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26June2013: NOTE: All crystals are not made alike. If your crochet hook does not fit through, whereas it does for most of the others, STOP. Do not force it! A good result is having the glass shatter in your hands and make a dangerous mess. A bad, very very bad result, is that your yarn gets sliced by the irregular glass inside of the bead. Yes, this happened. Several times. My only hope was the Russian join, and a lot of spit splicing. Nightmare! So: buy more crystals than you need and don’t even touch a bead that seems irregular.

The yarn was initially disappointing. The silk is more raw than ‘silky’, and I felt like it had a bit of a hippie look. That was NOT what I wanted for a wedding shawl. But blocking evened it out, and it beautifully benefitted from the drape of the silk with the fuzzy warmth of the wool.

The best news: She LOVES it! <3

14Feb2013: This is my best friend’s gift for her wedding. She picked out the yarn while I was visiting her in St.Louis, MO… I am so glad that she was there because I did not know she liked rosy pink at all. Phew! It’s knitting a bit hippie-organic for my taste, it must be raw silk in there, but there is no going back now.

Xina loves Bling (with a capital B), as any wonderfully shiny person should. I am adding beading ALL OVER this shawl. I want it to weigh ONE KILO worth of Swarovski crystals, rhinestones and pearls!

I’m adding little pearls to the edges of every motif above the actual beading in the pattern. Swarovski pink crystals will go into the pattern bottom and trim. The motif points get large outrageous purple/gold disco crystals and rhinestones. (Thank goodness my local bead store had a 50% sale, lol.)

I’m going to have trouble giving this away. But she’s worth it.