My DD is getting married in October--the theme of the wedding decor is peacock feathers--I am going to wear a very simple dress--and this shawl. I plan to hand paint the wool with silk paint when it is complete.

Its slow going--in chart 2 (a mere 740 stitches per round) 2 rounds took 1 hour to knit. Still to come, round 3 with a few rounds of 1050 stitches, (and I haven’t counted chart 4 yet!)

I am off to a nice start.

May 14th--Chart 2 complete, and first 9 rounds of chart 3 done too. New life line added, too (blue) with stitch markers for every pattern repeat (30!)

June 7th--the worst of chart 3 (the 1,000+ stitches rounds) done--only a dozen or so rounds left to chart 3.

June 19th--Finished Chart 3! now comes the real slog! 87 rounds, with many (to come) of over 1,500 stitches each! But I just work 1 stitch, 1 repeat, 1 round at a time--and it will get done.

Most of July passed with very little progress.. but once again i am hard at work--and the final chart is more than 1/4rd done as july comes to a close. (7/30)

8/2--The feather base is done--next: 30 rounds of 1500 stitches per round! and then its done.

8/7--The eyes have appeared.. 9 more rounds have been worked.. Thank goodness there are no more increases.. Its hard to fit all the stitches on the needle--and a pain to move them round.

8/10--at round 221! if I just knit 2 rounds a day for the next 2 weeks--(and take a day or two off!) it will be done before the end of the month! That’s going to happen.

8/17 Uneven progress.. some days off (no knitting) and then 4 rounds!--working on 227 (pattern row) and really hitting the home stretch-- 235 is last pattern round--unless i add a bonus of 6 extra round (i might) and bring the count to 242--then 3 plain round before bind off.. but even then, we are down to the last rounds!

9/3--worked the last charted round and plain to follow. i have just enough yarn for 1 more round (plain)--not the 2 rounds the pattern calls for--and the bind off.

9/4--all knit, and all bound off. and about 10 yards of yarn left over.

9/21--Knit a swatch and used it to test colors for hand painting the shawl--the test isn’t perfect--but it gave me a lot of information… Next--painting the shawl itself!

9/25--Just painted--the colors look pale (and uneven) but that because its in direct sun light--Its still damp-I’ll let it sit and dry over night.. and photograph again in AM