365.289 (the Artfibers shawl)

Out of everything I've made, this is probably the handknit I've worn the most. It's soft and warm and has my favorite colors and I can wrap it around my neck a million times or wear it as a shawl... this is another one made way back in the day (2002? 2003?).

I bought much of the yarn on my first trip to Artfibers. A small remnant hank of their sari silk, a golden novelty yarn, some Kyoto. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it until I got back to my mom's and started playing, and then, it became clear - I wanted to do a sideways shawl, in seed stitch, with random stripes of these beautiful, glowing silky colors.

But! I didn't have enough yarn for what I wanted - I knew I needed one more ball of Kyoto, the luminous silk/mohair blend. I convinced my brother Michael to drive with me back up to San Francisco the next day (a 45-minute-ish drive from where we grew up). I told him I'd buy him falafel. He said cool - sounds like fun! We had an outing planned. Good times.

Dude. The next day, there was a ridiculous rainstorm. It took FOREVER to get up to the City... I remember driving, white-knuckled, on the 101, in my little stick-shift first car, huge trucks passing me by and sloshing water all over the car like a wave. We had to turn off the radio and just *focus* on the drive - it was that bad.

After one particularly hairy freeway moment, Michael turned to me and looked at me for a bit. Finally, he said: "you know what, Mare? That better be one HELL OF A NICE BALL OF YARN."

It still makes me laugh. :)