Texas Teeth

Concerned about the width of this piece, and wondering if I should have added another 5 stitches, I looked into the lace knitter's crystal ball.  Utilizing the lazy knitter's method (pins, a wet cloth and a screaming hot iron), I blocked the bottom of this wrap and got a fairly relaxed width of 16.5 inches, which is close enough to the pattern's 17 inch width to convince me to keep working for now.

Here is my 39 stitch cast on looking too much like a scarf-not a wrap.

Here is the same piece after a down and dirty blocking job while still on the needles.  This is what I mean about having faith when it comes to lace, and knowing that blocking will open the spaces.  This piece is a staggered lace pattern that's turning out quite nicely.  I love the rich and earthy colors, and the Mountain Colors Alpaca Blend is a dream to knit with.

This blocked section sort of reminds me of the orthodontist my daughter saw when she was a teen.  She had a Lauren Hutton-like tiny gap in her otherwise perfectly straight teeth.  To close the deal and convince her she needed $7,000 worth of work, he told her, "you have what we like to call Texas teeth-lot's of wide open spaces."  At that very moment, she stopped listening to me tell her she already had a nice smile, and I bought her a mouth full of metal.  The orthodontist in the mean time, lives in a lovely Grosse Pointe mansion.  Damn, that would have bought a lot of yarn.