My first KAL! : ) My cake of yarn I think has the same colors as in Donna Druchunas’s sample shawl, but the way it’s wound, after the grey triangle, it will start with red then shade thru purple to blue at the end. Since my favorite color is red, I’m delighted!

Using Clover bamboo US 6, which is actually 4.25 mm, not 4.0 mm.

In the hindsight is 20/20 dept, since I was going to use the “wrong side” of the garter triangle, I should have knit 1 more row in the MC of the triangle before the last garter ridge in the red CC. That way when I picked up for the grey edging, the GS could have continued perfectly. oh, well.

Am contemplating whether the edges of the CC lace border should have been either slipped or started with YOs. Will see how the washed and blocked shawl turns out.

April 25, 2021
Casted on and started the grey triangle.

April 26, 2021
Completed the triangle; put the sts on the long edge on hold; and have picked up with the first CC, red, for the lace.

May 1 & 2, 2021
Starting the lace section. Egads, COCKLESHELL lace! Donna has good videos of how to work it, especially the infamous purl 11 sts tog. She shows using a crochet hook, but I found using a dpn better, sort of like working a wide cable. Slide the 11 sts onto it, and purl. Also helpful if on the next row, you notice that a loop got missed, and you have to fix it as I did.

Noticed that red dye from the yarn is rubbing off on the bamboo needle, but I’ve had that happen before and the color came off, so I’m not really concerned.

May 3, 2021
Shortly after starting the third rep of cockleshell, had to join 2nd CC, burgundy. Russian join successfully achieved - the yarn is a bit thicker, but I doubt it will really show that much. A little spit is good with the Russian join as well.

May 8, 2021
2nd photo: Starting the 2nd tier of cockleshells, knitting onto longer needle in hopes of showing the edging, but should have steamed the needle first! Helpful to place additional markers for patt reps before starting to knit.

Noticed I’m starting to have pain in my left thumb/wrist. I suspect it’s tendonitis from trying to slide sts on the needle after Row 9. The extra wraps for the cockleshells don’t want to slide smoothly from the circ’s cord onto the needle. Not what I need! So will space out my knitting on this so I don’t strain my hands.

May 12, 2021
Have almost used up the 3rd CC which is purple. After finishing the 6th rep of cockleshells, then I think I’ll start the Feather & Fan pattern rather than working another rep of cockleshells. I think I’d like the grey border to be all GS rather than part Feather & Fan.

When doing Row 9 of cockleshell for the last time, I made a conscious effort to loosely wrap the center 9 sts for the shell. That helped a lot on Row 10.

Joined 4th CC, blue.

May 13, 2021
Started F&F.

May 15 & 16, 2021
Finished using 4th CC on the 3rd row of F&F, which is a RS row. Only about 4 yds left which I know is not enough to knit another row. Since I don’t want obvious “purl blips” on the RS with the change in color, I’m starting with the MC on a WS row and will work the border all in GS in purl.

Since purling is likely to make the sts looser and bigger, I changed the needle to a US 5 (3.75 mm), this one is an Inox metal. Actually, my purls do look smaller on the smaller needle, so I guess I don’t “row out” with purls as some knitters do. As much trouble as I had with sliding sts on the bamboo needle, trying to work cockleshells on a slippery metal needle I think would have been worse.

Worked 5 ridges of GS for border edging in grey.

May 19, 2021
Started binding off the bottom edging, using a bamboo dpn. (Metal needle is really too slippery.) The pattern instructions for binding off are not clear, but the video Donna did is much easier to understand.

For the stretchy bind-off:

1. Set up: Knit 2 sts, then knit them together Thru the Back Loops (tbl).
2. Knit 1, then knit it together tbl with the result of the previous k2tog tbl.

Repeat until last resulting st remains, cut yarn, and pull out the yarn end. Voila, stretchy bind-off.

May 26, 2021
Finished the bottom edging, and starting the top edging. Sure enough, because I decided to use the “wrong side” of the triangle for the RS, when picking up sts for the top edging those sts have to be purled. On first row after pick-up row, purled them. Then on all following rows, knit to last st, yf, slip 1 pw. I think the slipped-st edge will look better.

Still needs to be washed and blocked. End up with 50 grams left over of the MC.