08-11-2020

Impulse bought the yarn for this MKAL, so I guess I’m doing it!
Using the Rose Bower set from Miss Babs.

09-19-2020

Running about a 1.5 weeks behind due to life craziness, but working on catching up. Not stressing though— I enjoy getting a bit of a preview of what’s to come.

Clue 1 is done, and I’m getting going on clue 2. Two-thirds through the dahlia section on side 1 now, and I really like the look of it. At the start, I was really struggling with the dahlia stitch: the first loop was easy to bring up, but the second and third kept falling off the needle and dropping stitches. Instead, I tried bringing up these loops with my left-hand needle (knitting continental), and it made everything a hundred times easier, faster, and a more enjoyable.

I’m getting anxious though, as I approach the trellis. I’ve seen it on my friends’ projects, and really hate the chain-like look to it. It doesn’t fit with a garden theme to me at all, and is just a design that I don’t enjoy. So I am deliberating over what to do instead. Hopefully I can decide soon, and it doesn’t stall out my progress!

09-21-2020

Custom “Trellis” section complete! After browsing around for a while, I decided to pull a design from this Mosaic Blanket by Purl Soho. My favorite things about this as a replacement are that it still uses mosaic knitting, and I honestly would argue that it’s even more representative of a trellis than the original. I am incredibly happy with how it turned out, and am so glad I didn’t settle for a design I didn’t like.

09-27-2020

Clue 2 is done! Not sure what I think of the last bit of it yet; something about the stripes are not doing it for me, but I’m not sure if it’s the pattern, the colors, or how it raises up in a point. The shape feels like an issue with the pattern; this seems to appear in nearly all the community pictures I’ve seen people post. I also noticed some stitch count oddities in the pattern, though I don’t think that’s related. I may go back and mess with this part again at the end, but for now I’m going to just wait to weave in the ends. Onward to clue 3!

11-03-2020

I had to change another section out! I wasn’t expecting to, but the “Garden Beds” were too similar to what I did instead of the Trellis, and it just… was going to make the shawl not have enough variation. Sooooo I dug around for an alternate mosaic design, and found this beautiful thing: the Dewberry Hassock. I used this as inspiration for my replacement, and think it’s perfectly “planty” to go along with a garden themed shawl.

12-15-2020

Finally blocked! I backdated the completion date to when I finished weaving in the ends. Wow. It took me a month to get around to this.

I’m amazed how square I was able to get either end! The annoying little center points got flattened out really nicely.

Loved this project! It was loads of fun.

Total time: 142 hrs, 36 min