Finally! The Rebel Two shawl, by Lesley Anne Robinson, has been in my mind and on my needles for the better part of a year. I discovered the pattern while wintering in Florida - probably in January. I became instantly obsessed! I purchased the pattern and the exact wool and color used by the creator. I knew that it was done in brioche, which I had never done before, but I thought "How hard can it be?" Ha! I realized immediately that I had no idea what I was doing.
By the time I looked into classes at local (not so local) yarn stores, brioche was definitely popular, however I was too late for any of the classes. I then began looking into possible classes for when we returned home in April. This time I was in luck. I took a two-hour beginning class and learned a bit, but it really took endless practice at home to master the basic stitches. I followed this up with a Craftsy class taught by Nancy Marchant, the queen of brioche. This class made all the difference. Finally, I practiced all of the pattern stitches until I felt confident in them, and I then began my Rebel Two Shawl, which I have called My Rebellion.
It didn't take me long to abandon the original yarn as it split too easily - just an added level of frustration I didn't need. After a few other yarn tries, I settled on a gold and purple that contrasted nicely and knit up well.
What I can say with a certainty is that I learned an awful lot working on this piece - a lot. I can also say that I am very impressed by my perseverance. Really and truly. And, it is entirely possible that Bruce is happier that I have completed this project than I am! It became an obsession, and one that I talked about constantly.
Another thing that I learned after I blocked the shawl is that regardless of how careful I was, regardless of the number of times I frogged back to a lifeline, I still found many errors, including a dropped stitch way back toward the beginning. The take-away is that in future brioche projects, when checking my work, I need to pull the stitching horizontally in order to see everything (which is what the blocking did). There was no undoing any of the errors, though I could take care of the dropped stitch on the backside. I know where the bodies are buried, so to speak. I'm not going to point them out to you however!
Will I do brioche again? Yes, but I'm taking a bit of a break!
