Mods: cast-on, increases, skipped yo’s for stars, and designed a knitted-on border: Stellar Wave Edging.

I loved this yarn for this project. The drape is beautiful and the shawl floats around me.

The cast-on and first few rows were tricky to handle. I used this video to help with the cast-on. I modified the increase for the first two increase rounds, using a knit into front and back of stitch. It enabled me to keep track of what I was doing much better.

From this point, I increased by picking up the yarn between the stitches from back to front and knitting into the back. This happy accident makes a small yarn-over eyelet, which I decided to maintain throughout the piece.

Beads from EarthFaire: silver-lined dark gold 6/0 beads.

7/6/14
I had hoped to work on this project on a long road trip, but the lace weight yarn and size 4 needles were difficult to manage on the less than smooth roads. Also while beading can be done in the car, I found I was clumsier handling the beads in the car than on the sofa.

7/12/14
Completed Chart E.

7/26/14
More progress every day! I really need to decide on a border. I love the rich color and luxurious feel of this yarn. And I couldn’t be happier with the way the gold (amber) beads pop against the background color.

8/12/14
I think I’ve chosen the border.

8/14/14
All charts have been completed! I am considering adding more knit rounds in order to enlarge the shawl before knitting the border I have chosen from a stitch dictionary.

8/18/14
The edging I chose from Barbara Walker’s A Second Treasury of Knitting is a 14-row repeat. I charted the pattern and modified the repeat to a 16-row repeat so it can be worked evenly around the shawl’s 576 stitches. It looks a lot like the edging on the Lunar Tide shawl; I suspect it is the same, or perhaps only slightly modified. I also modified the decreases for aesthetic reasons. I am knitting the border on with a k2tog tbl at the end of every ws row.

8/24/14
I charted and swatched so many variations of my proposed edging. The final result is a 16-row repeat which fits neatly on this shawl. You may find it on my blog post or at the link at the top of my project page. It’s called Stellar Wave Edging. I found Miriam Felton’s Tutorial for Knitted-on Border helpful.

9/8/14
All knitting completed. I cannot wait to see it after blocking. I estimate about 300 hours of work has gone into this project. I’m very happy with it.

9/11/14
Completed end weaving. I’m going to give it a really good blocking, and that’s it! I’m so excited!

9/16/14
It blocked beautifully.

Pattern for edging is Stellar Wave Edging.