I am participating in Knitting in the Loft’s “a catnach KAL” which begins Feb 15 and ends Mar 31, 2019.

I have chosen to use the Wild Strawberries pattern, which will result in a long and relatively shallow crescent shawl, worked top-down from a small cast-on. The three lace charts may be repeated as the knitter chooses, making the shawl fully adjustable in size.

The main instructions are for a shawl with all-over lace. Suitable for any yarn with good stitch-definition, and any yardage from about 300m/330yds upward. I have chosen to use a stashed silk gradient, that I purchased at Stitches South 2015.

February 15.
Started once. Nearly made it through a second repeat, when something go terribly tangled, and didn’t un-knit as it should. So, I ripped it all out.
Started twice. This time I started on straight needles instead of circulars (I will not embarrass myself by telling you how many times the stitches at the end, or the beginning, of a row slipped off the circ on the first try.) This time I put my stitch markers in on the first pattern row, as I should have on the first start. This time I counted the side edge stitches, and noted the numbers on the chart. It came forcibly to my attention, this time, that the markers need to move, to right or left, on some rows. With 20/20 hindsight, I realize that this is part of the reason that the first start failed.

February 18.
Tonight I finished a second repeat of Chart 2, using 10g, or 43.4 yards, of yarn so far.
Tomorrow I will knit the project onto a circular needle and (that is, probably get Teowyn to) insert the first lifeline. I will also take another picture then, since it looks excessively blob-ish right now, on the straight needle.

Chart 2
Shift stitch markers as follows:
Row 5: move the markers one stitch to the left, so there will be 3 stitches available to s2kp before (to the right of) the marker
Row 7 and Row 9: move the markers to the right, after the yo of the kyok. That is, the final k of the kyok moves to the left of the marker.

Side stitches, before and after the markers as they appear on the chart (not necessarily as you come to them in the knitting):
4 stitches, (Row 1’s full repeats of 18 stitches each), 5 stitches
6 stitches, (Row 2’s full repeats of 18 stitches each), 7 stitches
7 stitches, (Row 3’s full repeats of 18 stitches each), 8 stitches
9 stitches, (Row 4’s full repeats of 18 stitches each), 10 stitches
10 stitches, (Row 5’s full repeats of 18 stitches each), 11 stitches
12 stitches, (Row 6’s full repeats of 18 stitches each), 13 stitches
13 stitches, (Row 7’s full repeats of 18 stitches each), 14 stitches
15 stitches, (Row 8’s full repeats of 18 stitches each), 16 stitches
16 stitches, (Row 9’s full repeats of 18 stitches each), 17 stitches
18 stitches, (Row 10’s full repeats of 18 stitches each), 19 stitches
19 stitches, (Row 11’s full repeats of 18 stitches each), 20 stitches
21 stitches, (Row 12’s full repeats of 18 stitches each), 22 stitches

February 19
Jennifer (catnach) says: No particular requirements to reserving yarn, as you can finish the last chart pretty much anywhere. Do you know about how much depth of the edging you want, and I could work the percentage out for you? (Eg to have 1/3 of depth of shawl as last chart would require about 55% of your yarn.)
Yes, (k p) the double yarnovers on WS

February 20
I got carried away with the picture-taking tonight.

February 21
The first repeat of Chart 3 is complete. I have used 35g of yarn, 25g for this repeat. 65% of my skein remains. When I finish the first half of a second repeat, I will weigh my yarn again and decide if it is time to move on to Chart 4.

I bought a magnetic line-minder at Hobby Lobby today, and I’m moving faster because my eyes immediately focus on the correct line of the chart, instead of having to search for the correct spot every time. Down with astigmatism!

February 22
Today the gradient yarn turned from celestial Irish blue to a lovely aqua. I have now completed 1 1/2 repeats of Chart 3, and I ain’t-a-gonna do no more! 46% of my skein remains, and that will have to be enough for as much of Chart 4 as I will do. It won’t be a full 1/3 of the total length, but it will be enough.

February 23
The lifeline between Charts 3 & 4 has been added, but I haven’t gotten any knitting done yet today. It’s time to change to a larger needle. If I knit 10-20g a day, I can be finished in 4 or 5 days.
Why have I neglected my knitting? Well… I had a meeting at church this morning, and went grocery shopping in the early afternoon, amidst severe thunderstorm warnings and tornado watches. When I got home, I finalized my notes for a talk I’m giving at church tomorrow (topic = the Covenant Path). Now it’s time for dinner. And then I will see if I have size 5 circs. I know I have size 6’s.

March 30.
Wild Irish Strawberries bound off, bathed and blocked tonight.

All the color bleeding appears to be on the wrong side of the shawl. I may keep this for myself after all.

June 1.
I wore my shawl at Stitches United.