I’m so happy with the FO, and the recipient (my mom!) loved it. It turned out beautiful and I’m very proud of my work. Kisseis was very fun to knit, and I have discovered that I love knitting lace.

I rate the pattern difficulty as medium, but I don’t think it’s much more difficult than easy. I struggled a few times, but that’s probably due to my inexperience (this is only my second shawl, second lace project, first project with lace-weight, first beaded project.) The pattern does say it’s suited to adventurous intermediate to advanced, and as other knitters have commented, you really need to pay attention. I found the beaded bind off instruction to be a little confusing, but otherwise the pattern was very well-written and the charts were excellent.

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5/29/13: Forgot to get a picture of the finished, blocked shawl. I gave it to my mom tonight (her first visit to town since before Mother’s Day.) She loved it! Will get a FO picture soon.

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5/27/13: Blocking, take 2 -- I struggled with the blocking a couple nights ago and I couldn’t figure out why it a) looked strange; and b) was so difficult to pull into shape. Then I realized I blocked it into the wrong shape -- I neglected to check the pattern before pinning it with the tips pointing down instead of up. Such a duh!-moment. I didn’t bother soaking again, but instead repinned and then steamed. (Update: Steaming was all that was needed -- this second attempt worked beautifully.)

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5/24/13: Finished the knitting last night and wove in the two ends today. All that’s left is to block! I should be seeing my mother next week, so this is perfect timing. I used 64g of the Silky Alpaca Lace and 20g total of the beads. I hope I love this as much when I see it blocked -- I’m worried that I may have had some errors that don’t show when it’s in its current floppy state, but that will be glaring once blocked. Will have fingers crossed.

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5/22/13: I can’t wait to finish! I’ve really loved knitting this pattern. I’ve had a few struggles, mostly because a dropped stitch is harder to correct when working lace I’ve discovered. (I’ve knit almost all of this during the late night hours when I’m already drowsy and have a difficult time focusing, this definitely was a contributing factor to the errors I made.) As long as one pays better attention than i did, it should be simple enough. Newer lace knitters need not be intimidated.

Began the beaded bind-off. I’m confused a bit by the written instruction as to which stitches are to be beaded (does it include the two selvedge stitches?). Since I’ve decided to use a Purl Lace Bind Off (p2, p those same 2 st tog), I was having a difficult time keeping track of whether I was placing the beads every 3 st -- some of my first st I was placing them on the 2nd and not the 3rd st. So I tinked back to begin again.

I decided to place a bead on the first selvedge st, then every 3rd st, to line up the beads basically with the centers of the sk2p stitches. When coming to the end of a section where the st between the two sections has only one yo on either side, I placed a bead on the center st -- so in other words, when coming to the end of the 34 st repeat, I placed the bead after only 2 st, and then placed the first bead of the next section after 2 st from the end of the previous section. Then I resumed placing the bead ever 3rd st until the end of the repeat, rinse and repeat.

Because I was getting confused about the bead placement, I began by slipping the st and placing the beads without working the st, then slipping the st back to the left needle, so I could just work a group of st without beading while doing so, while ensuring that the bead was on the right st. But now that I know I’m beading to match the centers of the sk2ps, I can read it better and don’t think I’ll have to do that anymore when I resume tomorrow. I can just bead as I go along now.

So far I’ve used exactly one 9g tube of size 6/0 beads through row 11 of the edge chart (including discarding ~15-20 beads without wide enough openings), then I used ~1/3 of a tube for just row 15 (encountering only 1 dud bead so far in this tube.) That should leave me plenty of beads to complete the bind off. (Update: Used 20g total.)

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5/19/13: I could have been further along, but there were a couple nights this week that I didn’t do any knitting. I’ve finished the first four rows of the edge chart. Each row is taking probably close to 30 minutes. I haven’t timed myself, but that’s probably a good guess. It feels like the last 24 rows will take forever. The RS rows are still a lot of fun, but the WS rest rows feel like a chore. I’ve started my second ball of the Silky Alpaca Lace. The first ball got me through the completion of the second repeat of the Ivy chart. I’ve calmed down on the lifelines, using them only every 6 rows or so instead of every WS row.

