I am participating in a summer KAL for Maiden Brooklyn / designer Marisa Hernandez, but I am really bad at chatting in the forums, so I hope my notes here will give some inspiration.

I love the shawls designed by Marisa Hernandez, and I love knitting them with 3 ply / heavy lace weight yarn. The outcome so far has always been very satisfying for me. I have come closer to knitting “lacy lace shawls”.

I also love Japan and the Japanese culture and - well everything Japanese - very much, so I had great fun knitting this shawl and watching the various patterns grow: The trellis reminds me of the prayer plates shown in the photo, the first chart reminds me of Japanese fans, and the two bottom charts resemble lotus blossoms for me.

Knitting: This time I became bold and had the idea to add beads! I have never in my whole life added beads to knitting, but then again, there is nothing you cannot learn with a good YouTube video. I came across this one by Cat Bordhi, which solved it for me.

Wanting to save disappointment I did not order my first set of beads from the Internet but went to my local HobbyCraft and got some standard 4mm (size 6) E beads for 99p / 15 grams and ordered a size 12 (0.6 mm) crochet hook.

I have enlarged the shawl, because I was knitting with finer yarn. Thank you EsaTheresa for doing the math! I added 14 repeats of the trellis pattern and started chart 1 at 175 stitches.

Well - the shawl is now off the needles. and will still need blocking. For now I have uploaded a chart with orange highlights as to where I have placed the beads.

For the photos I want to wear a kimono, so maybe it will take a couple of days to find the time to get dressed up :)

For the photos I am wearing a Japanese summer kimono (yukata) with a half width obi sash. I hope to be able to show my appreciation and love for Japan and its people.

Yarn: The yarn is described as a 3 ply yarn, but it is fine and could be called lace weight too. It was “in oil” during knitting, meaning that some lanolin residues were present in the ball. It may fluff up considerably after washing, and the mohair content may give it a slight halo. I look forward to the final outcome after blocking.

Update: Blocking now! Some photos will hopefully follow tomorrow morning. The kimono photos will have to wait until the weekend.

I cannot weigh the shawl, but if the ball was exactly 100 grams, then I have used 63 grams or 391 metres.

The yarn bled a lot during washing (I used a mild shampoo).

Shawl #12 for 2013