FO: Hanami Stole

Here's my finished Hanami Stole!  Very happy with it, silk just has the most beautiful drape.

This took me way too long, as is my habit with large projects I procrastinated and worried about how long it was going to take me rather than getting on with the job.  Once I started working on it every day it did work up quickly.  Even with having to refer to the pattern line by line, no memorising this one, definitely my most complicated lace knit to date!

pre-blocked

 This was a definite skill-upper for me, at the beginning I was writing out the pattern line by line as I found the chart too difficult to keep track of, but by the end of it I was able to follow the pattern and read the chart. as I went

Photo-shoot at the local man-made lake!

 This was a wedding gift for a dear friend.  I intended to make a scarf for the groom as well, and indeed started on it, but ran out of time - oops!

Ducks could not give a crap about my shawl.  How rude!

Luckily, this is not my colour, otherwise it would have been very difficult to wrap it up and give it away!  No word on my friend's thoughts are at this point (ok, the wedding was only on Saturday so I'm sure she has other things to do...).  I'm sure she will love it but I am insecure and am in desperate need of some feedback!  

This is how I would wear it.  Hint hint nusm!! 

All in all, happy to have this done and looking forward to making some more knitted wedding gifts!  Have already promised 2 scarfs for a late December wedding... stay tuned!

Pattern:  Hanami Stole.  Most of it is charted, and it has very detailed instructions for a beaded cast on (which I didn't do because I thought like 30 beads in the scheme of things would not make much difference).  Also has instructions to make
Yarn:  Handmaiden Fine Yarn Sea Silk in Moondust purchased from Eat Sleep Knit.
Needles:  I started with 4.5mm, but it was far too loose for the lacey design and went down to 3.25mm.  Really want to work on something chunky now!!
Raveled here.

~Tan

p.s.  I also commissioned Anna Rettberg to draw a portrait of the couple (and their cat!) as an additional gift.  I think this is the coolest gift ever!

p.p.s.  At said wedding they gave out PENGUIN BOOKS as their bomboniere.  If that's not the tightest shit you've ever seen then you can just get out.  I chose The Shiralee - I've seen the miniseries and did not even know it was a book!  Adam chose The Power of One.

summer lovin'

Hahaha song titles.  have yaself some cliche

Woo I started working on the Sweet Summer Rays shawl as part of my very first KAL.  To be honest, I can totally handle a more complicated pattern, but I like it anyways and I really want a nice shawl in this colour.

This is some of the fabled Wollmeise! It's the sock yarn, I think the "pure" is supposed to be better?  Anyway, this one has some great stitch definition, not particularly soft but giving me a lovely spongey fabric so far.

~Tan

Linking to- WIP Wednesday (Tami's Amis) | WIP Wednesday (Ambassador Crochet) | Yarn Along (Small Things) | Keep Calm and Craft On {Crafting on} (Frontier Dreams) | What you doing Wednesday (SusanD1408 Crochet Addict) | Hookin on Hump Day (My Merry Messy Life) | Muster Party (Fluster Buster)

WIP: delightful

I was on holiday last week.  This is how progress on my shawl looked like at the time:

Also featured in this photo:  my white white Melbourne feet.

I have renamed my shawl to Sailor's Delight, at the suggestion of Lisa.  I quite like the new name, more than I do the pink/purple colour scheme, but I will soldier on and hope the overall effect will be pleasing.  I'm not sure if I have enough yarn at this stage, so that too could prove annoying.  It currently measures 61cm.

And, astoundingly, during my holiday I cast on and nearly completed Thinking of You.  And as a matter of fact, I cast off last night.  I've made the scarf shorter than in the pattern, at the request of the recipient.  Also, I have the sneaking suspicion that I have done this whole thing wrong, as I can't really see the yarn overs.  Maybe with blocking?  Looking at other projects, the pattern in the pre-blocking photos look much more pronounced than mine.  We shall see.  I haven't had a chance to take a more recent photo, so here is one at an earlier stage, included for, you know, posterity.

I didn't take this one to the beach, far too complicated to take the pattern and all that jazz. 

And now, what am I reading?  Yesterday I started reading two books.  What on earth is wrong with me?  I found myself a lovely little online version of Pride and Prejudice and have been sneaking a chapter or two in whenever I have a free moment.  A close friend of mine had never read P&P, even though she is an avid reader.  I ordered her to read it immediately - and guess what??  She hated it.  I am seriously reconsidering my friendship with her. 

via

And during my commute, I have been listening to Jane Eyre, my all time favourite book.  It has been far too long since I last read this book, and am enjoying it immensely (am I allowed to say that about such a depressing story?).

via

-Linking to-

WIP Wednesday (Tami's Amis)

WIP Wednesday (Ambassador Crochet)

Yarn Along (Small Things)

Keep Calm and Craft On {Crafting on} (Frontier Dreams)

What you doing Wednesday (SusanD1408 Crochet Addict)
Hookin on Hump Day (My Merry Messy Life)

WIP: are you sitting down?

