I have made two lace shawls in my knitting career, and both have been given away to deserving grandmothers. I have made several scarves, all of which are keeping the necks of other people warm. So this project is for me to have something soft and woolen to wrap around my neck.

Pattern: Orchid Thief by Ysolde Teague. This is pattern is completely written out and has charts, and I am using the charts. The charts work fine, though they aren’t the clearest I’ve worked with, up to the infamous row 86. For that, I used the written instructions.

Yarn: Malabrigo sock in dewberry, a lovely mix of dark purples with a hint of blue. I adore it. I keep pausing in knitting to spread it out and admire the colors. The yarn photographs terribly, though. The first skein was a gift from my husband, picked up when he was travelling to Paris and had a bit of time to drop by Lil Weasel. I purchased a second to ensure that I would have enough to finish.

Execution: Started with a long-tail cast-on and worked the pattern as charted. I did use the written instructions for row 86; the chart isn’t wrong exactly, but it doesn’t follow the logic used in previous charts or in the following rows. I also adapted the cast-off, as there is no way I could have purled together all along the edge and have something loose enough to be blockable. Instead, I did the following:
p1, p1, p2tog with stitches on right needle, continue from across