's birthday, so I will wrangle one of my daughters for a modeled picture.
This was one of the most enjoyable knits I have done in a while, once I got past those first set of nupps.
Thank you Romi for such a beautiful pattern!
The Woolen Rabbit 
That is a great project, made better by the good company of fellow knitters.
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Oh it’s gorgeous, and the top picture is my fave. Nice job!
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Wow! Is that ever beautiful! Great job!
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I really like this, especially how the colour work transitions so nicely into the border. Beautiful work. Also, you using daughter-as-model makes me smile because I do the same thing! I guess many of us knitters do.
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It’s gorgeous! I love the color combo and you did a beautiful job with the knitting and blocking. I need to take photos of mine!
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It is so, so beautiful! (And . . . I am NOT finished with mine yet. Still slogging away on that border. Maybe by the end of the month???) Your finished shawl is my inspiration to Keep On Knitting!!!
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It is so much fun to see everyone’s different color choices. Yours are beautiful. Don’t beat yourself up for a little procrastination–you took the time to do it right!
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Your colors look marvelous together. I, too, enjoyed this project more than any other in a long time. It was a joy to watch it grow row by row and become so beautiful. The shape is like a large fan and when blocked it unfolds beautifully. Beautifully processed pictures, each one, and I really like what you do with Lightroom.
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Looks like a challenging blocking. I wouldn’t have thought to pin at two levels. Beautiful!
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Beautiful job Kim!
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So pretty! I think I like Cactus Flower best in monochromatic tones. I keep thinking about a light blue/dark blue one, or light-and-dark gray.
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