A couple rows in, it just looked kind-of weird and rumpled, but by row 10, I started to understand the effect of the back post dc: it will give the fabric depth as well as lightness.

The yarn I’m using is not the one recommended for the project, but I didn’t have $200 laying around to drop on yarn for one shrug. :-P BUT, I think this will end up working nicely. It looks very gray in this first picture, but it’s more of an icy blue with silver. I think it will be great for evenings and holidays.

My only complaint with the yarn is that it’s really two separate strands wrapped together into a ball (one mohair, the other mohair with silver eyelash). It seems like there’s a lot more of the “just plain” mohair, so those threads don’t always match up and I’m having to double up that strand in places. I think it will still work out, though.

Update 8/12: I think I can safely say that I’m 15% in at this point. The fabric is working up beautifully -- I can absolutely understand the trellis design with the bpdc; it gives it a lot of lift and lightness, but stretch, too. The yarn is still a pain, but it looks beautiful.

Update 10/3: I’ve finished the first panel, and am about halfway through the second. I’ve been working on a couple other projects, too, so it seems to be taking forever to finish this….

Update at completion: it’s finished! The hardest part of this was figuring out the actual construction, but the notes in the Vogue Rav forum really helped. And I ran out of yarn before the flower was properly finished, but I was able to fudge it so most people won’t notice. Unfortunately, even though the panels measured the proper length, this is really, REALLY big on me. Were I to do it again, I’d prefer a little more width to the panels (I’m tall, so I could have used it) and a little less length. I tried a little “reverse blocking” to get it to shrink a bit -- dampening, then crunching it up together and letting it air dry. It helped some. It’s still very pretty, in any event!