Cast on my first shawl for the 12 shawls in 2013 challenge! This is my first pattern from one of my favourite designers, Corrina Ferguson - the first of many, I’m sure! I’m excited to make this pretty and unusual shawl.

This was a fortuitous pattern purchase. In late November last year, I was studying for my Jurisprudence final exam - specifically, the American Realist school, and the jurisprudential philosopher Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. Not being particularly enamoured with the subject, I decided to take a break and see what Cyber Monday specials were running on Ravelry. I was delighted to see that Corrina had a special offer on her patterns - and chuckled at the coincidence of a shawl named after a poet called Wendell Holmes, so similar to the philosopher I had been studying. Well, as it turns out, the poet in question is actually the father of the man whose legal philosophies I was learning - which goes to show that (i) knitting can be educational, and (ii) going on to Ravelry when you should really be studying is not necessarily procrastinating (lol)! And, as I sat writing my Jurisprudence exam, I had to smile as I began answering the question set specifically on Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. - “not only did he make great contributions to the Realist school, but his father’s poetry also inspired a really beautiful shawl”!
Now that the dry subject of Jurisprudence is done and dusted (and passed well!), I can sit back and relax with my lovely shawl, named in honour of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

I am very lucky and grateful to be using some truly gorgeous wool from Hartlam, my new favourite yarn shop, that was RAK’d to me! Thank you so much, capetownknitter - I hope this project does this lovely wool justice!

I’m also breaking in my beautiful new stitch markers that I won from RosyRetro - they look so pretty against this wool! :)

I think the crochet bind-off will present something of a challenge as my crochet skills leave something to be desired! Hopefully, this will be a good kind of challenge :)

Please note that Corrina has updated and corrected the pattern since I wrote these notes. Hopefully, the errata noted here have now all been fixed! :)

3 January 2013: cast on; set up chart completed.
Because I have less wool than the pattern calls for, I will only be doing 4 repeats + 10 rows of the vine body chart, as opposed to the 5 repeats + 10 rows called for. Hopefully it will work out!

I’m blind :| Been staring at the ‘twist’ instructions and reading the first word as ‘slip’. The word is ‘SKIP’. Oi vey!

I’ve decided to work the textured stitches like cables, as suggested by the very helpful notes from Pistachio’s project, bookmarked on the right (thank you!). Going quickly - finished the first working of the Vine Lace Body chart.
First repeat of Vine Lace Body chart completed.
Second repeat of VLB chart completed. It’s looking lovely and flying off the needles!

4 January 2013: completed third repeat of the VLB chart. Now things get interesting. I’ve known going in to this that I don’t have enough wool to make the shawl as written. My initial plan was thus to to only 4 VLB charts + 10 rows. However, reading the other notes on this project suggests that a lot of yarn goes to working the crochet BO. This has me wondering whether I can work the body of the shawl as written, and then super-sneakily use a different yarn for the BO. I’m deciding to be brave and go for it (using a life-line just in case)!

5 January 2013: fifth and final full working of VLB completed. Finished the final 10-row working of the chart too. Forgot to weigh after lifeline but will add weight of project at current point tomorrow :)

Just want to note that the VLB chart was so lovely to knit - very relaxing and good TV knitting! Really, really enjoying this shawl thus far!

8 January 2013: Wow, I haven’t updated for a while! This is mostly because we are experiencing a massive heatwave at the moment, and knitting has all but ground to a halt!

I did do a weighing after the final VLB repeat and, according to our somewhat dodgy kitchen scale, I had used 50 grams at that point. I’m not sure how accurate this is, but it did give me courage to forge ahead!

The Golden Flower Chart has proved to be not nearly as pleasant as the VLB Chart. For starters, it’s not exactly mindless - and definitely should not have been attempted while watching Alien and Aliens, of all things! Having to tink back every few rows taught me a lesson soon enough!

I was also really confused at first by the way the centre stitches are charted. This might be down to my (extremely limited!) chart-reading experience, or my use of markers to demarcate the centre, but it took me a little while to realise that on the second (and subsequent) rows, the centre stitches are ‘absorbed’ by the main chart stitches. So on row 1, 1 marker, 1 centre stitch (CS), 1 marker --> 1 marker, 3 stitches, 1 marker; on row 2, this --> 1 stitch (worked as in main right chart), 1 marker, 1 CS, 1 marker, 1 stitch (worked as in main left chart). Not sure if this makes sense, but I’m noting this for my own future reference!

At the end of today, I have just finished row 19. I have (according to the - again, dodgy - scale) approximately 30 grams remaining, which is more than I’d hoped for at this point. I’d love to get to row 26 or thereabouts before running out of the gorgeous Hartlam, which I think is actually even lovelier knitted than it appeared from the skein! I’m thinking of using Rowan Fine Nordic Tweed for the last bit, because it comes in a range which should, hopefully, complement the Hartlam, and also comes in 25g balls, so it shouldn’t be too wasteful a purchase.