Well, are you?  Because this is going to blow your socks off!

Alright, enough of being a giant nerd, but what I'm trying to get at here is how happy I am with my Sailor Purples Shawl.  After a mini roadblock last week, I managed to get around to dyeing some yarn and have started adding stripes.  Now, the original intent was to have a bunch of different purples, but what I got from dyeing was some purple, but also pink and burgundy.  Still, I think it's looking pretty rad (I mean look at how that that yarn in the second stripe is working up!), but it will probably need a new name.  It's measuring 48 cm now. 

Only nominal progress on Finn (as a few of you guessed correctly last week) so no photos, but I am pleased to report that I have FINISHED all the motifs for Blissful Flowers, but only have the following dirty picture for you.  Now I just need to add fringe and block!  Do I add the fringe before blocking?  I think I will because the yarn is a bit kinky.

Check out that edging bro.  Masterful.

Still listening to The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes, and nearly finished re-watching Sherlock season 2.  I'm really enjoying both.  The book is quite amusing, Sherlock is all 'don't worry Watson, you can't help being stupid' while at the same time always reiterating how much he values his friendship a la 'that's my Watson'. 

I know how much y'all like gifs.  This took me ages to find (via)

Tangentially, check this tumblr for pwning Sherlock fanart!!!!

-Linking to-

WIP Wednesday (Tami's Amis)

WIP Wednesday (Ambassador Crochet)

Yarn Along (Small Things)

Keep Calm and Craft On {Crafting on} (Frontier Dreams)

What you doing Wednesday (SusanD1408 Crochet Addict)
Hookin on Hump Day (My Merry Messy Life)

ETA:   Also a WIP is the look of the ol' bloggie.  I've mad a few small changes, you like?

WIP: doldrums

Hi there.   Nothing particularly exciting to show off today, even though I have been doing my best to keep my hook moving at every opportunity.

My Sailor Purples Shawl (haha, so clever, as I'm using purple instead of blue *snort*) is coming along, though I expect progress to slow down now the rows are getting longer.  I can get about 2 rows done per train ride at the moment.  It currently measures 34cm.  My plan is to use the rest of the black I have, then use the pink/purple remnants for stripes.  Hope I have enough, but I plan to do a bit of dyeing on the weekend (omg exciting!!!) to get another shade or two.

I found it amusing that a few of the comments on this shawl last week were all about how impressive it is that I am working with black yarn!  Yes, I do indeed have super vision.  

You can kinda get a sense of the texture by the picture on the left.

And, the poor little Blissful Flowers Shawl.  Still going, less than half a row to go now, so the end is in sight.  It took me a while to reverse engineer a way to add extra rows onto the outside of the shawl to make it larger.  A downside to the 'clever' outside-in construction of this shawl that I was so fond of initially, is that you have less control over the finished size, obviously causing problems when it turns out smaller than you would have liked. 

Just for you, a creative half in half out of focus shot.  Ooooo arty.

I will tell you something about these projects, it appears I am the first person to make them on Ravelry.  It gives me a bit of a kick really, I feel like a pioneer!  (Yes, my life is otherwise devoid of meaning)

I'm finishing up the third Curse Workers book, Black Heart, at the moment.  All in all it has been a thoroughly enjoyable series, and a very good audiobook to listen to during my daily commute (this means not too complicated to follow / holds my attention so I don't tune out).  Plus the audiobook is read by Jesse Eisenberg - how weird!  Who'd a thunk you could like a protagonist who's a blatant criminal?  And isn't Lila a pretty name? 

via

-Linking to-

WIP Wednesday (Tami's Amis)

WIP Wednesday (Ambassador Crochet)

Yarn Along (Small Things)

Keep Calm and Craft On {Crafting on} (Frontier Dreams)

What you doing Wednesday (SusanD1408 Crochet Addict)
Hookin on Hump Day (My Merry Messy Life)

WIP: In blackest night

Ok, my title has only a tenuous connection to this post, sorry Green Lantern fans.  I just couldn't think of anything cleverer.

I started a new shawl on Monday, it's Lynne Sibley's Sailor Blues Shawl.  I've already mentioned how much I love Lynne as a crocheter - she comes up with the most ingenious designs!  I had a 6 hour round train trip to Moe on Monday, so I picked this out as a new commuter project.  I'll tell you, it's really slow going.  You can see by my extremely terrible picture it works up to a fairly dense fabric, and with the 2ply its going to be a long process.  So far I've worked 21cm.  I'm finding the black yarn makes it a bit difficult to see the end stitches, and I can't really tell where I'm up to (despite only a 4 row repeat), so I'm going to get out a bunch of stitch markers to try to keep track. 

