It's good to have friends. Even better to have knit friends that will help you cut your knitting with sharp, pointy scissors.

So this is the story of my Melody shawl...

Travel back in time with me, to a moment when sheep were bleating and lamb tasted good. Yep, in May of last year ('06) three of us Texas knitters flew up to MD for the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival. And what a good time we had. Ah, the fresh scent of sold out Socks That Rock mingled with the heady perfume of way to many knitbloggers.

During our last trip around the vendor stalls on Sunday that weekend, slightly bored and still overwhelmed by it all, we stopped at a spot we had passed many of times the day prior. What made this time different was that we didn't have to wade through hordes of knitters grabbing fistfuls of mill end Koigu. (Yes, I was one of those knitters. Why do you ask?) What we hadn't noticed until then was the Morehouse Merino folks were directly across from that fiasco.

Can you imagine? We almost didn't even see Morehouse Merino! How sad would we have been had we learned of their attendance only after the event? I can't even bare to think of it.

But that didn't happen. (yay) We did see them on Sunday and we most definitely did partake of their wares. There I picked up a skein of lace weight merino in foresty greens to make their Melody shawl.

Shortly thereafter, we returned home from our holiday. We showed off our wonderful bounty and awed fellow knitters with our goods. Yarn was squeezed, sniffed, and cuddled by one and all. (But not the 'muggles' -- they find this odd.) Quickly I forgot about my merino lace and continued on my merry sock-knitting ways.

And then I notice that Petra has started working on her shawl. And I love it. It's not difficult, not too fussy or girlie, absolutely wonderful. And I want mine!

I started this shawl mid-October during the Stalk the Stalker knit event. I remember this because I purchased the needles at the LYS down there and they didn't have size US#10 - 32", so I got the #9s.

I finally finished knitting the shawl on the day after Christmas. That Wednesday I went over to Petra's for a finishing (and knitting) party. There I enlisted the help, fortitude, and extremities (aka hands and arms) of my knitgrrls. The pattern calls for you to intentionally drop {gasp} some stitches and then cut {eep} between these to create a large rectangle with fringe! Shazam!

I lovelovelove my Melody shawl. It is long and warm; it can be worn bunched up like a scarf or over the shoulders in a more traditional shawl-like manner. And it is amazingly light and soft. So yay! My first shawl/wrap ever, and I owe it all to my knitgrrls!

Specs:

• Yarn: Morehouse Merino Lace Monet colors in Zaandam (more foresty greens than what the color shows on their site)
• Needles: Addi Turbo US#9/5.5mm 32"
• Pattern: Melody shawl
• Notes: I would suggest for anyone else making this shawl (which I highly recommend) to use either size US#10 or 10 1/2 needles for a more open lace. Also, the yarn is a single ply lace weight, it likes to stick to itself, and will break under pressure. I found this out when I was first winding it into a ball. After a bit of tug-of-war, the yarn gave out and snapped. This wasn't too much of a problem, I simply wound it into two much looser balls and had at it.

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