I named this shawl “New Year’s Wishes” as I’ve been through some difficult life events during the past years, with the need and urge to change something now.
So I started this shawl on New Year’s Day and poured all my hopes and wishes for this year into this silvery shimmering shawl while knitting. Starting on a New Year’s Day and ending it on Easter Sunday is a nice touch as well for me. Hopefully it will accompany me for a long time and hopefully these notes might be a help for you. :)

Modifications:

• I cast on 82 sts instead of 58 sts because of the much thinner yarn I’m using.
• Pattern Repeat per row/width: 6x the pattern repeat of 12 sts instead of 4x
• Pattern Repeat/length: 2.5 x Chart A, 5x Chart B, 2.5 x Chart C
• Measurements:
  • Unblocked: 132cm (L) x 33cm (W); 52’’ x 13’’
  • Blocked: 166cm x 40cm; 66’’ x 16’’ (so a little smaller than the pattern shawl, which has 74’’ x 17’’)
• Material: 5 full skeins and a little bit of the 6th skein.
• Weight: 225g

The yarn is gorgeous, like a silky cloud, incredibly soft and has a wonderful shimmer. Knitting back is not recommended though because of the slightly fuzzy yarn structure, so paying close attention to the pattern and avoiding mistakes is crucial.

The stitch definition of the yarn is good, but complicated patterns might tend to look a bit blurred, but that’s to decide for everyone on their own.

I wouldn’t use it again though for the Guernsey Wrap pattern as the yarn is just too thin for it (mea culpa), and you need too work on it for a looong time. But on the other hand, so it’s perfect for training endurance. ;)

It took me almost exactly four months (started Jan 1st - ended April 5), but I also didn’t work only on this project. I knit it in parallel with my sweater from the Sous Sous KAL and while working on my first weaving, a shawl in Casbah yarn on my Rigid Heddle Loom (which I needed to assemble first ;)).

The pattern is very easy though, only knit and purl in different combinations. I knit most of it while commuting on train to and back from work.
You just have to keep proper track of the rows you are in. I thought about using an app for tracking the rows, but too much effort, so I did it the old fashioned way: Printing out the chart and hiding the rows I already worked with a post-it (sticky-note). Cheap and easy solution.

And don’t forget that stitches on the WS rows are shown the same way as in the RS rows in the chart (knit stitch symbol=knit stitch, purl symbol=purl), but are KNIT the other way round (knit stitch = knit as purl, purl stitch = knit as knit). A little brain exercise. ;)