Jan. 28, 2014: This yarn is listed as worsted for US8 needles, with is pretty far off. I got 17wpi when I did the wrap test, which is just a hair off from laceweight. I’m treating it as light fingering for now, and hoping that it will work with this pattern.

March 2, 2014: Added new photos. I’ve been working on this thing for a month already? Wow… part of me thinks it should be a LOT larger, another part thinks it’s huge for only four weeks in.

This is the Shawl That Never Ends.
It just goes on and on, my friends.
Some people started knitting it not knowing what it was,
And they’ll continue knitting it forever just because,
This is the Shawl That Never Ends…

When I got to about 65 st. between markers, I added another ridge (I used different markers than the 8 I already am using, because you’ll be doing the yarnovers differently, so you need to keep track).

On a row after you’ve done yarnovers:
K30, K2tog, place new style of marker, K to 2 before next old marker, K2tog (repeat 7 more times to complete 1 round)

Next row:
yo, K1, yo, K2, yo, K to 2 before new marker, yo, K1, yo, K to 2 before old marker, K2 (repeat 7 more times to complete 1 round)

If my guess is right, this will make a new spiral ridge centered between the main spiraling ridges. We’ll see what happens!

March 25, 2014: Yes indeed, another ridge, slightly less prominent, did appear between each of the main eight spirals. With the way I did it, the increases are all in the first half of each section and the second “half” stays at a static 33st, so it’s not staying exactly centered. But it’s pretty and I’m glad I did it.

I’m at approximately 85st between arms, for a total of about 680. New pix added with pen for scale (though it looks the same as the first set of photos, believe me when I say it is indeed bigger!).

March 26, 2014: Did a stitch count and I am all over the place, but the average is 84st (51 and 33 in the two sub-sections, eight sections, 670st total). It took me 36m to do one round, and I used about 5 grams of wool. That means I’m using one skein per 8 rows; I have six skeins left, and I want to make a bit of a ruffle on the edge, and then use Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-off (I thought about an i-cord bind-off but think it will add too much weight on top of the ruffle).

So here’s the current plan for the ruffle:
K2m1 for one round, then K 4 rounds. (about 38g)
K2m1 for one round, K 4 rounds (about 50g)
K2m1 for one round, K 6 rounds (about 90g)
JSSBO

I think I will use the pick-up method of making stitches, instead of kfb.

I have 240g remaining. The ruffle should use about 178g, leaving 62g for the bind-off; allowing 3-4x the yarn that one round takes, it would be 45-60g, leaving me a whopping 2g of yarn left over.

The inspiration and instructions for doing the ruffle were from the very kind PurpleSnowdrop, whose amazing Vortex is over here: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/PurpleSnowdrop/vortex-shawl

I’m using the Denise interchangeable system, and I’ve already had the extender pop loose once, which was SO much fun to pick up again; I will have to add at least one more to make this long enough for all the stitches (over 1800, yikes) and I’m really nervous about more pop-offs. Being as gentle as I can!

April 6, 2014: I wound up doing only two increases for the ruffle; I had extended the Denise system as far as it could physically go, and there was no way at all I could possibly add even 50 more stitches, much less (counts fingers) 400+ more (I have about 1300 stitches on the needles right now). So I did 15 rows total of ruffle, and have FINALLY started casting off…. it’s going veerrrryyy slowly, though. That first picture of bind off? Not even 1/8 of the whole thing, and it took about two hours (using Jeni’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off). But the end is in sight!

April 23, 2014: I finished the cast-off about a week ago, and it took nearly an entire ball of yarn. Then there were about 38 ends to weave in… whee! But it’s done, and it’s beautiful, and it’s ready to send off to my mother-in-law. Hope you enjoyed these notes, and thank you for reading!