yarn along: color affection off the needles!

after months and months of working on and off on my color affection shawl, i finally cast off this morning. i was hoping for last night, but at 12:30 i gave up. jumped out of bed this morning though to finish it at last. i am pleased with it, even though i think that the edges are a little tight. i had mentioned that already at beginning working on the stripes, and a kind ravelry user pointed out to me that a yarn over after the first stitch (which is dropped on the way back) helps. it probably did, but the ends still curl, so i might need to block the shawl (waiting for sunny weather to do so outside). i have noticed now with wearing it for a while, that it stretches by itself, so maybe i just need to give it a few days of wearing.

this project started as a knitalong with rachel of house full of jays. we updated each other via instagram about our progress, and amazingly enough, after both casting on 7 months ago, and both working on other projects in between, we ended up at the same stage last week with just the last color edging to be knit. 

i'm happy with the shawl, the yarn (malabrigo sock) is so soft and the drape is perfect. it works very well as a scarf too. i dare say though that i love rachel's color choice a bit more, and crazy as it might sound, i am thinking about casting on a second color affection one day, with two shades of blue and a mustard colored yarn. all details about this shawl can be found on my ravelry project page.

thanks to my sweet little boy for taking the photos of mama in her new shawl!

as for reading, i downloaded a few samples on my kindle and am still mulling over which books to download. many of you asked about "escaping into the open" by elizabeth berg, which i shared last time. it's not a new book, it's been a few years since it has first been published but i believe it is her only non-fiction book, which is why some of you might not have heard of it. it is full of wonderful insights about the writing life and has many writing exercises, too. i can recommend it to all of you interested in reading about writing.

and now it's your turn. what are you knitting and reading? joining ginny's yarn along again this week.
joining frontier dreams this week as well.