UPDATE: 2 October 2013
Entered this into a Brittany Needles contest and won a pair of needles! VERY excited! :-D

February 9, 2012
It’s blocking. Decided to try a wet block, and didn’t pull it out too hard because I love the textures and don’t want to lose too much of that. Figured steam blocking might not be the way to go, considering. So, we’ll see how long it takes to dry! I’m SO impatient! Hope it’s dry this time tomorrow! And hope no one walks on it. I have it blocking on the floor in an empty office where I work. But you know how people can be, especially non-knitters…… I’m a little worried….

February 7, 2012
Went to bed around 10:30 last night having knit the last row in the edging section. Woke up this morning at 4:30 to do the bind-off. Surprisingly slow-- took about 1.5 hours! But all it needs now is blocking! It feels VERY luxurious and wonderful! I’m SO excited! The photos in it’s unblocked state does NOT reflect the true colors of this wonderful shawl. Will take some outdoor shots at lunch time, and in a couple of days, the blocked shots. Trying to figure out how I’m going to accomplish this! Should I steam-block it? Wet-block it? Have no idea!

February 6, 2012
OMG-- All that’s left is the bind-off row and then the blocking. Holy Cow-- the light at the end of the tunnel shines so bright!!!!

January 21, 2012
Resumed Under Dutch Skiesthis afternoon-- was kind of confusing at first because I couldn’t remember where I left off (I’d assumed row 19 because I vaguely remember feeling resentful that it was time to sew in another lifeline, and I was very close-- I had finished row 17 and then stopped for long break). The other issue was (is) that I couldn’t remember if I was still moving my stitch markers or if I was letting them “float” through the pattern repeats. Finally decided to work the “back side” of shawl and then see if the stitch patterns for row 19 fit. Threaded lifeline in before determining that I was correct in original assumption and completed row 19 and 20. Still not sure about the stitch markers, but it’s all working out well! Like riding a bike, really! There’s nothing like fresh eyes!

Oct 7, 2011 through January 20, 2012
Took a break. Long story, but nutshell: I kept messing up and having to frog back, grew frustrated and teary and sulky because this thing was consuming my soul. Decided to give myself permission not to work on this for the rest of 2011.

9/8/2011
This is probably the last time I can photograph this shawl in-process because my 60-inch circulars are now full of stitches (stretched out). It’s starting to really look shawl-like! The old mannequin is a 2-year old toddler sized one, so you can imagine I have a ways to go to make it big enough to fit me and my line-backer shoulders. I’ve decided to go up to 20 leaves across the top and then decide if it’s big enough. I don’t think I want this to be a big shawl that goes down to my butt or anything like that, but I do want it to be bigger than a Boy’s Scout kerchief around my neck! La-la-la! It’s a good thing I like knitting this particular pattern!

I really love all the colors in these two yarns and the texture of the shawl itself. So soft and warm, and yet very lightweight. Just lovely!

9/1/2011
shhhhh! Don’t want to jinx this, but it’s growing! I now have 30 full leaves and 12 half leaves…. I had to spend about 30 minutes untangling the purple (prune) yarn. I had a center feed going, and somehow it started to unravel the outside line while part of it was still tucked away and I ended up with quite the mess in just one row of knitting. But it’s all good now! By the way, looks like I’ll need to add several more rows of pattern repeats because this baby is SMALL! And I’m not!

8/31/2011
Arrggg… Had to rip this thing back to the lifeline like 3 times over the weekend… Now I keep messing up the pattern around the center stitch. Last night I told my husband that one good thing about having to rip this back repeatedly is that I REALLY am getting to know the pattern well! Arrggg.. Trying to knit slower now. Speed doesn’t do so well here! I currently have (fingers crossed) 20 full leaves and 10 1/2 leaves…..

8/26/2011
Hallelujah! I got over the Curse of Row 19 thing! I was completely not seeing and therefore skipping over the yf sl1yo, brk14 times part right after the 4-st dec. Plus I was getting confused about where to stop after I reach the middle point. I’d get to that # and then go back to the * because I was mis-reading it! Anyway, oddly enough, I almost have the pattern memorized now. Not row 19, but 11-17! Anyway, I’m running out of yarn and I want to finish it instead of using this as another practice session before I pick up the lace yarn I bought for this project. So I guess I better get more while dye lot matching is still possible! I know that when it’s blocked, it’ll bloom and all that, but at the moment, I’m really loving the texture of this knit! It’s almost like a Zen sand sculpture!

8/24/2011 (after lunch)
Made it to row18 DS LC (I also got a lot of knitting done on my 1.5 hour morning commute-- I’m NOT that fast a knitter, heh!). Feeling better about it. When I’m done with row 18 DS DC, I’m threading a new lifeline in! I’ll tackle rows 19 when I get home. Need all my brain for this part!

8/24/2011
My KnitPick needles in US5 was driving me insane-- yarn was catching at the joins. But to make matters worse, I made an error in one section (2nd repeat of row 19 LS LC). Fortunately I discovered it before I finished that row, so I was able to undo one stitch at a time until I got to the error. Unfortunately, I completely flubbed that problem stitch (it was the brk3 tog stitch that did it) and undid too much of it and couldn’t figure out how to reconstruct what was essentially the row before that one. So I had myself a short internal scream of anguish, then decided to just frog it back to my lifeline (end of the 1st repeat of row 20 DS DC). Well, for Pete’s sake, I discovered that ONE stitch on my lifeline wasn’t right and I couldn’t figure out how to make it right and finally, after an hour and a couple of VERY stretched out stitches, I admitted defeat and put it down. Spent last evening doing everything but knitting because I was in a funk about the whole thing, and wondered why Row 19 LS LC confuses me each and every time. I cleaned the kitchen, did laundry, washed the bed linens, played with Lord Maximus Fluffybutt (the cat)…. Then right before bed I cut the threads on this one and picked out smaller needles (US 3’s because I was also not sure I was liking how open --i.e. airy-- this particular knit was turning out. I think the other issue was that because there’s not a lot of contrast between my 2 yarns, the openness of this knit kind of made the design hard to see.) and cast on again. Finished Row 2 DS DC by the time my husband came home and called it a night.

8/21/2011
Ok, this yarn knits up MUCH better. And I tend to like my lace to be a little less “airy” than usual, so that’s why I’m using the smaller needles. I’m not a huge fan of very spidery lace, at least not on ME. It’s beautiful, though. Not too sure of the colors-- they are a little too similar-- gets difficult to tell which is which after a while, but I think it’d make such a beautiful shawl if I can keep it up! So I’m pretty happy about this one so far!