Technically, this isn’t a calico cat’s paw because there’s no white, just orange and black. I bought the yarn for this shawl years ago. I finally cast on using the Belly Button cast-on and two circular needles. I find using two circular needles to be the easiest way to begin a center-start shawl. I really don’t know why knitters fight with dpns. If you use two circulars (or one circ with magic loop), you don’t have the problem of the needles sliding out of the stitches.

1-31-12 After a couple of false starts, I’m finally on the right track. After completing 20-some rounds, I really didn’t like the way the pattern looked. The double-decrease looked terrible. The instructions say k3tog, but the chart for the cat’s paw has a left-leaning (sl1k2togpsso) double decrease. I decided that the decrease was the problem. So I ripped back to the beginning of the first pattern round and changed the double decrease. This was an improvement, but I still wasn’t pleased with the shawl.

I kept looking at my shawl and the picture in the book, and suddenly I realized that the instructions for the shawl do not produce the same result as the shawl in the picture. After a little fiddling with the pattern, I figured out what I needed to do to get it to match the picture. Hey, this isn’t rocket science! LOL I’m now well on my way.

2-22-12 I’m progressing rapidly although I did have a small set-back that required me to rip back 10 rounds or so. I’m making the shawl in lace weight yarn, so I have to knit a lot of extra repeats to get the size I wanted. I did the first repeat of the old shell pattern as written, then did another repeat without changing colors, and am now in the midst of a third repeat, this one with the color change.

When I finish the old shell section, I will have to decide whether to bind of as the pattern calls for, or do a knitted-on edging, which is what I’m leaning toward. If I do the edging, I will use the one from Hazel Carter’s A Cat’s Day Shawl because it has cat’s paws in it and will the perfect finish for this shawl.

3-3-12 I have finished the body of the shawl and spent a good bit of time trying different edging patterns. I finally settled on the one I started with, the edging form A Cat’s Day Shawl. I think it will be perfect.

3-26-12 After many false starts, I have finally started making good progress on the edging. I ended up using my go-to edging for Old Shell--Brand Iron. It works well for feather and fan, too. :-)

4-12-12 I finished the edging last night, got all the ends woven in, and today I washed and dressed the shawl. Stretched out, the shawl in about 57-inches square. I could have blocked it out larger if I had more blocking squares, but I think it will be fine as is.