8/5/10: My first experience with this project has been less than stellar so far. I cast on all 311 stitches and knit the first row only to discover at the very end that I had too many stitches left after the last repeat. So I went back and started checking my stitches starting at the beginning… and of course the problem happened in the first repeat all the way back at the other end of the needle! So I ripped everything out and cast on again only to learn after about 200 stitches that my tail wasn’t long enough. So I ripped everything out again and cast on all 311 stitches one last time. I then put markers between each repeat that would be coming up on the next row (which I should have done at the beginning - I’ve knit enough shawls to know that stitch markers are my friends. Duh) and put the knitting down for the night. I hope things go better tomorrow. Oh, and I cast on with 9 and will be knitting the shawl with 7 needles.

8/6/10: Finished rows 1, 2 and 3 tonight.

8/7/10: Finished rows 4-10 today and learned that using removable stitch markers was a good idea because you will have to move your stitch markers after rows 5 and 10 (and maybe more - I’m not sure yet since I’m only on row 11 right now). This is due to the make-five-stitches-out-of-one that happens just before the markers on row 5 and the centered double decreases that occur just before the markers on row 11. The markers need to be moved 2 or 3 stitches over (I can’t remember how many) before row 6 and one stitch over before row 11.

8/8/10: Finished rows 11-14 tonight.

8/9/10: Finished rows 15-19 tonight. It seems to be going slightly faster. Very very slightly faster.

8/10/10: Finished rows 20-26 tonight. The stitch markers have to be moved over by one stitch after row 20 and after 24 as well - all of them except the last one - due to the k2tog on row 21 and the ssk on row 25 before the first marker and the centered double decrease right before each additional marker (not including the last one.)

Actually, looking ahead, it looks like this happens on all the rest of the right side rows including rows 27, 29, 31, and 33.

8/11/10: Finished the lace tonight! Woo hoo!

8/12/10: Took the night off. No knitting.

8/13/10: Started the garter stitch tonight and I love how it’s turning out. Very squooshy.

8/14/10: Almost done!

8/15/10: Done and blocking! I finished with Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off because I love how it looks in garter stitch (I did this bind off for the first time on my daybreak shawl a few months ago and I love it). Also, during the garter stitch section, in order to easily know where I had to k2tog before the short row turn I used stitch markers, moving them each time like this starting with

Row 3: k14, k2tog, k4, slip one stitch as if to purl, place marker, slip that same stitch back to left hand needle, turn.
Row 4: k18, k2tog, k4, k4, slip one stitch as if to purl, place marker, slip that same stitch back to left hand needle, turn.
Row 5: k22, k2tog, remove marker, k4, slip one stitch as if to purl, place marker, slip that same stitch back to left hand needle, turn.

etc…

That way the marker was set up on each row just before the k2tog which I found easier than either counting or continuing to watch where I was to make sure I was doing the k2tog in the right place.