Last weekend, I spent all my free time finishing up my Marled Magic. That’s right. Read it again. I said finishing up my Marled Magic. It’s all done.

I hadn’t really wanted to knit this shawl. Until I saw a few on podcasts and the like, I hadn’t been able to envision a color palate for myself. And then it hit me, pink and mint seemed like a match made in heaven.

I threw in some bits and bobs of a few related colors and was off to the races.

 

I loved this section with the bright pink with different colors marled in, so fun. I held a strand of Candy by KnittyandColor and striped in other yarns. The next section somehow even made me enjoy seed stitch. Maybe the rhythm, maybe the squish factor, I had fun knitting this one.

After that very first blip of green I decided to keep with a light and bright color scheme for this section. I adore how it turned out. For the next section, I tried two new things. Brioche:

And mohair:

I cannot think of a better combination. I immediately fell in love with both! I loved the mohair so much, that I just kept right on going with it:

That mint section may not look fuzzy from here, but it is mohair-licious. I kept picking lighter colors for each section, including number five–the wedge shape on the corner:

I wound up wanting to go a bit more towards a murky, minty green for the next section so I held a strand of grey mohair and a strand of Hedgehog Fibres in Fly together and then striped in other colors.

 

For a while, I had been a bit bothered by that bright, loud pink section in the middle. I kept gravitating towards lighter colors and it seemed out of place. I thought maybe I could balance it out by doing another similar-feeling pink for section seven:

With that bright pink on one side, I thought a minty fresh section would be perfect for the opposite wing:

The final choice was the bind off. I was leery of picking the wrong thing, knowing it could all go south if the color wasn’t right. I thought and thought and came to two conclusions: pastel and rainbow:

I think pastel rainbow was the way to go.

 

The last thing to do, was to braid and tasselate those crazy ends I’d been dragging around. I was scared to get started but it turned out to be quick and super easy.

And now, it is finished. It has been quite the journey. I took me over 6 months to knit. I was certainly not being monogamous, it was a little difficult to stay focused with it. I would figure out what I wanted to do for a section, obsessively knit that section until it was done, and then waffle over the next choice for a month or so.

It’s about eight feet long all together. It’s still unblocked at this point. I’ll definitely wash and block it sometime, but it’s big enough for the moment. I used a lot of yarns: scraps, stash, minis, and some mohair I purchased just for this project. Not including the minis, the shawl used 2664 yards of yarn. Now, that is held double throughout, so I really knit 1332 yards. That’s over three quarters of a mile!

By the way, this is the Marled Magic Mystery Shawl, by Stephen West. You can get a link to the pattern and have a look at all the (non-mini) yarns I used on my project page.

Worth every stitch:

I love every part of it, even if it is tough to fold.

I’m head over heels for the thing. Kevin laughs a bit when I put it on, I don’t really know how to wear it other than blanket-style. I don’t even care. This was the most fun knit I’ve ever knit. The textures and shapes were so enjoyable, and playing with color in this way taught me a lot.

For now, I’ll just be over here basking in its glory.

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YoM day 335-337: Sock and shawl knitting

YoM day 338: Sock knitting and secrets

YoM day 339: A wee bit o’ chrochet

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Happy making!