on the needles: a day late and an f.o. short

My plan was to have a gorgeous completed shawl to show you on Friday. 

Said gorgeous completed shawl was to feature the super awesome teal-to-gold gradient (pictured above) suggested by the lovely Jen of the Down Cellar Studio podcast.

Said gorgeous completed shawl does not exist. As of right now, it's barely a nubbin of a shawl.

The shawl was well on its way to glorious completion when I came to the realization that something just wasn't working.

As a knitter, I really try to  pay attention to the "something's not right here" feeling for two reasons - (1) it's about usually accurate and (2) plodding along in spite of it usually results in more work to rip out later when the worst is confirmed. 

I put the shawl down for a few days to see if I would like it more later, but no. Completely frogged back to zero (actually, that's not true. I ripped out the needles, shoved the knitting back into the project bag, and started with fresh yarn. I just can't quite face the actual ripping out, and I'm hoping the Yarn Fairy will magically do it for me).

In better news, Jen has a really cool post on her blog on Fall Shawl Style, part of the Shawl Together project.

It's a great post with lots of styling hints for wearing your hand-knitted shawls with a range of different outfits.

Also, be sure to checking out Jen's shawl designs, including Tan House Brook and Aila Grace. 

I'm keeping my fingers crossed to have a finished shawl to show you this Friday.

What's on your needles this week?