dancing reindeer

my dancing reindeer shawl is finished!

 the lovely inspiration for it

oh alaska! i loved it there and now i LOVE this shawl, a wonderful reminder

a baby oak tree i made sure not to step on while getting these photos   :)

the shawl wraps around snugly

 or closes with an antler toggle button i brought home from alaska

a single crochet loop around the button closes it

the inside. three times this had to come off the needles, since i found a mistake(s) i'd made within the graph, one stitch off changed so much! there were two large charts to follow, upside down, right to left on the right side, left to right on the wrong, because this was back and forth knitting (as opposed to knitting in the round).
this pattern left some of the instructions to the imagination, and overall it wasn't a favorite, but now that it's done, i'm really happy i finished it

this shawl was cast on the week after we returned from alaska, the first week of september. and i have been immersed in the making of it ever since, setting reading aside for the time being. and then... we visited a lovely bookstore in mendocino, where three books came home with me, knitting everyday finery, arcadia and the snow child. love the knitting book, loved arcadia, and the snow child, LOVE LOVE LOVE this book. i didn't want it to end,  it was so hard to choose which to do, knit reindeer's or read about this state i fell in love with. the snow child is about homesteading in alaska in the 1920's. magical, delicate, poignant, a beautiful story. and the art work on the cover, LOVE that too. 

here is my alaskan bookmark!  i bought it from dorothy, we met her near her home by the yukon river. the bookmark is made of birchbark. i love the tag written in dorothys printing, it says: handmade birchbark book mark of art, sinew, turquiose, saphire, willow trim.

hello reindeer! (fairbanks)

thank you for the inspiration! (denali)

i love this shawl, it's so soft and cozy. i took the (dozens of!) photos myself (fumbling with self timers and remotes) since chuck wasn't here. he summited cotopaxi this weekend, cotopaxi is a stratovolcano in the andes mountains, located about 28 km south of quito, ecuador, south america (very proud of you honey!).

pattern: dancing reindeer shawl
wool: beaverslide dry goods, fine merino and kid mohair
colorways: mink heather and natural cream
ravelry notes here
and if you loved the snow child, the author eowyn ivey, has a blog called 'letters from alaska' here!

joining with yarn along here
xxx lori