Keeping me warm: Winter Solstice Wrap

I began knitting 4 years ago this weekend. I flew out to Victoria to visit my sister and was determined I was going to learn to knit. I needed a craft I could do in front of the TV while I spent time with The Guy. We love to spend time together, but I often need something to do with my hands and it's difficult to hear a movie over the whir of the sewing machine.

I went from a simple scarf to a dog sweater and beyond. I sampled different kinds of yarn and needles and acted like a kid in a candy store around anything knitted. 

I'm still like that.

For my birthday that year, my friend KB bought me 3 large skeins of the most wonderful yarn imaginable. It was llama wool from a local farm outside the city. She had been in the area, thought llamas were cool, and went out of her way to get me that yarn.

I fell in love with it and knew it had to be something special.

Close up of the pattern detail

I'm sure she thought I hated it because 4 years went by and I made nothing.  Bupkis.

I searched patterns high and low. I knew I wanted to keep whatever I made, so it had to be right. I'm always thinking I will keep something and then end up hating it and never wearing it.

Fast forward to this November. I had a tough fall of career stress and disappointment after disappointment. I needed a project to work on that was challenging and beautiful. I stumbled upon this Winter Solstice Wrap pattern off Ravelry.

It was just what I wanted. 

I started knitting, but had to set it aside in order to finish Christmas presents. I meant to tell KB I had started using the yarn and why I had waited so dang long.

The night she was dying, I was knitting that shawl and thinking about her.

I worked on the shawl that week of her funeral. 

Today, I finished it. It is exactly what I wanted. It's perfect. I only notice the two rows I missed of them pattern if I look really close. It's warm and unique and smells oddly like livestock. 

The finished product 

I think KB would like that most of all.