Ruana

Tonight I finally started the ruana from Folk Shawls. A ruana is a South American shawl -- very long, solid in the back and split down the middle in front with a floor-sweeping fringe. It takes a tremendous amount of yarn, so I've been collecting for the past couple of months in preparation. I'm doing it in somewhat unusual colors for me -- lots of pinks, raspberry, purple, and also deep blues and charcoals -- and it's basically a showcase for some of the sari silk yarn I treated myself to at Christmas. This is going to be a LONG project --236 stitches in a row, and each row has to be ended and started over to make the fringe -- but it's totally mindless garter stitch knitting, so it'll be a nice break from working on my mom's lacey silk stole and my pi shawl.