Done!

All the frogging, all the tinking, all the frustrations are over! I get to wear this beautiful, soft, unique shawl. Although I had my issues with this project, I know that they were just that- my issues. The pattern is perfectly written and challenging.

Here's some photos:

It's done with Jaggerspun Zephyr in colorway Bottlegreen, with size 10/0 glass beads. I started it on July 19, frogged same day, restarted on July 20, 22, and (finally) 23rd. I got it off the needles on August 1, but had to tink the bind off and reknit on the 3rd. The photo above is me with the shawl. I wanted it for a wedding and was able to proudly show it off to everyone. That was last night, Aug. 4th.

All in all, I love this shawl. I might even enter it into my local fair. Thanks to everyone who answered my questions. You were a huge help.

My blog- Sunflowerfairy Knits

On To The Beads!

Thanks for the extra help in the comments of my last post.

I'm up to the second repeat of chart b. Coming along very nicely. So far only one mistake...not bad. I would correct it, but it's a yo one stitch off about 10 rows back. Not even going to attempt it. lol.

I may be brave enough to knit lace in front of an attention-seeking 20 month old, but I'm not stupid.

New Member Questions

After a few false starts, I'm finally moving along. This shawl has kicked my knitter's butt repeatedly, let me tell you.

Anyways, I'm on chart b. I purchased beads yesterday and plan on doing them, but I'm wondering where they should be placed- either at the nupp or at the p5tog.

Any help?

I use the crochet hook method, so I think the bead automatically drops down to the row below. I think it should go where the p5 tog is. Suggestions?

Also, I should omit the P5tog, correct?

FYI, I'm doing the shawl in Zephyr, colorway is bottle green. Lovely yarn.

Thanks for the help.

Finally finished my first shawl

Well, I finally finished my first of, no doubt, many Spring Things Shawls. I wasn't going to make the wedding deadline unless I ignored absolutely everything else (including personal hygiene) for a week when I couldn't afford to with too many things going on, so we did a different wedding gift. Then everyone was sick for a while. I finally finished this week. Here's a fairly lame live model shot. Lame because I've never done this before.


It seems a bit small for me (it would have been perfect for the petite young lady it was intended for though, I think) and which I am debating sending to a favorite relative who has been ill. I just can't decide if it looks good enough to send to her. I'm leaning towards it because I do think it is pretty and I also think I managed to avoid any mistakes. Or if I made any I made them consistently. And she's petite too so I think it would be ok size-wise. But she's an awesome knitter so I'm nervous.

Next up I think I'll do one in silk for me. But I've got an awful lot of socks on the needles at the moment and I'm not sure it is wise to start another shawl right away. I doubt that will stop me though. And starting another while the pattern is still in short term memory retrieval might be a good idea. Right?

Beads, Beads Everywhere

Looks like quite a few of us are choosing the beads option. I just completed the first repeat of Chart B and am having to force myself to work today rather than trying to complete just one more row. This is the first "real" lace project that I've been able to stick with and I'm so excited to see this beauty blocked and being worn. I have a wedding to attend on the beach next weekend so hopefully I'll be able to share modeling shots with an ocean background!

More details on my blog.

Spring Things and Cherry Tree Hills

I just finished up my Spring Things Shawl last night. I haven't decided if I want beads on it or not. I love how it turned out without them so I may opt to skip that. I really enjoyed this pattern and the final result.

And I even tried it on for ya.

Want the details?

Started: April 17, 2007
Finished: June 4, 2007
Pattern: Spring Things Shawl
Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill Supersock - The colorway is from one of their potluck batches

Number three

I finally started a third one! I know I'm supposed to be doing one in red but I need a shawl to match this dress I've got. It's black kidsilk haze and I'm hoping to have enough to finish it the right size. I've only got two balls of it, so we'll see! Here it is a few repeats in. Slow going because my needles aren't pointy enough and the fuzz makes it hard to see. Plus I'm taking my time on this one as I've got a few other things to focus on as well. Sorry it's a tad blurry, I had to take it without flash or the pattern wouldn't show at all.

Any suggestions on what color beads I should do? I am thinking I might just do more silver ones since I already have them but am wondering what else might look good...

Finished again!

Finally I finished mine tonight, and it's being blocked! Here are pics.


I also have enough of this color left to do a second one. I did 15 repeats of the first part instead of 13, that's the only change. It's zephyr in teal, (the color is off in the pics) and silver beads.

I'm done!

I finished the blocking yesterday. I love this shawl! It ended up small, but just right for a shoulder shawl and I'm happy with it that way. There are a few more details on my blog, not much but a few. I didn't get a great shot of the beads, but they are really pretty, they are green with a subtle difference in color here and there. I think I will knit another one in green, but I'm going to take a little break first. Thank you Susan for such a great pattern!

My Progress

I started my shawl on 4th May and wasn't too happy with it - I just didn't seem to have the pattern right. I persisted with it but on Thursday 10th decided enough was enough and ripped it back. I started again on Friday and despite dropping a stitch and having to go back a full pattern repeat on Saturday afternoon I have actually managed to make it to 9 pattern repeats of the upper body pattern. The shawl looks quite small although it does stretch out quite a lot. I've decided to knit 17 repeats of the upper body pattern instead of 13 because I am using 3.25mm needles instead of the recommended 3.75mm ones and feel it may turn out very small otherwise.

Angie

More pictures on my blog.

One down, one to go!

