Notes from the other side:

• 7 repeats, 7 foot wingspan. Repeats counted seems to vary person to person, depending on if you believe the first time you ever knit a particular thing to be Repeat ZERO or Repeat ONE. I’m going to go ahead and say that the second knitting of Chart A is the first repeat, so there are 7 repeats in this shawl, for a total of 8 chevrons.

• I used index cards for this pattern, and it worked really well for me. I wrote one row of pattern per card, with one wrong side card that gets shuffled back every other card. If you aren’t a chart-reader but you get ‘lost’ finding your place in complicated written patterns, give this method a try. It works really well for me.

• I knit everything on circular needles. Even this. Especially this. I used Knit Picks Options Interchangeable cables in 32” and 60”. I experience so much less heartbreaking stitch flyoff when using circs for flat knitting.

• I went up a needle size, from 6 to 7. I wanted a drapier drape, and the end result is exactly what I wanted.

• Use a lifeline. Because you’re worth it.

• If you want to block points, holy shit! only! string! the points! Obvious? Sure. In hindsight. I’d never blocked points before, and strung the entire perimeter.

6/27/11 Added the 7 FO photos I finally got around to shooting. Yes, Mom’s birthday was May 9th, so it’s pretty late, but hey: She’s been in Canada. Traveling. A TRAVELING WOMAN, if you will. Wakka wakka. Mailing today.

5/30/11 Added a blocking photo. Yes, I blocked it on a twin size mattress. I fought and wrestled and sweated over blocking this thing for two. straight. hours. It dried, I took so long, and I had to spray it down again. I had run cotton string through the perimeter to help with the blocking, and it was only 24 hours later, after sleeping on it and thinking it over anew, that I realized. It would have been SO MUCH EASIER IF I HAD ONLY STRUNG THE POINTS. OMGAAAAH.

Live and effing learn. I drew so much blood trying to pin it down that I am not even going to try blocking it again. It’s done. DONE. It’s for my mother, and if she doesn’t love it how it is, nobody ever will.

5/22/11 DONE. Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off is indeed surprisingly stretchy. It took forever though. Still need to measure, block, measure again, and photograph. I have probably half or a third of a skein left.

Depending on how you count repeats, I did either 7, or 8 (If you could the first time Chart A is ever knitted, then it was a total of 8. If the first one is not counted, then 7). I have a good deal of yarn left; probably 1/3 of a skein. From point to point when pulled straight the wingspan measures exactly 7 feet.

It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty good. Most importantly, it’s finished. :P

5/16/11 OMG, y’all. Chart B, Row 15. I knit, and un-knit, and re-knit, and un-knit, and re-knit, and drove myself completely insane. Seriously, I un- and re- for about 2 straight hours. The Ps were NOT lining up as they should! The first one hit where it should have, but the second one hit one stitch prior! What?! No! As written I had 12 stitches to the first P and 13 to the second, which makes utterly no sense. After consulting the chart and studying it like my life depended on it, I became confident in my assessment that the Ps need to line up as I suspect, the YOs need to create the chevron pattern as I understand it, and - and this part is the key - there are THREE K stitches above each SLK2P. In each instance (every other chevron) where the P stitch wasn’t lining up, I had FOUR. HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN? It’s not like I missed the stitch-passing-over part of the SLK2P. So I ended up knitting two together over every other SLK2P to compensate, and ended up with a) the correct number of stitches at the end (17) and b) correct LOOKING chevrons.

I don’t even.

5/12/11 Just completed Chart B row 11 of 19. Al…most…there!

5/9/11 Today is mom’s 60th birthday! I’m not finished with the shawl, but I’m close. Completed Chart A 7 times, and have begun Chart B. Decided to use Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off (never tried it), we’ll see how it goes.

5/2/11 Moved the needles onto a 60 inch cable. It takes me abut 30 minutes to complete each row, there are so many stitches on the needles. I am beginning to doubt my ability to get this finished and sent to Oregon by May 9.

4/25/11 3 repeats of chart A complete (see photo). I have plenty of yarn, so it’s really just a matter of how many repeats I feel like adding. 6? 8? Undecided. This is my first time using a lifeline. Why didn’t I know about this before? It’s genius. Because I only have markers at the first and last three stitches, I just run dental floss through the keyhole in my circs while knitting, and come back to move them outside of the markers after completing the row.

4/15/11 Cast on. I hate picking up stitches, so I used Modiste1979’s subsitution:

CO 3
kfb to end (6 st)
(kfb,k1) repeat to end (9)

I found the lace weight directions for marker placement to be really odd - it seems as if there is a “pm” missing from the first row knitting into the 9 stitches, because when I set about knitting and got to Row 2, there was only one marker in the middle, not two. I kept counting and recounting and going back and starting again and finally I just added a marker where I thought one should be, and made sure that there were an equal number of stitches on either side. I’m about halfway through the stockinette (see photo).