April 3, 2016

Worked a swatch with 4mm needles and got 21 stitches to 4” so tried again with 3.75 needles and got 26 stitches to 4”, which is close enough.

I’ve also ordered pink some beads for the border. the place I order from requires a £5 minimum order so I got 15g each of Miyuki Seed Beads 8/0 Clear/Dusty Rose MI-8-2601-ICL and Miyuki Seed Beads 8/0 - Dark Coral Duracoat Galvanised MI-8-4209-DG. I’ll decide which I like the best when I get to the border. Or maybe I’ll use a mix of both :)

Starting yarn: 96g

April 8, 2016

I’ve completed the first section, which is about 60% of the shawl and have used 48g of yarn (50%). I don’t think I’d have enough to do 6 repeats in the first section, to make the larger shawl, but I’ll see how my yarn usage goes in the border and might extend the border.

April 11, 2016

It’s growing! I’m at row 17 of the border and still have 1/3 of my yarn left so I’ll do the extended border. I ended up using both types of the beads I’d bought. For some reason, I’d got it into my head that I only needed 150 beads, but It’s actually a lot more. Probably around 400, in total. As I’d only ordered 300 of each, I decided to use both. I’m alternating them and they look pretty good together, and they both look nice against the darker colour on the border.

April 14, 2016

I’ve just started the extended border, so it feels like I’m on the home straight now. At the end of row 29 I have 21g of my yarn left so I think I’m going to be fine and not playing yarn chicken at the end.

It’s at the stage now where it’s all scrunched up on the cable; I can’t wait to cast off and lay it out just to get a good look at it.

I’ve ended up doing 35 rows of border. I would have had enough yarn for the last 2 patterned rows, but the RS rows are really making my arm ache!

Yarn usage: 87g in total.
Main Body: 47g (54%)
Transition rows: 1g (55%)
Border: 39g (45%)

Unblocked measurements, 60” x 24”

I used SMotoExpress’s notes regarding bead placement and I also used her cast off. In hindsight, I wish I had beaded the new section in the centre of the shawl slightly differently. A half-repeat is started on row 15 and it becomes a full repeat on row 29. I think it would have looked better if I’d started adding beads at the start of the half-repeat instead of adding them only once it became a full repeat.

April 15, 2016

It’s all pinned out. Hopefully, both sides are the same and it’s symmetrical. If it’s not, it’s nothing a man on a galloping horse would notice, as my mum says :)

Final measurement is 74” x 26”

My additional border rows didn’t add an awful lot to the overall size - about 1.5”

I’m really pleased with my shawl. The yarn is gorgeous; not only the colours, which are fabulous, but it was a really nice yarn to work with. While it’s fine and light, it does have a very woolly feel to it and this feels like a shawl that would keep you warm.

Flight of the Owl was a great pattern to work. I’ve marked it as ‘easy’ because there’s nothing in there that’s particularly difficult. The CD1 stitch might be new to some knitters, but the video explains it well and it’s simple enough to do.

For me, this was the ideal pattern. Not so complicated that it demanded 100% of my attention, to the exclusion of all else, but there’s enough interest to stop it being boring to work, plus it’s very easy to pick up any errors before they become major problems.