Trying my skills at cobweb shetland lace as a large wrap for son’s October wedding. First garter stitch gauge swatch with size 2.25 mm needles did not come out square (wide but short). Tried again with 2.5 mm needles and achieved a square with very heavy blocking. Colourmart yarn never disappoints after a few sudsy rinses in dishsoap and hot water to cut the spinning oils. This extra fine merino cobweb/light lace is no exception. Very light blue-grey when washed. Lovely stuff.

Working Shetland garter stitch lace has surprised me. I struggle with knitting every row and not reversing the decreases in the charts on the WS row. There really is no “wrong side” in this lace, yet, my brain still wants to “read” the chart incorrectly.

After finishing the center portion, I have found that it is very easy to split the two plys when working the SSK and K2tog decreases. I seem to be okay with the CDD I also want to make note that the portion of the fabric that has been sitting in my lap is amazingly soft, even without a bath, and the yarn now has a fuzzy halo - I am not disappointed with either outcome, thus far.

When picking up and knitting from the slipped stitch edge, only knit thru the outside (farthest away) single loop.

01Sep24 - began the final edging. Stitch count in pattern is incorrect (stated 287 sts per side but actually have 296). Outside edging still divisible by 8 - 37 points each side - 148 points total. A single size 8 seed bead with an aurora borealis finish placed on each outside edging “point”.

18Sep24 - knitting done - love that there are just 2 ends to weave in
148 beads on the final edging tips for a total of 3 grams

Entire shawl weighs 151 grams (less the 3 grams of beads) = 148 grams of yarn used.

21Sep24 - soaked twice in dishsoap and hot water, rinsed once with hot water and a dash of white vingear. Spun in the front loader (should have skipped this step). Blocked nearly square but because it dried too quickly (no spin next time) so I resorted to steaming and continued to add pins to each point all the way around. Blocked to 60” x 57” because the center is not square. I expect due to the quickly drying fabric. It is not worth resteaming and repinning all 148 outside pins.

Love the magic that happens when blocking lace.