Since I got gauge for the lace project on size 3 needles and since I was unhappy with a swatch on larger needles I’m sort of combining the instructions for the fingering and lace versions of the pattern.

I’m not much of a garter stitch fan but the narrow stripes pattern really lends itself to garter stitch.

3/3/12 Augghhh! Started to bind off and realized that, despite slipping the first stitch and adding a YO afterward, the short row section puckered so now I have to rip it back and try to make sure that I leave even more slack so the edges stretch without puckering. So frustrated.

5/28/12 Well, I ended up having to frog the whole thing and start over. I am trying to make sure the first stitch in each row has plenty of slack to avoid the puckering disaster again. Also using a lifeline on the three-color section. I’m doing the beginning of each row as follows:

With non-working yarn in back and the working yarn in front, slip the first stitch purlwise (stretching that stitch out so it’s about twice as long as normal, YO, knit, then proceed with the rest of the row as written and dropping the YO from the previous row at the end. So far, so good…I think.

I am also only doing single increases on the short row section.

6/5/12 Finally bound off tonight. I am happy with the size but still see some puckering despite the care I took to make the edges loose. Hopefully blocking will smooth it out.

I ended up with about 20 grams of the Bee Mice Elf left, 44 grams of the Sock-aholic Jungle Juice and 30 grams of the Grasshopper.

Thanks to my lovely mom for modeling the shawl!