I cast on 59 stitches. I wanted a stole, not a scarf.

This is a very interesting project and it’s great fun to watch the drops form. I don’t recommend it for beginners.

The title really confused me because the explanation said there were hundreds of drops - but there aren’t any dropped stitches. I finally figured out that she meant the shapes in the pattern! They look like raindrops.

The flow of the pattern is very similar to the outside lace portion of the Shipwreck shawl, only instead of k2tog/yo it’s sl-k2tog-p/yo2. The practice I got fixing mistakes in Shipwreck really comes in handy here.

Also, rows 9 and 17 have stitches that are very similar to the vov stitch in Springtime Bandit. It would be a voov stitch. I wish this pattern were charted. I wonder if I can figure out how to chart it myself. Hmmm.

Lifelines are awkward because of the yos, but they’re possible. I’m putting them in on row 24, since that’s the end of the repeat. More frequent ones might be a better idea.

Since there are long YOs that hang out when the piece is squished up on a needle for knitting, it’s entirely possible that one of the random bars might get picked up as you knit a stitch. Keep this in mind if you have a weird looking crossover.

Here are the notes I’m using, now that I’m used to all the stitches and don’t want to lug around the whole PDF:

9 - Add VOOV for every other column.
10-13 - Business as usual.
14 - In drops: YO, pick up under 5 strands, YO
15 - In drops: pick up bias strands as slips, make drops 3 st wide, tug tight
16 - Decrease drop tops by 4
17 - Add VOOV for every other column.
18-21 - Business as usual.
22 - In drops: YO, pick up under 5 strands, YO
23 - In drops: pick up bias strands as slips, make drops 3 st wide, tug tight
24 - Decrease drop tops by 4

Last 8 rows: Business as usual.

May 9: This is going faaaaast. I’ve got about 24” done so far. Once you get used to the stitches, it’s very easy to memorize the pattern.

May 13: Okay, so it goes fast when I’m paying a modicum of attention. Happily, Wollmeise deals well to ripping back. A lot. It’s been three steps forward, two steps back.

Oct 1: I cast off a couple of weeks ago, but this shawl is so long that I’m going to have to get creative on blocking it. I need to get some PVC pipe so that I can block it doubled over. Otherwise, it’s all done with.

Oct 15: I’m finally going to block this tonight! I doubled it over 1/2” PVC to block, and it was 19” by 84” while blocking. I think the center section got a little wonky since it was doubled over and I couldn’t give it my usual severe blocking attention, but it’s not so much that I can’t stand it.

I took a big break on this project in the middle because I had planned to work on it while traveling, but then we ended up not traveling as I thought we would, so it just sat around, all unknitted, for a few months.