06/10/2017

Started a few days ago, using Wool2Dye4 soft singles that I dyed, and dyed some more. I wanted mid to dark grays, and ended out taking it to black, but you can still see oranges and greens underneath it (because u thought they might look cool speckled into the gray - they didn’t). I dyed the yarn in two skeins, along with another two that were dyed orange. Didn’t love how the looked, and didn’t really feel like going “Halloween to the extreme”, so one of the two dark ones got overdyed with Gun Metal, and the other went more leather-y colored with Chestnut. I’m using the one that got overdyed with Gun Metal here…

Brett has named this color Octopus Squirts, and I like it!

Assuming I decide to use beads, I might go with ones that pair the Danse Macabre pattern name with the dark colors and aquatic theme of Octopus Squirts - so beads that go with submerging into the abysmal depths…

Finished through three repeats of chart two.

06/12/2017

Finished chart three.

06/19/2017

Finished chart four.

07/02/2017

Finished chart five. Slow going with a week off for woven shibori workshop, numerous flare ups, going to movies, yard work, etc. Let’s see if I can get back on track - work auction is something like July 27!

Switched up from US6 to US7 after chart five. Am a little worried there might not be enough yarn!

07/07/2017

Almost halfway through chart 6,and i am NOT going to have enough of the home dyed Octopus Squirts. Nuts.

And you know this isn’t something I can repeat - I think this was the dye job that used up all my gunmetal color dye.

Might have to see if I have a complementary color in tosh merino light or something similar.

07/12/2017

Have had to make some big changes as I realized there wasn’t going to be enough Octopus Squirt yarn to finish this, plus I’ve felt there was a little pressure on time, what with the auction on 7/25/2017 (which I won’t be able to attend because of a two-day training session I’d rather not attend).

So after knitting row 8 of chart 6 I took a serious look at the upcoming parts of the pattern, at the pics of the completed shawl to figure out which parts I didn’t really want to skip, and how much yarn I had left.

With just a little finagling of the two edge sections, I realized I was at the perfect spot to skip the rest of chart 6 (rows 9-20!), and skip ALL of chart 7, and I could jump right in to chart 8 - and I THINK it’ll look like the shawl was intended to look this way! Like there shouldn’t be anything weird about the finished product. SWEEEEET!

So I weighed my yarn - 21g of Octopus Squirt left after chart 6, row 8. Heck, that’s like a fifth of the skein! How could I possibly run out.

Oh yeah - biiiiig lace work ahead, including part of the pattern where on one row you turn one stitch into two, then on the next row you add three new YOs between those two stitches, and then on the next row those three YOs turn into TEN new stitches.

Yup, this thing is sucking up yarn like me in a candy store. Crud.

Ok, keep on trucking, and see how things feel.

I got through row 4 of chart 8 with 11g remaining of Octopus Squirts. I decided it was time to add in a new color (going with Fog in Tosh Merino Light, which complements it well), and will save that last 11g of Octopus Squirts for the bind off row.

07/13/2017

Tosh merino light in Fog is actually looking really nice. The progress pics don’t do it justice.

07/17/2017

Chart 8 done! Last chart left, but even with only four rows and binding off, it looks like it’s a doozie!

07/19/2017

Finished chart 8.
Finished chart 9,row 1. 55g of Fog left. Going to keep track of yarn needed for each row so I can see how much might be needed by the final row (although it’s full of picots). If I think there’s a chance I can switch back to octopus squirts (11g left), I’ll switch back to the darker yarn for contrast.

Wouldn’t have enough beads needed for remainder of shawl (167 needed), but I have beads from another company that apear to be the same (their exterior diameter is a super tiny bit smaller), so I’m alternating the two brands of beads and no one will notice.

07/21/2017

Even though I have enough Fog (the medium blue-gray color), I’m switching to Aura (light silvery blue) for the final row of Chart 9 plus the bind off row.

07/22/2017

60” at widest point.
24.5” nape of neck to base
67” tip to tip (curled).

Done! Blocking and just needs ends woven in.

Sooooo glad I changed colors through this, rather than stuck with all one color!