In which Mark knits a shawl and I want to steal it

You may remember back in the summer when Mark was shamed into learning to knit. He learnt on a little garter stitch cowl and, as it was the height of summer at the time, went straight for linen for his second project. And today.....he cast it off!

So, very proudly, introducing Mark's first ever shawl!

Pattern: Boneyard by Stephen West (sort of)
Yarn: Midwinter Yarns Lithuanian Linen, Silver Sage and Grey (held double)
Needles: 4mm
Hours of Sci-Fi series watched while knitting: Many

The shawl is so fresh off the needles that it hasn't even been blocked yet, but the nature of linen is such that it barely needs it. It is actually quite wearable as it is - the doubled up linen has a wonderful weight and drape to it and having been painstakingly worked through novice hands, it's already lovely and soft too.
One of the most interesting things about the shawl is seeing the progression of Mark's tension. Linen is famously unforgiving due to it's lack of bounce, in fact, the Knitting for Dummies book that he has advises him to stay away from plant fibres altogether until he learns to control his tension (meh) but it does mean that you can see a distinct difference between the more...uhm...."organically" shaped stitches at the beginning of the work and the nice even tension he developed towards the end.

So next time those kind bearded gentlemen in Brighton ask him what the linen is like to knit with....he'll be able  to tell you!