Stephanie wrote awhile back about the black hole effect in handknitting. I’ve put hours and rows into this shawl today, trying to wrap it up, and it still stretches out to, roughly…18″. Huh. (Probably because I’m not trying quite so eagerly to prove to myself it’s farther along than it is.)
The yarn is 40% silk, and silk yarns knitted up, especially when they aren’t spun tightly, have a tendency to stretch out over time. (A side note: I once knitted a 50/50 kid mohair/silk vest, with much cabling work in the front and then knitted plain in the back because I was afraid of running out of yarn. The vest buttoned down the front, which turned out to be a very good thing: the heavier weight dragged the fronts about six inches downward, coming down, if I wore it unbuttoned, to look like I’d knitted points on purpose, while the back stayed primly in place just covering my waistband. Moral of the story: be careful of mixing dense and lightweight stitch patterns when working with silk.)
So. This shawl will either still be rather on the short side, which is fine with me, or it will stretch out surprisingly far when I block it and grow even more over time and I’ll have something long and swoopy from my gorgeous, shimmery yarn. Either way…
…(launching into storytime here, folks)…
My husband and I met for the first time when my parents decided I was an old enough newborn to be taken outside and to church. (Or maybe when Mom had had enough of cabin fever, right, Mom?) It is safe to say I really don’t remember the event. Thus, given our 15″ height difference in adulthood, the jokes that are, by now, a tad shopworn: we grew up together, he just did more, I knew when to quit, yadda yadda.
So we were just old friends who started finally actually dating in college.   I had a classmate, about 6’2″ or so, who saw us on campus one day. The next class she and I had together, she took me aside and reamed me in great indignation. “All the short girls take all the tall boys!”
What could I gracefully say? I beat you to it? Neener neener? I told her simply, “I took him in the size he came in.”
I thought of that as I measured this shawl and wondered what its real dimensions will turn out to be–just like I wondered once what married life was going to really be like. After 29 years come next week and four fledged kids, I think I’ve got a good idea on the latter.
I don’t quite think he wants me to knit this for him as an anniversary present, though. It would be too much of a stretch. I’ll have to think of something else, huh?