a labour of...

 is exactly what my Closing Fan Shawl has become. i am not saying it in a way where it has been a long old labour and i am ready for it to be done. no sirree! quite the opposite in fact. yes it has been a labour, i care not to count any longer the hours nor the rip backs involved, for all i care to note is how stitch by stitch it is turning into quite possibly the most beautiful yarny creation my hands have ever made.

i have plans for my little shawl once all the fans (diamonds are complete), no single crochet edge will do for my little shawl, nope... i am plotting and planning an edging of the utmost kind so when all is said and done and the last stitch is complete i can truly say, hand on crafty heart this little yarny wonder goes way way up there alongside the day i completed my first granny square cushion.

which i would link to but cannot, because for the life of me i cannot find the link amongst all the vast amount of ramblings that has gone on over the years on this here shiny spot. thus i will just relay the gist of things in a nutshell. ummm, Tif can you do nutshells?

nutshell commence:

 "i could not crochet. i learnt to crochet. it took a long old hard slog to do so but oh so worth it. then i made a granny square. then i made another. i made them from old vintage yarn. after which i crocheted them together and made them into a cushion. i put the cushion on our couch. i stepped back. tears came to my eyes. tears came to my man's eyes. we both agreed we had never seen such a thing in our lives. me a glorious thing. him... a thing."

and so i feel, years on, this shawl when all said and crocheted, (ummm, repeating one's self Tif?! could be a senior moment, or perhaps not because you caught yourself doing it, thus you are saved for another day) will be another moment in my handcrafted journey when i take time to stop still and truly honestly be thankful for the creativity my hands allow me to conjure up, each and every day. something i do not do often enough... counting my crafty blessings and my crafty hands.