Awesome Alka

Alka is done; she's washed and stretched on the blocking board (with wires and pins) and looks like this:



The yarn is Maritona, a cabled merino wool no longer available. Knit on size 6 needles, when stretched, it measures about 38 inches from the back of the neck to the bottom and the wingspan is about 65 inches. The pattern is from Myrna Stahman's Faroese Shaped Shawls . I ampled it a bit by adding an extra set of center back panel increases and an extra set of side panel increases as Myrna suggested in the book. The yarn split a lot while being knit but that may be because most of it had a previous life as a partially knit and frogged cabled cardigan. Reskeining and washing helped with the crimp but it still was split-happy. The color is a little hard to see - it's taupe, a grayish beige. Should look okay over black, which I insist on wearing despite having a white kitty who sheds constantly. My last post showed the shawl before blocking, and I must say I had my doubts but after being stretched I'm pleased with how it looks.
And while I had the camera out I took a picture of the king-size bed quilt, a sampler I made about 22 years ago while taking a brief break from knitting.