Finished

 I am finished!!!!!!!!  You do not know how happy that makes me.  The Japanese inspired crochet flowered shawl is done, and I might add quite beautiful.

Above is a flower before I steamed it to flatten it out.  Cotton is so fun that way, a little steam and some stretching and you have a lovely flower.

 This picture is after a bit of stretching.  You can see the green one to the left has not been touched yet, so it is for lack of a better term, kind of wonky and crinkled up.

 Since I am the only one home, and I am in my workout clothes, I decided that this chair was the best option to show off the beauty of this shawl.  My other outdoor furniture is damp because of morning condensation, so you get my old, antique kitchen chair.

Sorry this picture is tilted, it is making me a bit sea sick, but you get the idea of how beautiful these flowers are.  I know they are everywhere in blog land, but I am still pretty thrilled with the overall product.  I made this from Berroco Primo Cotton.  I had 9 different colors, I started out with 10 but didn't like the bright cream color I had, so I cut that flower out, and replaced it early on in the project.

Each flower is approximately 5 inches in diameter.  The shawl is 19 " wide, and 64 " long at the top.  It is

 84 " long at the bottom as there are several more flowers in this row.

I just kept putting the shawl around me as I went along and kind of guessed at the length.  What I forgot to remember is that once the flowers are blocked they get a lot bigger.  It is still a great length for me as I am almost 5'10", and I always think a bit longer shawl is better than one that is too short. 

I am going to start on shawl #2 soon, in shades of grey, I think it will be beautiful.  I also have yarn left over from this shawl so I am making a flower scarf to finish all that up.   I have now completed 16 projects in 2011.  After the flower scarf is complete it will be a long time before the next shawl or the knitted dress is finished. Oh, yes I forgot about that knitted summer dress, better get moving on that, also.  So many projects and so little time.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend and find time to do something you really love.