November 3, 2023

Casting on my third Audrey Hepburn today! I want it even longer than the last one, so I’m casting on 320+1. I bought 8 balls to be sure I’d have enough.

Cast on notes that may be helpful to others, which I have to re-remember each time:

• To avoid running out of long tail, I knot together 4 ends from 4 balls, and use 2 together for each side of the CO. Just cut one of them when the CO is complete.
• To avoid losing count, I CO 50, stop to recount them, then place a marker. That way each section of 50 is already verified, and I can just count by 50s at the end.

November 5
About 2” in now! Timing my rows:

• Purl/star stitch row, 15 minutes.
• Beaded knit row, 16 minutes
• Regular knit row, 10 minutes

November 9
I finished my first 2 balls yesterday, at just under 6” width. I wish you could see the beads better in the pictures, but the whole point is to be subtle and sparkly, so I guess they’re perfect!

November 13
I just attached my 5/6th balls, and my width is just under 12”. I have 17 beaded rows, which is about 8.5 repeats. I am knitting 1-2 hours per day (more on the weekends) to finish quickly.

I accidentally worked 2 rows the same (did not move the star over) so there’s an interruption in the flow. I did the same thing on the last one, and it’s not really noticable unless it’s held up to the light.

My LAST shawl was 20” unblocked, and 24” blocked, so I’ll probably need to break into the “extra” 2 balls I bought for a couple of repeats. I did CO more sts for this one to make it longer, so that makes sense.

November 21
Finished the 5/6th balls at about 17” wide. 3” to go on the 7/8th balls!

November 26
Finished at just over 20”!! The shawl took 1 entire 85g (2.9oz) tube of 6/0 glass beads.

58x19 unblocked