Making a Sparkly Wedding Guest Shawl

I took last week off from posting because I took too long to start looking for a dress for my friend Bri’s wedding. I ended up using most of that time to speed-knit a sparkly shawl because I apparently have a pathological need for individuality (see: How I Made My Own Wedding Guest Outfit). 

Here's how last week went: 

Tuesday

Other than a quick browse around the mall after seeing the Michael Jackson movie with my mom and some light online shopping, Tuesday was the first day I truly looked for a dress. I went to Marshalls and found nothing. When I got back home, I sat in my hot car and decided that the sparkly poncho idea I’ve had in my head since getting this sparkly yarn would solve multiple problems at once: nothing felt like me, it wasn’t going to be that warm, and I don’t have that much jewelry.

I already had this free pattern downloaded from Ravelry, Summer Poncho by Aver P. I wanted it to be more like a formal shawl than a full on poncho, plus I had limited time to knit it, so I scaled the pattern down.

That night at work, I knit my swatch and wet it in the sink to make sure it was close enough to gauge, and then I cast on that same shift.

I used Juniper Moon Farm Glimmer held double with CoBaSi by HiKoo and ended up using 6.5mm needles to hit the pattern gauge of 14 sts x 18 rows.

The original pattern counts:

• Front panel: 70 sts x 130 rows

• Back panel: 80 sts x 130 rows

My counts:

• Front panel: 50 sts x 105 rows

• Back panel: 60 sts x 105 rows

Before bed, I ordered a simple dress from Amazon to wear with the shawl in case I still couldn’t find anything at the mall on Thursday.

Wednesday

Wednesdays are basically my Saturdays, so I spent most of the day binging The Rookie and knitting the majority of the back panel. Once most of the larger piece was done, I felt confident in my ability to finish it in time. 

Thursday

Thursday I woke up and went right to the mall, got an Auntie Anne’s pretzel for breakfast, and tried to see if I could find a plain, preferably midi, dress. I thought, shouldn’t be too hard, right? Wrong. Shockingly hard. I walked around the dying mall that is Destiny USA for way longer than I would have liked to. They took out Nordstrom, Francesca’s, Express—the list goes on. I found zero dresses and eventually justified my hours there with a consolation prize from the Coach outlet.

I went home and pretty much stress knit until the Amazon dress arrived that evening. It technically fit, but it was too big in the chest and absolutely needed the shawl in order to work. That night I finished the back panel and pinned it out to block before immediately starting the second panel.

Friday

I typically work 1-8 Fridays with the chance of getting out a little early. This particular Friday, however, I ended up there until 11 because apparently everyone became suddenly and mysteriously ill that night. I spent most of the 10 hour shift knitting in between customers, sighing every time the door opened as if this wasn’t the doing of my own poor planning.

I stayed up until around 4am finishing the second panel and pinning that one out to block. I needed those extra hours to let it dry.

Saturday

Saturday, it was still drying. I got to work on my Clay Tee in the meantime. When I got home from work around 11:30, I finally unpinned everything, but simply could not bring myself to seam it that night. 

Sunday

Sunday, the day of the wedding, I seamed the shawl while I ate breakfast. Immediately after seaming it, I kind of hated it. The neckline felt tighter than I wanted, and I wished it sat more off the shoulder.

I steamed it while I steamed the wrinkles out of my dress, and it definitely helped the drape and the neckline, but I was still hating it. I did my hair and makeup, put the outfit on, and without the shoes I felt like I was giving old woman going to church.

I left the house a little too late and walked into the wedding without ever really seeing the full outfit together. During cocktail hour, I went to the bathroom and took a video since there wasn’t a full length mirror there. Watching it back, it finally looked like the version of the outfit I had been imagining all week.

The shawl needed the shoes and the shoes needed the shawl. And the dress needed the shawl too.

I am so beyond proud of how the final outfit turned out. Like Frank Sinatra “My Way” proud. I spent the entire week not knowing if the individual pieces would even look good together and having no idea if spending so much of my prep time on the shawl would pay off, and it did. I made something that apparently could not be bought retail: something that felt like me. I felt beautiful, but more importantly, I felt like me.

I’m really glad I made it and now I have a fun new accessory.