OMG I HAVE FINISHED IT OMG

This poor project suffered from a perfect storm of unfortunate events. First, I had to put it away for weeks. Then I tried to finish it with high fever, messed up, FROGGED 2 skeins worth of work. Did it again. It wouldn’t block! I frogged and did it again, carefully making sure I’m following the pattern. It wouldn’t block. FROGGED. Did it again, counting stitches in each row, I discovered that indeed, there are suddenly several hundred more stitches in the pattern after row 47 of chart 2. FROGGED. Looked for other versions of the pattern. They all had substantially more stitches in chart 2 and 3 than in chart 1, so apparently the border was supposed to ripple and pleat. I didn’t want a pleat, I wanted straight and stretched. I tried substituting another border pattern instead of chart 2. It looked bad. FROGGED. Glared at the project with murder and hatred, thinking of setting it on fire. Tried again. FROGGED.

Then… Then I went Elsa on it and remembered that the codename for this project is LET IT GO. So instead of doing it by the book, I improvised and went DOWN in stitch count on row 47. What do you know. It worked!

MODS:

• Instead of adding 4 stitches per pattern repeat on row 47 in Chart 2 to a total of 24 per segment, I decreased 2 stitches to a total of 18 per segment. The pattern is a 6-stitch repeat so it worked perfectly.

• Added some beads on final rows to have the shawl drape better.

• Skipped chart 3 and cast off using a crochet hook, added the “snowflake effect” crochet ornamentation (turned out sloppy because I’m a terrible crocheter, but I am NOT FROGGING IT, NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE)

Pattern Notes:

I am knitting from a chart that is a fusion of the original designer’s chart and some other variations, found here:
http://www.ravelry.com/projects/like2makethings/frozen-le...

The chart is amazingly well-written and clear, and the pattern is extremely easy to follow. This is a perfect advanced beginner project for lace.

Yarn Notes:

My grandmother passed away several years ago, but it was only this year that my aunt found Gran’s yarn stash. “I was going to throw it away, but then I thought maybe you’d like a look?” I sure would! The yarn is ANCIENT, but it’s amazingly well-preserved, owing probably to the high acrylic contents. I really wanted to knit something with the yarn that my grandmother chose and ordered and probably had someone bring over from beyond the Iron Curtain. I kid you not, this yarn remembers the days of the Berlin Wall.

The light, icy blue color and snow-like fluffy quality of the yarn made it an easy choice: it had to be Frozen Leaves!