Searched a bizillion project pages for helpful notes before starting this project. Using Dream In Color Smooshy With Cashmere. Very springy and soft. Used stretchy cast on with size 5 mm H crochet hook. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAaOQb03wec&feature=re.... 363 stitches cast on took FOREVER….. I’ve never worked a shawl bottom up before.

Used Myra Woods youtube video (link below) on easy peasy nupps. On first attempt, I used a 5.50 mm size I crochet hook to match the size of my knitting needle and found it a bit too cumbersome. I switched to a small hook size E and duplicated the loose size stitch which would have been made on the larger hook. Worked great. (In the video, Myra uses a smaller crochet hook as well.).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSIzYLbasHY. Pay attention to “pinching” the bottom of the stitch before pulling your yarn through the 7 loops. It really helps. If you don’t, the length of the stitches can spring back or shrink and pulling the yarn through can be impossible. Also, I knit mostly English or American style for lace but on each nupp, I knit the nupps Continental and then switch styles back to English. It’s tedious but the results are beautiful. Well worth doing.

Placed a lifeline after the lace section.

Initially, I was confused at the directions of the short rows thinking I needed to WRAP and turn. You DON’T WRAP, just turn!!! The SSK and p2tog take care of the holes. Very simple.

I made a garter stitch/eyelet section to prevent the rolling edge. I kept decreasing 1 stitch at the end of each row to follow the shape given to the edges by the lace part:

Instead of the BO row of the pattern (WS): Sl1 purlwise, K to last 2 sts, k2tog.
Next row (RS) - eyelet row -: Sl1 purlwise, (YO, K2tog) to the end.
Next row (WS): Sl1 purlwise, K to last 2 sts, k2tog.
BO row (RS): (P2tog wrapping yarn clockwise from bottom then putting stitch back onto left needle and repeat to the end. Video for an even looser bind-off http://youtu.be/tYMFEYvCBRE

Had just enough yarn to finish…..5grams left over - about the size of a golf ball and a bit smaller than a cutie orange (pictured). Whew!

Note: While Blocking- points really stretched due to the stretchy cast on I used and the springy yarn. Others indicated their points didn’t stretch as much because a different cast on was used. (Next time when using same cast on, I will not go up so many needle sizes…maybe a 8 or 9 as to get a more gentle point.) Yarn did not bleed much even though the color is very deep purplish blue to black. Trying to capture true color.

(P.S. Started this project in Gatlinburg while we were snowed in for a few days on the mountain. They had about 5 inches of snow and then another 5 the next evening. Tennessee declared it a state of emergency. Snow storms hit most of the country. Great time to sit and knit so I was happy.)