Stealth Knitting

As the majority of the people who get knitted things from me either do not live nearby or know about them in advance, it's not often that I have stealth knitting.  Sure, the Incredibly-Patient-Mother knows that some of the socks that appear here might end up in her gift box at a holiday but which of the dozen pairs I crank out of the year (yes, I'm far behind this year) remains to be seen, so hopefully it's still a fun surprise. I refuse to stealth knit for the Philosopher.

But occasionally something comes up where I know a person might see the pictures on Twitter or Facebook and I want it to be a surprise. 

That was the case with the Logwood Shawl by verybusymonkey. I wanted to surprise my board liaison, who is rolling off after two very solid years of collaborating with me on our national committee. And since she also lurks around Ravelry (she does a lot of code work for Custom Fit), I couldn't say much about it there.

How to Stealth Knit a Shawl?

1. Set aside yarn that the person has mentioned liking. (There's a method to posting all my yarn pictures, people sometimes will self-identify for things that end up in their mailboxes)



In this case it was Lisa Souza's Hardtwist Merino Petite in the Augustine Colorway. It *glows* in direct sunlight.  My pictures don't do it justice.

2. Realize you have about a month to get it knit and start frantically knitting.



3. Block it the night before you leave for conference, praying that it will be dry by 5 a.m. when you have to get up and leave for the airport.  Turn the overhead fan it's sitting under on high, worry that the fan will rock itself out of the ceiling.



4. Hand it over on the last day of conference. :)



Yup I know, lousy picture. It was 5 a.m.

Each of the smaller shots gives you some detail that is in the border, which was not the easiest--I couldn't memorize it and that meant staring at a chart and using a row counter. It's well written though and I really enjoyed it.  And hopefully it'll brighten up her winter wear this year--she's in the Boston area and I imagine all of her winter gear got quite worn last year.