Please note: This is fingering weight yarn. I don’t care what the label says!!! lol… It’s definitely fingering. I checked it’s WIP because it just feels and looks too thin to be sport weight. I was right. FINGERING!

The small hook (0.6 mm) is for the beading.

I am using 6.0 size beads. I plan on using only 1 color yarn but 2 colors of beads.

Green for the body of the shawl and Vintage Vienna Translucent Blue for the border. Both beads show up well against the yarn.

ETA No, the beads do not show up well when worked into the yarn. Not enough color contrast. They looked great next to the yarn before it was worked. But not so great once they were buried in the stitches.

It’s a bit tricky getting started. The yarn is slick and splitty. But I am getting there.

I am kind of wondering about size. I chose Medium because of the amount of yarn that I have. But, it looks very tiny compared to the pictures I am seeing in other projects. I am kind of concerned. Oh well, going to keep going for now and see what happens. I am going to go with a size Small.

Confusion for Size Small
On page 9: The pattern says for a small to proceed to Part B for Row 81 and up. That you are half way at this point.

I believe what is meant is that “Part B” is the 2nd half of the shawl. On page 13, titled Part B, it has a list of the row repetitions for the 2nd half of the shawl. All of the row repetitions are in Part A except for the last half of the last wedge which has it’s own page of instructions.

It was a bit confusing at first because I was looking for more instructions like Part A. But once you realize what is going on, it’s a nice way to shorten the length of the pattern.

Hardest part of the pattern so far
The tips on each of the ends of the body. They are small and there is a lot of back and forth. You just need to hang onto them really well.

Border

Next hard part of this shawl - the border. I am struggling with this border. I am beading it but it’s the crochet part that is just a struggle. It’s just hard.

I am not working on it much because the border is so difficult. But I have too much time invested to stop and frog the whole thing. I have thought about it multiple times! Just not feeling the love for this pattern at all.

It’s not the beading that makes this hard. It’s a combination of the splitty yarn and the difficulty of the pattern. I am sure the shawl will look fine when I am finished. I am just having a hard time working it. I am too invested in the shawl to quit. It’s just soooooo difficult.

Hardest part? I followed the charts because it was hard to see where I was at in the written sections. The ends of each row were difficult. Turning back and forth was hard to track to get everything to work right on the ends.

The tops and valleys of the border pattern weren’t hard, just use a LOT of stitch markers. I used a stitch marker in every ch 1 increase on each block.

Tip - It’s difficult to work the joining tr in the border. To keep it from looking sloppy, I would try to work it as tightly as possible. It’s the top of the stitch that would look sloppy to me. No matter how much I tried, it was really hard to keep the top of the stitch under control.

Somewhere in Row 2 of the border, I changed from making a tr to a half-tr stitch. It looks better to shorten this stitch.

I am going to only do 3 rows of the Border because it is so difficult. I can only finish this if I have an end in sight.

Added Edging

I have decided that I am going to add an additional edging at the bottom of the border. Something to connect all of the little squares. Yes, the little squares are pretty but I cannot imagine the work required to block this shawl. I think if I join the squares with an edging that it will help with maintenance.

When I make shawls now, I am always considering the maintenance. Most people do not want to fuss with blocking.

I am done! OMG … I am done!!! I have to say that this was one of the most difficult projects I have ever made. It was not the beading. It was the crocheting that was difficult - the border made of squares. It could be the yarn that I chose, but I am just darn glad it’s finished!

Dimensions

pre-block before my border
width - 52 inches
depth - 17 inches

pre-block
width - 56 inches
depth - 19 inches

hhmmm… I would say the border was only about 1 inch in depth. But it seemed to add double what I expected in width and depth. Interesting ….

post block
width - I have not blocked this shawl yet. I just spread it out with my fingers on my bed. It will look better when I unpack my blocking supplies.
depth -

Beads
6.0 opaque, green, seed beads for the body of the shawl

6.0 translucent, Blue #5, square hole, Vintage Venetian, seed beads for the border of the shawl

Hind Sight - Pick beads with a LOT more color contrast so that they show up better.