5/17/09 - Last night, I got home from graduation and wanted only to start this project. I officially have a Masters degree and, in a few months, I’ll have my PC too after I pass my exam. It’s amazing to finally be able to see the fruition of what I’ve been doing for the last 3 years.

10/3/09 - A few months ago, Taeka posted about how much she hates lace patterns that tell you to slip a stitch at the beginning of each row. She feels that it makes the edging tight. I found this to be interesting because I thought that the edging for this shawl did seem very firm, not at all loose or stretchy. It was definitely bothering me. When I saw her post, I knew that it was the perfect solution for this shawl, but I really didn’t want to rip it back. So the project has been languishing all these months. I haven’t really touched it since I cast on in May.

Tonight, I ripped back to the cast-on - no WAY was I going to redo that because it took me so long to get it just right. I could live with the first 21 stitches being slipped and tight. I started back up, knitting the stitches instead of slipping them, and I’m already much happier. The new edge is very elastic, which pleases me greatly. I’m back to where I was when I stopped last time, and I’m in love. This is a great pattern and now that I’m knitting rather than slipping, it’s going to be a great finished object too.

11/10/09 - For the past two or three weeks, I’ve worked only on this pattern. This is such a great beginner lace pattern. I mean, it’s not simple. Probably the Ishbel is easier (although I have a lot of friends who say that pattern gave them REAL issues, so maybe not). But the pattern is very easy to memorize in the main charts. It’s also very easy to “read” your knitting as you’re going alone. I think that for someone who is trying to get into more difficult lace, this would be a very simple and wonderful pattern.

The only thing I’m displeased about is how inaccurate the pattern is in telling you the amount of yarn you will need. The pattern claims that, for the bigger version it required 1094 yards. I was using a skein of yarn that only had 875 yards. I didn’t want to do the shoulderette version because I like a big shawl, but I really didn’t want to run out of yarn. So I did one less repeat of the Star Chart than the pattern called for. I had also planned to do one or two fewer repeats of the Blossom Chart, but it became very clear to me that I was going to have more than enough yarn. I finished it tonight and I have 18 grams left over - definitely enough for the full-sized large version. That’s the one part of the pattern that’s inaccurate, in my opinion. But really, this was a lovely pattern and I’d even be willing to make it again because it was so, so simple!