Yayyy I finished one of my shawls. The one for my mom, I was further on that so I finished it up first. It's blocking right now and I'm sooo glad it stretched out as much as it did because it seemed tiny when I finally got it off the needles. It probably blocked out to almost twice it's size. Thannnnk God. Ok so here's pictures!

Here is the whole thing blocking, the dark spots are where it's wet on the towel, sorry that it's green lol, the only clean one left in the cabinet (note to self, do laundry!):Closeups of the edges where the carpet makes the pattern easier to see:


I'm sooo thrilled, I'll take an action shot tomorrow if it's dry before sending it off to my mom. Now I'm off to finish mine!

Beads!

I got tired of waiting for my hook. I discovered that some of the beads have larger holes and I managed to get my size 10 crochet hook through them. When I couldn't find any more that it would fit in, I fashioned a sort of lasso out of wire and used that lol. On my teal one I found the silver beads have square openings and if I turn the hook diagonally, it will just fit through! SO I started beading. I am on the second chart B repeat on the green one, and on the teal one, I just finished the first beading row. They look so much prettier in person but it's night so my pictures suck because of lighting. I can't wait to finish! I want to start my red one, and I'm going to do one in black Kidsilk Haze.

Finished!

I finished the shawl today, and it's blocking right now. I'm so happy with the finished product, but it is smaller than I expected. I guess I didn't visualize what the size would be. I want to knit another and will use several more repeats of the charts to make it larger. Here's a couple of pics of it while it is blocking.


PS - if anyone sees an error in it - please don't tell me!!! LOL

I'm looking for some other beaded shawl patterns if y'all know of any nice ones.

We have beads!

I have finished Chart B and I'm moving on to Chart C! I was so happy to put the beads on and I'm kind of sad now that I'm done. I guess I could do another repeat, but I'd rather just finish the shawl. I'm already plotting another one in Knitpicks Alpaca Cloud. I should be able to finish this over the weekend and then I'll just have to find time to block it.

I'm getting there

I finally made it through Chart A! I've done 2 rows of Chart B, and while I did enjoy A because the continuous lace kept it interesting, I am glad to have a change of pattern. Even better it will soon enough and I will be adding beads - yes!! Here's my little girl helping me take a picture of the shawl :)

Started another one!

I love this shawl so much I already started a second one. I am almost to the next chart on the teal one, but I want my crochet hook before I start, so I started another. I am doing it on size fives since I don't have another size 4 and it's in the zephyr, color Emerald. I traded for a big ball of it and it's such a pretty color! This one will be for my mom since she loves green. By the time I get to the next chart on this one, my hook should hopefully be here and I can knit these together. I also much prefer knitting with my bamboo needle too, but I don't have one in a size four unfortunately.
Oh yeah, and just in case anyone else wanted to know. In the pattern it says that your shawl might turn out smaller (obviously) by switching to the size four needles with the zephyr. I didn't want it smaller so I emailed our lovely designer to see if one 60 gram ball would be enough to do extra repeats. She said there was almost 200 yards leftover, so there is more than enough to do extra body repeats before moving on to the next chart. So I'm going to do one or two more on my teal one to make up in size. Just thought I'd share in case anyone else was wondering also.

Started!

I finally started yesterday. I first tried it on the size 3 but it wasn't coming out with a fabric I liked. So I switched to the four and it's much better. I am doing my first one in the teal color and looove how it's going. This first stitch pattern is so easy and I memorized it very quickly, which makes this go a lot faster. I am probably five repeats in, I can never keep track of that, I'll just count my stitches later on when I'm closer. The bigger this gets the more I love it.

Here is my progress from last night: And my progress as of right now:I also found a tiny crochet hook on ebay pretty cheap so it should be here in a few days and I'll be able to do my beads!

Yarn!

I got my yarn yesterday! Very exciting. I wanted to run home and cast on right away. Unfortunately I had errands to do. I did get my beads as well but I need to find a way to put them on. I don't have a crochet hook small enough for the beads. I will probably just bend some wire to do it or something. I plan on making two of these shawls. One in the teal because that's the color I originally wanted, and one in the garnet, because the more I looked at the shawl, the more I saw flames in the border. They just scream to be made in red. Oh and I couldn't find teal beads in the right color for the yarn so I got silvery ones. I don't mind them standing out so it's ok. I can't wait to start this today! I will probably also use a size 3 needle because I almost always knit a little bigger than gauge.

Finished Before I Started

I didn't get much of a chance to participate in this KAL since I finished the shawl so quickly. I started the shawl on April 12th and finished it on April 25th. Like many others, I had a few false starts, but that was more due to needle size and yarn choice. Once that was settled, I was able to really get into the rhythm of the pattern and zip away!

I used Jaggerspun Zephyr in Sage and size 3US Addi Lace needles. These needles made the nupps really easy to manipulate and were worth every penny. Here's a gratuitous close up shot of the lower body pattern.


The finished dimensions came out to approximately 61" wide and 21" long from the longest point of the shawl. I plan on giving this shawl to a friend and even though I had some qualms as to how tiny the shawl is, she's reassured me that it's the perfect size for her.

Opal
the Akamai Knitter

I finally started again

I decided to rip out my small start on size 5 needles and go for it on size 4s. It really wasn't that much to rip having only 99 or so stitches, but it was still a bit painful - lol. I now have about 83 stitches and I'm liking it a lot more on the smaller needles. I'm hoping to give it a lot more attention than I have been so I can make some good progress - I want to put beads on, badly!!