The yarn was a gift and came with a sock pattern. I thought it was too pretty to knit socks with so I looked for a pattern for a lacy shawl and found this one.
When casting on I put a maker after the first 7 stitches and then every 12 stitches to focus on one section of lace 12 stitch repeat at a time. I did this only on my second start. At first I had cast on and was half way through the first row when I had no idea where I was in the pattern. So these markers really help. What didn’t help was that I started the project during a road trip my husband and I were taking from cold cold NY to DC, New Orleans and then Pensacola Fl. The first 8 rows were OK (or so I thought), but I found it very difficult to purl together 7 stitches while riding in a car, so now this is my “only knit in the hotel room” project at least until I get to easier rows. I noticed also that there is one spot where I had twisted my row completely in the second row, but there is no way that I drop the stitches to redo (pull through) that section. It will just have to stay like this and forever remind me of this road-trip. Now I am knitting a simple blanket while in the car :) Another thing about purling 7 stitches together: Since I am a fairly tight knitter I transfer the 7 stitches to a thinner needle (size 4) and purl them together with a thinner size 4 needle keeping needle stoppers on my working needles. Once I didn’t put the stoppers on and dropped 3 stitches which reinforced my determination not to drop stitches in this intricate lace pattern to fix the twist.
When starting on the short rows I freaked out a bit, because I didn’t realize that they gradually get longer. I had envisioned them to start off long and then get shorter so I thought I was doing something wrong and I had only knitted two short rows. I asked for help and got excellent help almost immediately from JaquelineH from the UK and (in German) from edith58. Isn’t ravelry great; you can connect to other knitters from all around the world who have finished the same pattern!
Other than those challenges I love the pattern and am happy to see that it is turning out quite nice. March 12: Just need to block it now. I knitted the last three rows plus two in seed stitch to prevent the curling.
I like it a lot; think it’s quite stunning. Thank you for your help on this, fellow ravelry members!