05/28/12 I’ve blocked the Shawl of Doom, and it is officially the size of my queen sized bed. I am totally smitten. This is slightly smaller than the original.

05/26/12 Finished this bad boy. Bound off all 760some stitches using Cheryl Oberle’s Very Stretchy and Beautiful Bindoff. I concur that it is indeed stretchy and beautiful.

Since the last update at the beginning of the year, I did indeed just rip out the stitches in the one segment that was wrong and fixed it. It worked well and I continued on. I had hoped to finish by my birthday of May 25, but realistically I knew based on previous experience that if I set a goal this shawl would squash me in to submission. I never voiced those hopes. Beginning in mid-April this was my main project I worked on. The second lace repeat became very natural to me and I didn’t have to look at the pattern hardly at all.

1/8/12 Pulled this out again tonight. I frogged five rows and picked up more than 500 stitches. I had put this back in purgatory after realizing I had messed up one segment and unsure of whether I should rip out the one section or if I should frog back to the end of the eyelet lace segment. This time around, I photo copied the errata page, and cut apart each row’s instructions and pasted them on a note card. makes it much easier to keep track of where I am in the pattern. Tonight I got through four rows while watching Downton Abbey.
12/20/09 As I was fixing the mess of yarn from the previous rip back I had more than 100 stitches slip off the needle. As I was cocky and didn’t put a life line in, I had to rip back to my last one 35 rows back (aka 20 inches). I rewound 1 1/2 skeins of yarn and sobbed the entire time. I am now back at the end of the first lace section. Since the deadline is over, I can enjoy knitting this, again.
12/15/09 I pulled this out, ripped back 12 rows in one section and figured out the mistake. I did not get it knit back up. It is back in progress. I am determined that I will finish this in less than a year. Actual time spent knitting will be much less than a year. It probably will spend more time in hibernation than knitting.

9/7/09 I knit like a mad woman over the holiday weekend only to discover that of the 16 rows I’d gotten done about the last eight in one section of the shawl was messed up. Grrr. It’s now in hibernation. I estimate it will take about four hours to fix. In the scheme of things, that’s not bad. The problem is I had a tight schedule of four rows a day or about 2 hours of knitting time. That would give me time to get it bound off by the 15th and washed, blocked and ready for the wedding on the 26th. Well, pregnancy swells things and those two hours of knitting were pushing the limits of my wrists. Even if I had time to fix it I don’t want to risk not being able to knit from now until February. So, it’s put away. I will fix it and have it ready to wear this fall, sometime.

8/21/09 After shifting in and out of the WIP rotation, I officially have less than a month to finish 62 rows, bind off and block this before the deadline.

I picked it back up, and knit the eyelet rows, and figured out what I need to adjust the stitch counts to make the last lace section work.
7/15/09 This is back in the WIP rotation, and has been at knit night for a few weeks. Actually it is the only project I’m allowing myself to work on. I am still (delusionally) optomistic that I’ll finish this by the Aug. 1 wedding on my calendar. It might be close.

I am at the point where I have 12 diamonds in each section. I am planning to end this first lace section after I have 13 diamonds in each section -- hopefully eliminating a bit of the length issue on my 5’3’’ frame. I will then be doing the eyelet rows.
I don’t think I’ve looks so longingly at a sock pattern and my DPNs as I am right now.
6/8/09 I’ve got too many projects on the needles right now. I’ve got to put this into hibernation for now. I need to get a few things ticked off the WIP list before I can pick this up, with complete fidelity. (Namely the Edster Hoodie and a pair of socks.) Then I should be able to come back and dedicate myself to having this gem for a wedding at the end of July.
4/27/09 I have decided since I am technically short yarn by 100 yards, and I am short I am going to eliminate two of the pattern repeats in the Diamond sections of the shawl. instead of having 15 diamonds in each section, I intend to have 13. From what people are saying and projects I’ve looked at, this project will be much larger after blocking. Fewer pattern repeat will save me a few inches and maybe this won’t overwhelm my smallish frame.

4/20/09 This project has been in purgatory for the last month +. I had discovered that I had made a mistake in the last row of the previous repeat and my diamonds suddenly resembled amoebas. I frogged back two pattern repeats, which I made the mistake to figure the number of stitches. I’m guessing it is about 4,000. I almost had to have a fortifying drink. Thankfully I had multiple life lines in. I’ve reknit all those stitches.

It is much easier now that I’ve written the directions for each row on a note card, poked a hole in it and put on a ring, and placed the entire thing in a plastic bag. Now I don’t have to find my place in the pattern. It also makes it easier to stop mid pattern repeat, which means I’ll be more likely to knit it.

3/01/09
I frogged the entire project last night. I was convinced I’d screwed it up. Now, after the fact, and 3 hours of knitting to get back to where I was, I don’t think is was * that * messed up. Alas, I’ve got the pattern down and it is going almost flawlessly. Four repeats done. Each one takes a bit over an hour to accomplish.

2/23/09
I spent the hour between work and Knit Night frogging back to the first life line, picking up stitches and reknitting everything I did the night before. During Knit Night I royally screwed up and NONE of my stitch counts were working, so I just stopped knowing I’d be going back to where I was earlier in the afternoon.

2/22/09
Swatched during the kids’ nap while I sort of watched Pirates of the Caribbean. I started and got through the neck shaping, and one pattern repeat during nap. During the entire Oscars, I knit another eight rows (we’re talking about 160 stitches or so at this point) I was apparently distracted. Realized at the end of the night that I’d messed up about four rows back and contemplated for a long time if I could live with it. I couldn’t. I put it away.

1/23/09
I fell in love with this shawl and decided this would be the, or maybe the first, truely heirloom knitting project. I then went in search of the perfect yarn and found it at Beth’s Yarn Basket in Okoboji when she was open for the Winter Games in January. It’s red, and sparkly with real bits of sterling silver -- it appeals to my inner racoon.

I also decided now was the time, because my little black dress I intend to wear to a couple weddings in August and September are ones that probably should have a great wrap to keep me looking proper during the ceremony.