10 January 2013: just finished row 28. Finally starting to look like I’m about to run out of wool. I did weigh what I have left at around row 25 but I don’t think I should trust the scale any longer as it showed 20 grams remaining! Going to carry on until I run out, and then hit the LYS for some Rowan!

ETA that I’ve made it to row 32, and still have (some!) wool left! I would love to be able to finish at least row 33 before running out! :)
ETA 2: YES! Just finished row 33! :D Might be able to finish the chart in the Hartlam after all, but will have to see tomorrow…

11 January 2013: I’m so happy :D I did manage to finish the main body of the shawl in the Hartlam! Miraculously, I still have a teeny bit left, too! It’s not enough to complete the two-row BO, though, so I will be heading to the LYS to pick up a neutral tone to finish it off. I also don’t have the required crochet hook size (forgot to check that when I started!) so the project will be ‘in progress’ for a little while longer until I get to Arthur Bales (hopefully) sometime next week. At this stage, I can’t wait to finish it and see what it looks like after blocking!

16 January 2013: finally made it to my LYS. Typically, they didn’t have the colour I was after in Fine Tweed…but they did have an even better colour in Rowan Pure Wool 4-ply! My amazing mom picked it out and it is actually a perfect match for the Hartlam!! Absolutely thrilled to bits :D

Finished the first of the two rows of crochet BO. It was very slow, but looks lovely so far, and I’m now getting really impatient to block this and see the finished shawl!

Not sure if I did this ‘correctly’, as I seem to have interpreted the instructions differently to some others who’ve made the shawl…I worked the first row as k3tog, ch 6, then slip the st on the hook to the left needle and k3tog. I’m not too worried though - loops are just loops, after all!

17 January 2013: halfway through the second BO row…

18 January 2013: I’m finished! :D I’m quite proud of my crocheting on this project, and I can’t wait to see it blocked! The colours match perfectly and the Hartlam looks simply incredible. It even looks good with my hair, which I must say was a pleasant surprise! Ironically, today is the first day it’s rained in weeks, so fingers crossed for warmer weather on the weekend for blocking!

In the interim, I’ll post some final thoughts on the pattern, wool and overall experience a bit later.

Thoughts on the wool used: I used 90 grams of the Hartlam for the main body of the shawl, and 20 grams of the Rowan for the two-row crochet BO, for a combined total of 110 grams or 393 meters. As is evident from the numbers, the BO really eats wool up - I’m so glad I bought a full extra skein of sock yarn for it!

I’m absolutely in love with the Hartlam wool. The colours are breath-taking and well balanced, with the bright yellow tone of the green being tempered down by the soft brown and tan tones. It’s wonderfully soft too. I have no complaints about the quality (although, as an aside, I did notice that this colourway tended to pill more than the orange “Naartjie” I used on my last shawl). I think Hartlam has become my new go-to for beautiful wool! And, just to note, the Hartlam did not bleed any colour at all when either shawl was wet-blocked - just to confirm how great it is!

The Rowan is always good quality and comes in lovely colours. I’m so chuffed that I was able to match this vibrant green to the Hartlam colourway! The 4-ply was nice to crochet with, although I did find it to be a little splitty at times.

Thoughts on the pattern: I had some issues with this pattern. The Golden Flower chart was confusing, especially regarding the centre stitches, and I found the crochet instructions to be ambiguous. In addition, there are a number of small typos present, which, while not disastrous enough as to hinder understanding of the pattern, are still irksome considering the price of the pattern. I really do think that this pattern could do with some revision (my download is marked as v. 1.1). If you are thinking of knitting this, and especially if you have as little shawl-knitting experience as I do, make sure you read through the notes made by other Ravellers in relation to this shawl before you get stuck!

This design is really very lovely - it would be nice if the pattern matched the FO!

Thoughts on the overall experience: I have nothing but praise for the wool I used - I don’t think one could have a bad knitting experience using the Hartlam Calvinia Sock! The Vine Lace Body chart was wonderful and relaxing to work - perfect for a hot South African summer day! While the Golden Flower chart was frustrating at times, it was still an enjoyable lace knit. Overall, then, this was a really enjoyable knit.

Blocking the shawl was not as much fun - but then again, is it ever, really? :P I simply did not have enough pins or patience to block all the crochet loops properly, but I’m pleased with the outcome anyway.

Finally, I do have to say that the FO is one of my absolute favourites, ever; that I’m ridiculously proud of it; and that I wouldn’t be adverse to knitting this gorgeous shawl again in the future :)

Update, 21 October 2013 I am arbitrarily updating these (suuuuuper long!) project notes to add that I still absolutely love this shawl, but I have made a number of them since finishing this and have learned some useful skills…including blocking! Having now acquired some knowledge in this regard, as well as blocking wires and many, many more pins, I have a desperate urge to reblock this in a manner befitting this gorgeous design. So expect new pictures of a properly blocked shawl once I’m home and have time to do so! :)