Finished stuff!

This week I finished the Echo flower shawl, made a basket, made a tee-shirt with my sister, and crocheted a birthday gift.
First the shawl:

So close, yet so far.

 I got to the end and did the double stranded bind off using the size 7 needles I'd been working on. I got 44 stitches (out of 247) from the end and ran out of yarn. So I went up two needle sizes, and bound off tightly and ended up with extra yarn. I did the double stranded bind off, a bind off I'd never done before. Basically you find the other end of the yarn, hold it with the working yarn and, leaving a little tail to weave in later, just bind off the way you normally would.  I used one ball of Malabrigo sock yarn, size 7 needles, did 8 pattern repeats and had just enough. For those who don't have a death grip on their needles, I'd recommend size 5s and 7 pattern repeats, or 8 repeats and use beads instead of nupps.  If I were to do it again I'd do the 7 stitch nupps rather than the 9 stitch nupps. I think it would be faster, and eat less yarn.

Here's what it looked like before I blocked it.

Before I blocked it out it was just big enough that I could wrap it around my neck. But I trusted in the magic of blocking and was rewarded.

Pinned out to within an inch of it's life.

All done, isn't it pretty?

Detail!

I am really proud of this shawl. It is proper lace with Estonian flowers and nupps. Nupps are the bumpy bits, you knit a bunch of stitches into one stitch, and on the next row down you purl them all together. They are a pain, but pretty.

A-tisket, a-tasket a purple and white basket:

Ain't it cute?

I made this in a class at Hill Country Weavers. I got to pick the contrast color. I've been in a bit of a purple mood for the past year.

And here's what it looks like from the side.

 It looks pretty good. I'm proud of it, for a first basket. It is a bit wonky, but I love it anyway. I also love finishing a project in a little over three hours rather than three months.

The tee-shirt we made was a spoof on the sorority tee-shirts. GDI is the answer one gives to pushy sorority/fraternity folks. It is short for 'god damn independent'. So we made a Gamma Delta Iota tee-shirt for a friend who was going to a camp where she is the only "independent." Of course we didn't get a picture before we gave it away. But I did get a picture of the back of mine:

A name I was once called. I've felt rather proud of this name for a while.

We didn't get to do the front for mine. It got late and dark, and it was hard to see to spray-paint.

Finally, I made a crocheted gift for a friend, but I'm not going to post a picture until after I give it to her. So pictures later this month.