Done!

I realise now that I should have posted more pictures of my progress, but the endless spinning seemed so monotonous... and things happened quite quickly when 'The End' was in sight!

Here's the finished shawl:
That's the Wool Peddler's Shawl from Folk Shawls, in 2-ply alpaca/silk that was my very first handspun project (I started spinning for it at the end of March and finished 600m at the end of June). I originally planned to use it for Jamieson's Diamond Lace Shawl, but worried that the acres of stockinette would show my uneven spinning to perfection. I tried the Flower Basket shawl, but the yarn just wasn't happy with the stitch pattern. I don't know a better way to explain it; the decreases were really bulky and even the stockinette seemed wonky. But it's worked nicely in the lace edging here. Very strange. I've learned such a lot about spinning from knitting this! And about fibre, too. The unblocked shawl was relatively bulky and and elastic, but even gently blocking stretched the inelastic alpaca/silk flat to produce an open fabric with a very elegant drape. Finished size is c. 150cm wide by 79cm deep.

Here's a closer view of it during blocking:
I can see flaws in it. I know where a couple of knitting mistakes can be found if I look hard; I knew the stuff I spun at the beginning was relatively uneven, so WHY didn't I think to start with that so the unevenness was eaten by the garter stitch section? But I still get that "That's too good to be my work!" feeling when I look at it, which won't be for long: it's a birthday gift for my mother. I've started spinning some Crown Mountain Farms superwash for socks for me :-)