07/22/24

This is one of the most beautiful designs I have ever seen. It is stunning and nowhere near as complicated as it looks. The construction is simply brilliant! I know, because I have already made one - https://www.ravelry.com/projects/mariolac/amille.

This project will be my second - and probably not the last - Amille.

I have to temporarily suspend all of my other projects for awhile. My baby boy jus got engaged!!! Well… he really isn’t a baby at all! He is 36 and it is about time!
I am not sure yet about when the wedding will take place and not at all about my future daughter-in-law’s dress. Still, I want to make at least couple of beautiful lace shawls in hope that she will like one of them.
I truly love this young lady and she deserves the best! Even is she wouldn’t want to wear a hand knitted shawl to her wedding, I am sure they will no go to waste.
I have ordered a vey fine silk blend from Colourmart in cobweb weight, but in the meantime I have started this gorgeous thing using my stash yarn. I have 5 skeins of this incredibly fine and soft cobweb yarn, but I know this shawl will not take as much.

I have already made this shawl before using 28/2 cashmere. It came out spectacular. I think it was by far the most beautiful thin I have ever made. I gifted it to a very special young lady.

I used size 1 needles to cast on and to knit the entire chart 1. I switched to size 1.5 for chart B and beyond.

At first I had some reservations about this yarn. It is very, very fine and I thought that my shawl will come out too small. At this point I am almost done with the center panel (have 6 leaves to go) and I can definitely say hat the shawl will not be too small at all. In fact, it may even be too big. The yarn being 100% suri alpaca is not very strong and I will have to be gentle blocking the shawl.

I am using size 8/0 #421B Creamy Alabaster beads purchased at Bead in Hand store in Chicago. I bought 3 tubes, $4/each and each holding 800 beads. I will only need roughly half of that, but that’s ok. These are beautiful pearly beads and I am sure I will be able to use the left overs for something else. Using size 1.1 mm crochet hook for the beading.

07/23/24

Just finished the central panel, that is charts A, B, C, and D.
12.5 g left of the 1st skein, which means 16 g used. - about 245 yards.
Upstretched it roughly measures 50” x 4.5”.

Note on the needles. I am using CiaGoo, which are by far my favorite, especially for lace. Once i was done with the center panel and had pick up stiches all around I used a 60” circular needle (size 1.5) for several rows. however, it soon became apparent that the cord was too long. I had to constantly slide stitches around toward the left needle tip, which mean a lot of handling and possibly yarn damage. I usually like my stiches rather spread out, but not this time. I thus switched to a 40” circular, which was still a bit too long. I finally settled for a 32” circular, which so far is working out just fine. As of now I am in the middle of charts E and have hundreds of stitches on the needles, which means hey are all bunched close together. this is ok, since at least I don’t have to constantly be sliding them around the cord. I may have to switch again to longer needles later on. we will see.

07/25/24
Starting charts F. Its going relatively fast now. Despite the complicated appearance of this gorgeous piece, it is rather simple lace knitting. The only tricky part was starting it. Laying the work down on a able and turning it like that helped a lot.
I am determined to finish this before starting another lace shawl. I have o admit I have been tempted, but I resist!!! LOL!

Tiny modification - I am knitting the corner stitches through their back loops,

07/28/24
Starting chart G! Still about 12,000 stitches BEFORE the border! As much as I love this pattern it does test my patience.

07/29/24
I am on row 8 Chart G. Switching to 40” size 1.5 circulars. 960 stitches on the needles all around.

07/31/24
Finally working on the border chart - Chart I!

This chart has 27 rows and beads, so it will be a long process. The first row starts with 1,312 stitches to increase to 1,648 stitches on row 11, and then gradually decrease to 1,072 on the final row- row 27. A whooping 37,424 stitches just in this final chart!
Since I am just starting row 2, I have 36,112 stitches to go!
However, considering that the whole shawl consumes over 108,000 stitches I can say that I am 67% done! Now I can rest assured… LOL! I can see the light!!!

08/03/24
Starting row 9 Chart I, which has 1,568 stitches around. Row 11 has the most number of stiches - a whooping 1,648! After that the stitch count decreases to 1,072 on row 27.
Attaching 3rd ball of yarn, which weights 28.6 g without the label.

I am stating to see a very dim light at the end of the tunnel!!!!

08/05/24
I am on row 21 of the final chart. It is going a little fast now. The beds are all finished and the stitch count decreases by 6 stitches on every patterned row.

Row 22 - plain knit row - takes 34 min all around.

I estimate about 5 more hours of knitting + bind off + weaving and blocking. I hope to finish this by the end of this week.

08/06/24

Just bound off the last stitch!!!!! Over 108,000 stitches!
i have 9.9 g of the 3rd ball of yarn left, which means about 154 yards left of that ball. This calculates to 282 yards used from the last ball for the total of 1,154 yards.

I used crochet hook size 5 for the bind off and a single strand of yarn, not 2 as recommended by the designer. I just did no like the heavy chair resulting from 2 strands. i also chained 4, where the pattern calls for chaining 3 between the petals.
I am weaving in the ends now. I will block it tomorrow on my outdoor picnic table. Once blocked and dried I will mark it as finished here and post photos! Yeay!

Unblocked it roughly measures 66” long and about 18” wide.

After blocking it measures 75” long and 23” wide.

About my photos - the models are my wonderful knitting friends Janell and Karen. The rest of my photos were shot in my garden.