This shawl is a good project for advanced beginners who want to learn a few tricks:
1) Using a yarn over to ensure the edge is stretchy (you YO on one side and drop it on the next row)
2) German short rows (one form of short row)
3) Changing colors, carrying colors or cutting colors/weaving in ends.
4) Slipping stitches (color work technique)
5) Creating a fancy gathered stitch: knit 3 together (leave on left hand needle), YO, knit 3 together again, drop 3 stitches from LH needle. Sounds complicated but it’s easy to memorize. See the pic for Sec 3 on how the finished stitch looks.
6) Increasing/Decreasing at beginning and ending of rows to create a biased fabric
7) Using stitch markers to keep track of stitches, especially helpful for figuring out where you made a mistake.

Yarn: I used a bamboo yarn from Theodora’s Pearls. It comes in a kit, made for this pattern, and requires an additional skein for the main color. Yarnivore has 3 colorways in the kit and several choices for the main color. The Spring Forward colorway is bright spring colors, which were lovely in the kit but are even more so on the needles. I’m really glad I chose the slightly warm toned alabaster, which was at Jennifer Miller’s advice. I’ve added pics of her model garments in the other colorways (see last two pics).

Working notes:

1. Use the YO mentioned to make neck edge stretchier, especially with 100% bamboo. I ripped back to add this and am much happier. See pic.
2. Trust the pattern….the German short row/double stitch felt weird at first but I followed pattern and see how it works. You can see them in the pic. Unblocked, the double stitch is obvious but I think it will be less so when blocked.
3. Carrying main color makes sense but cut the contrast color to avoid carrying multiple colors up over longer distances. Tack down ends well, especially if using bamboo, which is a slippery yarn. Wendy and I discussed this one. She recommends cutting the yarn (not carrying) when the opposite yarn is more than 4 rows. I chose to carry the contrast yarn for a longer section because, bamboo. This fiber is a little more slippery than wool so I’m reluctant to have cuts. If it were wool, I’d follow Wendy’s guideline.
4. I’m at the first repeat of section 3…..and struggling with having a slipped stitch as the first and last stitch on each end. See pics. Doesn’t this mean the end stitch is slipped twice? Oh, see #2. Trusting the pattern first.:) Update: as awkward as it felt to slip end stitches on both wrong and right sides, it worked. Another lesson in trusting the pattern.
5. Working second repeat of section 3, it appears that my m3f3 stitches are not stacking….but the ‘big picture’ pictures (not close ups) seem to show them stacking neatly. Not sure if I’ve done something wrong or if the pics are simply unclear, meaning the way the shawl is draped makes it hard to see what the pattern’s intent is. Onward! Update: it’s often helpful to see others’ versions. Some makers will provide notes and pics of their work that can help. While they may not be experts, they can give you confidence or give you clarity, even if the confidence or clarity is that you definitely need to contact the designer. In this case, the close ups in a few of the projects seem to show the m3f3 stitches are offset, not stacking. Whew! In hindsight, I found the m3f3 stitches are offset, not stacked, which makes sense from the math. Each repeat of Section 3 increases stitches by 4. Each m3f3 + ss is 4 stitches.This means you’ll increase the row by 1 m3f3 in each repeat of Sec3. Make sense? If not, no stress, see #2: trust the pattern. :)
6. Working with bamboo is probably not for the beginner….as y’all know it can be very slippery. If you’re going with bamboo for the first time, you might want to stay on wood needles, as wood has more friction than metal. This means your stitches won’t slide off as easily. However, I’m using KP Platinas and they’re wicked fast, plus they make it easier to do the m3f3 stitches. Platina is a pointier needle, making it easier to get into the k3 than a blunt or wooden needle would. This means that, if you go with wood, you’ll need to loosen up a bit on row 1 of section 3 so that you can do the k3 in row 2 more easily.
7. Like every knitter everywhere, I make mistakes. Here are the two I’ve done, repeatedly. First, I’ve either decreased or increased in error and ended up with 3 addl stitches in a repeat of Sec 3. Fortunately, my handy stitch markers helped me figure it out quickly (within a row or two) and exactly where. I highly recommend you place stitch markers every 10 or 12 stitches. 10 makes it easier to do the total row math (9 segments of 10 st = 90 st….) but you have to move an occasional marker to do the m3f3. I don’t mind this and am so far in that it’s easier to stick to the math I know. However, if you don’t want to fuss with the stitch marker landing in the middle of an m3f3, just place them every 12 stitches and then remember to multiply the # of segments by 12. Not too complicated…. :) Second mistake: you can see in a couple of pics where I WYIBed rather than WYIFed, leaving a cc yarn to float on the right side, which is wrong, wrong, wrong. Unfortunately, I didn’t catch it until row 7 of the repeat. On the other hand, it was pretty simple to drop the stitch down to row 3, lift the float to the back and then re-do the stitches. If you’re a local to Yarnivore and run into this, come by and we’ll be happy to give you an assist in fixing. If you’re doing it on your own, try to do this somewhere with good light and no interruptions as dropping a stitch in bamboo is a wee bit tricky. I had no trouble with mine, btw, just giving y’all a heads up.
8. I’ve put each color of the kit in its own ziplock…. this helps keep them all from throwing a party while I’m not looking. Seven colors of yarn having a yarn party? Makes for some serious clean up…. Keeping them in separate bags and also unwinding the working colors after each row keeps you from losing your happy.
9. I’m well into Section 4 (mostly garter stitch) and have dropped off all my stitch markers. While they help keep my count accurate, it’s less critical at this point. Just make sure you check for increases and decreases at the end / beginning of rows (per the pattern).
10. In Section 5, there are slipped stitches again but I’ve chosen to knit only garter at this point. It’s a personal preference, do what makes you happy. :D
11. If you’re interested in how much of the kit colors I had left over: CC1 (goldenrod): 17g or 68 yds CC2 (coral): 21g or 84 yds CC3 (lavender): 26g or 104 yds CC4 (brt pink): 30g or 120 yds CC5 (indigo): 34g or 136 yds CC6 (brt green): 38g or 152 yds Note that I was on larger than specified needles, so I likely used more yarn than someone who used the smaller US 2.5s in the pattern.

3/13/17: Had to park this for a bit, left it behind when I spent the week in Austin. Fortunately, the folks who hosted me found it and are mailing it. Nonknitters, but they knew it was a treasure and set it aside for me! <3
3/18/17: It’s here! Back to work!
3/23/17: Have completed section 3 and working in CC1 on section 4. Much easier going now that we’re not knitting 3 together…. aside from the occasional increases/decreases, it’s all knitting. I’m nearly out of the main color even though I have more than the pattern calls for; the only thing I can think of is that I’m on bigger needles than the pattern specifies. I’m having a total huh? moment over why I’m on US 4 instead of the US 2.5 in the pattern specs but it doesn’t matter, I have a skein on hold and like the drapiness of the fabric so it’s onward, ho! Update: I ended up using 7 grams of the second skein of Alabaster, about 25 yards. If you’re using US 4s and don’t want to buy a whole extra skein, I’d suggest economizing by shaving a row in Sec 3. This means you’ll have to manage your stitch count but that’s doable with a little figuring….
3/30/17 DONE! FINISHED! WHOOOOOOOT! Ok, so maybe I’m a little more excited than is normal but if you had these colors in hand, you might be joining me in a happy dance.