Started with 104.4 grams of laceweight yarn.

Modifications, thanks to other people’s project notes (see my “related projects” section on the right):

• Worked a double YO instead of single for the rows in the main body, and dropped the additional loop on the next row
• Since I was using thinner yarn, worked the body to 64 YOs on each side
• Used a larger needle for picking up the YOs and working the setup rows for the Roman Stripes
• Knit the picked up YOs through the back loop to twist them (like CrochetAmy).
• Slipped the first stitch of every row in the Roman Stripe section purlwise with yarn in front
• Slipped the first stitch of every odd-numbered row in the edging section purlwise with yarn in front

Although I think it was a good idea to do the double YOs, I don’t think the larger needle modification really makes much difference.

The real problem appears to be the limitation in how much the edge of the garter stitch section will stretch - the lace wants to fan out a lot more. But it’s not the first rows of the lace section causing the problem, it’s the stretch between one row of garter stitch and the next.

I think it would be more useful to knit the garter stitch section in a larger needle size than the lace (use a large needle for the body, or a smaller needle for the lace). As it is, especially with having used a larger needle for the first few rows, the lace section wants to sort of pouf out from the body, since it has so much more stretch.

Since I was using lace weight yarn, I knew I’d need to make the shawl bigger to compensate for a smaller gauge.

I checked yarn usage comments on various projects, and it looked like the border took more than half of the yarn - anywhere from 52 to 60%. I was going to work the garter stitch body until I’d used up about 40 grams, but stopped at 64 loops, which was only 37 grams. I figured I’d be conservative in my estimate, since I had a lot more yardage than called for. Considering how much yarn I had left over, I wish I’d made the body a lot bigger.

After finishing, I was surprised to find out that I used far less yarn for the border than most people - only about 54%, and that included working 5 Roman Stripe repeats instead of only 4. If I’d only done 4 sections, the border would have taken closer to 50%.

After working a couple of Roman Stripe sections and weighing the yarn, I could see that I was going to have a ton of yarn left, so I did one additional stripe section (5 total). I considered making 6 stripes, but I really didn’t want the border to be that big. So the choice was to either rip all of the border out and make the body larger, or just forge ahead, which I did. Actually, I think I would have preferred it with the original 4, but I’m not going to rip it out.

Blocking: I didn’t hard-block the shawl, just patted the damp piece into shape. In order to do a good hard block on it, I’d want to use blocking wires, but I didn’t see a good way to thread one through the top edge without distorting the stitches. Besides, the yarn is silk and linen, so I’m not sure it would make much difference anyway. Just patting it out worked OK.

Detailed yarn usage:

• 67.4 g after 64 loops on each side (main body - used 37 grams)

• 63.6 after Roman Stripe setup

• 43.55 after 4 Roman Stripe sections

• 37.05 after 5 Roman Stripe sections

• 34.6 g after final 4 garter rows (used 32.8 grams for section 2)

• 24 grams left after finishing (Used 10.6g for edging)

Total used: 80.4 grams

That works out to 37 grams for the garter stitch body (46%), and 43.4 (54%) for Roman Stripes and edging. If I hadn’t done the extra Roman Stripe section, it would have been about 50 percent for each.