3rd prize in the Shawl class of the 2009 Sanday Show. My pink Swallowtail came 2nd, though this is actually better knit.

Blocked to 45” diameter

I haven’t weighed the shawl yet but as I have just 400 yards remaining from the cone, we can assume that it took 1250 yards.

23 April: All done! The edging took large chunks of two days to do, but was actually much quicker than I expected it to be. Next time I would probably choose a more intricate edge.

21 April: Ready to edge

16 April: realisation dawned at some point yesterday that this is not the challenging knit that I had hoped for. Also that 80 repeats are very dispiriting. Now into Chart E - and project forms its own storage bag. Half the rounds done - project around the 40% mark with the edging roughly factored into the calculation (roughly, ‘cos I can’t figure out how to do it correctly)

14 April. Very wary of estimating percentage done. Circles are horrible in that respect - I recall that much from school, at least. Won’t do a spreadsheet to work it out, it would only depress me!

It’s looking good, and I finished chart C last night but… only on 320 stitches yet. Progress will appear much slower soon. Addi Lace needles are making a breeze of this however. Must buy more!

12 April 2009 Couldn’t resist waking this up any longer. There are other things to be doing but the allure of the Girasole is strong..

Trying the shawl sized fingering weight version first. Failed at the circular cast on (several times) and ended up casting on normally. Gained a stitch somewhere in Chart A but fudged it.

Started on Chart C and still on DPNs - a circ has been ordered but must wait for delivery from Germany.

Knitting this from the cone. The yarn is proving to be a challenge - very lightly plied, it’s very splitty and difficult to work with on blunt bamboo needles. Things should improve and speed up once the Addi Lace needle turns up. Need to take care, as the yarn is extremely fragile. I broke it twice when tightening the loop on my circular cast-on attempts. Glorious colour though, so I’ll forgive the yarn its inadequacies.

A blanket version will come later.