Happy!

Here she is, in all her blocked glory:



The blocked dimensions are 70x28, which I hope is big enough. Here's a detail of the center:



and of the edging:



DP says it's my best work, and I'm inclined to believe him. That makes it an even better thing to give away. I've always been of the mind to give the good stuff to other people and keep the stuff with errors for myself...just like giving the best looking piece of pie to someone else and keeping the one with the crumbled crust :)

Knitting with the singles didn't seem to cause any problem. I didn't see any biasing in the finished piece, either before or after blocking. I spun the singles using the smallest whorl on my Ashford Traditional. I washed the singles and hung them to dry unweighted, then wound the yarn into center pull balls but used the outside strand to knit with.

I used 10 repeats of the alpine edging, and used the Danish tie shawl edging the full length of both long sides. For the center portion, I'd chain 9, sc 3 tog; for the edging on the edging, I'd chain 10, sc 2 tog. The alpine edging had a lot more longitudinal stretch than the starlight lace.

I'm very happy with this project!

I also decided to make my partner a pair of slippers:



(I'll get a better picture of them in their finished state, I promise.) I had the perfect yarn for her in my stash, but she wrote in her post that she didn't need any more yarn. I checked her queue, and she had Malabrigo loafers as one of the things she'd like to knit, so I knit her a pair. I got stitch gauge, but there was no row gauge, so they came out way too big. I fulled them in the washer and dryer, so I think they'll fit. I used some leather scraps to make leather patches for the soles so they'll be less slippery. I just have to sew them on, and I'll be done.

This was a very fun swap. It made me think hard about what I was going to make and do, rather than just going out and buying a bunch of stuff (as fun as that may be).

Okay, one more gratuitous shot of the shawl (I can't help it):