My light brown silk nightsongs

So, it's been so long since my last post, ay?

After a few shawls, i am now back with this blog again, and just like what i say on  my other blog, i will write more often. Ok?

So, thanks to the new job, i can now afford some more luxury fibers. Few months ago, my boss went to india and i bribed him to bring me some yarns. I bought the yarn online and asked to be delivered to his door, so that he can bring em home. First purchase was 500 grams of pure silk of maharaja silkindian. I'll write my review about the yarn later on another post.

Since i am going to my (younger) cousin's wedding, and i dont have diamonds and gold yet (all those $ went straight to my stash), i decided... Hey, why not knit that silk for a shawl and wear it with my golden kebaya? I can always borrow the bling bling from my mom (or, as she always says it in javanese dialect: blang-bling).

And so i knit. It was a bit difficult to decide which pattern to choose. I finally chose Gail/Nightsongs since i am aleeady familiar with the yarn, and the simplicity yet beautiful pattern will look awesome with the yarn. I casted on the night before i flew to Manila. I knitted on all 4 flights between singapore-manila-cebu. I was actually try to stop my boss from keep on talking. I failed. Or my knitting failed to.

That's ninoy aquino airport on the background. Messy tiny airport.

I finally finished knitting the shawl last week, after multiple consideration whether to continue to the next round or just stop. 8 reps and i still think that it's not big enough. I already felt it that silk will not expand as much as i wished. I was right. I am expecting a 180 cm and ended up with only 160 cm. i was a bit sad, but i am happy with the texture. So soft, so beautiful, love love love the edging. My pointy edgings look sharp and i just cant stop admiring the gloss.

I do have a moral of the story here...

I pushed too far. I insisted to push and picked up 5 missing stitches at the right and left side of the center stitch. Not a good idea since it means that i am pushing 10 sts. Until this minute, i still dont understand why i didnt choose to rip that 6 rows and fix it? Why? You tend to make bad decision around midnight. Dont ever do that again.

How did i block the silk:

It's 100% silk. That scares the hell out of me. What if i damage it? What if i ruin the fiber? Should i wet block? I must wash it, definitely. The shawl went with me almost everywhere for the past 3 weeks.

So after throwing a small swatch to the water, washing and then pinning and steaming... I have the confidence and washed my silk. I soak it for only 20 mins with a pH 5.5 soap. Dry it by spinning at 600 rpm for 10 mins and pin. I can actually dry it by using towel press (=wrap in towel an jump on it several times), but i thought i just want to try and see. It was ok.

I was so paranoid while pinning the shawl. They (who had knitted silk before) wrote that the fiber is really fragile when wet. Silk hates wet, wet damages silk, yada yada yada... What do you think i feel since i an knitting a laceweight pure 100% silk? Hm, well, i can only say that the silk is less stretchy when wet. Just like cotton and viscose. So that's why i did the same way: 1st wet block and pin to stretch just enough, 2nd dry block and stretch further and steam. Trust me, they are going ok on the further stretch.

Lovely.