Tips:

Yardage: WARNING!! The pattern only calls for 770 yards of yarn, but after reading other projects it was obvious that I would need more. I’m so glad that I bought an extra skein! I ended up using 1026 yards, thats a BIG difference!!

nupps: I’m using a 5 stitch nupp to make it easier I used a darning needle to stretch the five stitches out and then I could easily purl into them. Also by doing so it made it simple to tell if the stitches were still in order and fix them if necessary :)

Bind-off Love how stretchy this makes the edge, allows for a great blocking.

Knit on Border: Not as hard as I expected, just make sure to count your stitches after you pick up. I ended up with an extra 2 on each edge that is easily fixed by k2tog on the first WS knit.

Official Shawl Stats

Needle Size: US 4
Yarn: Madelinetosh Pashmina, Night Bloom 285g, ~1026 yds
Wingspan: 69.5” x 43.5” (SUPER large, hard to tell in the pictures but it takes up my whole queen bed!)
Things Learned: Knit-on border and patterns that look scary on paper can be quite easy and delightful to knit
Thoughts: This shawl was an absolute delight to knit! It went very quickly, the pattern was not boring but still very easy to memorize with very little reference to the chart, the chart is simple to follow, the knit-on border not nearly as intimidating as I made it in my mind, and the yarn was one of the nicest I’ve worked with to date!

The Pashmina yarn is amazing to work with. Super soft. Excellent drape. Stunningly beautiful in sheen and color. Superbly warm. A word of warning though: when washed this yarn relaxes a lot! What I thought was a large shawl became ginormous! This could potentially mess with your projects where sizing is important (like the hat I made with my leftover yarn: great hat, fit before washed, way large after washed!)

12-18-14 The shawl is officially done and blocking. For as nervous as I was to knit on the border it was actually quite easy. I can’t wait to see my grandmas reaction to this for Christmas!

11-10-14 I bought this pattern a long time ago. I fell in love with it, cherished it, kept going back and looking at how pretty it was, and I also feared it. Every time I would look at the pattern my mind made it more complicated than it actually was.

Maybe it was the live stitches at the end, maybe it was knitting on the border after the main shawl was done, but something about this pattern terrified me. Even after I tackled harder projects. Even after I’ve dealt with knitting sideways, nupps, and live stitches hanging all willy nilly. This pattern still scared me

And then I ran into the perfect yarn for my grandmother. There could be no better match for it than this particular pattern. So I sucked it up and decided to knit this. I read the instructions again and my fear started to dissipate. But still it lingered in the back of my mind.

I’m quite a ways into the shawl now and I have to say. I have no idea why I was so scared of this thing. Its delightful to knit. It goes quickly, the pattern is easy enough to memorize and not get lost. Its turning out beautifully.

Granted I’m not at the live stitches nor the edging. But I don’t really forsee any issues. I can’t wait to keep this moving along!

Earlier: I decided to make a shawl for my grandmas 90th Birthday. After much deliberation between yarns and patterns I think I’ve found the perfect combination. I can’t wait to get started because her Birthday is in January, but there is the matter of a baby shower present to attend to first.