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5/12/13: Not finished in time for Mother’s Day, but that’s okay, as it will be a couple weeks before I see my Mom in person.

Lifelines are my very best friend. And stitch markers. It’s been a week since I finished the stem chart, and I only just finished the first repeat of the Ivy chart. I’d been so excited about starting the beading, but I didn’t even get to the beading until Thursday night (5/9), four days after I thought I’d get to it. I am not kidding when I say that I knit and ripped back the first three rows of the Ivy chart at least 18 times. Including ripping back to my lifeline to have discovered that I missed a few stitches in my lifeline (using the long tapestry needle) and thus having to start back at the last repeat of the stem chart. Needless to say, the tapestry needle for lifelines was not working for me. I did have one size 5 Harmony tip, so I ended up using that on rows with lifelines. Much quicker than the tapestry needle, and no more missing stitches.

I hadn’t been using stitch markers to separate the sections (other than the two garter stitches on each side), but I decided I really needed to. I began using stitch markers for the middle sections, and was much easier to keep straight, even though the markers were moved a couple times. I ended up using the markers throughout and doing a lifeline on EVERY SINGLE WS ROW. That is the only way I managed to make progress, I think. It’s gotten much easier, but I’m sticking to lifelines every other row, because as soon as I decide I don’t have to, I’ll make some mistake and have to rip back a lot further.

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5/5/13: Not a lot of time for knitting on my husband’s birthday, but finished the fifth repeat, and thus the entire, stem chart. I’m looking forward to starting the beading in the next chart. This will be my first beaded project.

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5/4/13: Finished fourth repeat of stem chart and first few rows of fifth repeat. I had to tear back to my lifeline a few times because I kept dropping stitches somewhere and couldn’t fix it within the rows. Otherwise I would have made more progress.

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5/3/13: Finished second and third repeats of stem chart.

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5/2/13: Cast on, finished the set up and the first repeat of the stem chart.

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TECHNIQUES NOTES

Right and Left Leaning Increases (M1R and M1L)
(Note: The way M1R and M1L are described in the written pattern seems to contradict every video I’ve watched on these two stitches. The linked video I think is the most clear directions I’ve seen, and I will be creating M1R and M1L according to these directions rather than the pattern.)

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MATERIALS AND EQUIPMENT NOTES

• Three 9gm tubes of Toho 6/0 seed beads in Transparent Rainbow Lt Hyacinth purchased at Michael’s for $2.99 each. It goes amazing well with the Tropical Fruit colorway, picking up all the pink and yellow and green. Update 5/6: As I’m about to start the beading, I think I wish I had size 8/0 seed beads. I think they’d look more elegant, although I may change my mind once I start beading with the 6/0.

UPDATE 5/12: I like the 6/0 beads. The 8/0 may have been too small for visual impact. I actually wish I’d used more beads in the Ivy sections.

• Using Size 5 32” ChiaoGoo Red Lace fixed circular (although may decide to switch to wood or bamboo - one of my (only) size 5 Harmony tips broke a while ago and I haven’t replaced yet, so the ChiaoGoo needle is the only size 5 I currently own.) Update 5/6: I am in love with this needle, especially the cable, although I don’t know how well it would work for magic loop, so I’ll have to experiment with that at some point. The only thing I don’t like is that I don’t have a hole like my Knit Picks/Knitter’s Pride interchangeables -- I miss having an easy way to lifeline. I’ve been using a long tapestry needle to run through the stitches on the cord, which isn’t hard, but it’s easy to miss a stitch or run the needle through the wrong part of the stitch. Also, running the lifeline in this way isn’t too time consuming, but just enough to be irritating. So even if I use the ChiaoGoo Red Lace, I need to have the same size tips for my KPs, if only to use while working the occasional lifeline row.

Update 5/6: I absolutely adore the Silky Alpaca Lace. So pleasant to work with, even if I have to be more vigilant while working with lace weight. I will for sure be using more of this yarn.

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First time starting with a garter tab
First time working with lace weight
First beaded project