I'm going to work this in the black yarn left over from Dahlia III and then add purple stripes with some random 2ply remnants I got for $2 from the bwm bargain room.  

I have no idea how I am going to show you the stitch pattern.  It really is quite nice, trust me.  Also, why is my shawl looking humpy?  I'm going to rely on blocking to fix that. 

And what am I reading?  I finished the second Curse Workers book this morning, Red Glove.  I'm enjoying the series, though the first book is my favourite so far - even though I guessed the twist, it was super interesting.  Red Glove ended in an interesting way, so I'm looking forward to Black Heart!  (Thanks again for recommending the books Lisa!)

I too would like to go naked if I had a body like that (via)

-Linking to-

WIP Wednesday (Tami's Amis)

WIP Wednesday (Ambassador Crochet)

Yarn Along (Small Things)
Keep Calm and Craft On {Crafting on} (Frontier Dreams)
What you doing Wednesday (SusanD1408 Crochet Addict)

WIP: Ripplin' right along

Yup, I've been rippllin' this week.  I've done about 25 rows of the baby blanket, which makes 7".  I want the blanket to be 26" square, so I believe I need around 93 rows.  So by my calculations, I'm about 37% of the way through.  How's my math?

I've adapted the pattern from the cardi from this set to make this baby blanket to match the set I'm also making.  I've written up the pattern on my project page if you are interested (let me know if there are any boo boos!).


This photo proves that the best place to take pictures of my work is at work. 

And the big news, I finished all the motifs on the Blissful Flowers Shawl!  Unblocked it measures 45".  I dont know how large it's supposed to be before blocking, so I'm a bit worried it won't block to the 70" specified in the pattern.  The pattern picture depicts a very large shawl indeed.   I'm going to do a trial blocking this weekend before I move onto the border, so I can add another row of motifs along the bottom if need be. 

Don't worry, blocking will make those flowers bllooooooommmmm!!

As for yarning along, I'm reading the second Hunger Games book, Catching Fire.  I'm much more satisfied with this book than the last, which surprises me given that I've been told by many that the first is the best.  It's still just teenage fluff, but a good one to listen to on audiobook on the train in the morning when I'm sleepy. 


via



-Linking to-

WIP Wednesday (Tami's Amis)

WIP Wednesday (Ambassador Crochet)

Yarn Along (Small Things)
Keep Calm and Craft On {Crafting on} (Frontier Dreams)

***CATURDAY PLUG***

I'm trying to start a *thing*.  I don't really know the rules around these things, but because I love The Kitten so much, I always want to share her awesomeness with those around me!  So, every Saturday will be Caturday at My Grandmotherly Ways.  Every Caturday I will post a picture of The Kitten, and maybe some other feline related stuff.  I will add a widget which will allow you to link up with me, so you too may participate in Caturday and show us your furbabies!! Hope to see you back here on Sat.... er... Caturday!!

WIP: Actual progress and jumping on the bandwagon.

Hello Wednesday!  I got a lot of great comments on my post last week, pursuant to which I exposed myself and my list of shameful list of WIPs.  Very happy that I could make some of you feel better, by either drawfing or drawing comparitively close to your amount of WIPs (I'm looking at you Andria, HillyT, Laura, Jocelyn and heather). 

I was also very enthused on the love for my TARDIS, so I will hopefully pick that one back up soon!!

And from now on, I will show you only actual progress made during the week. 

This week has been a crochet-a-thon.  I had a three hour train round trip on Sunday, perfect hooking conditions to work on my Blissful Flowers Shawl.  I've pinned out a section of it here so you can see the pattern.  It's natural state is bunched up, as per the picture to the right.  This will be rectified in blocking I'm sure.  

The best thing about this shawl is that the rows get shorter instead of longer.  All the shawls I've made thus far get bigger as you go, so you don't feel the progress.  This one is going to get super fun as the rows ger shorter!  I am currently on motif 55 of 144 (~40%!!).

I am now into what I call the 'skeleton' of the skein to the left.  I have peeled away its skin.

Ok, this next one is a newbie, but I'm not counting it as new because what I wanted was a set for a baby girl, and it became clear this one which I shared last week was going to be too big, and I am just not in the mood to faff about getting it the right size, ok?  Jeez get off my back! 

So instead I've selected this pattern for a baby set.  There are a lot of pretty versions out there, though mainly just the cardi, but I am making the bonnet and booties too.  Then the fun part - I get to satisfy my urge to make a ripple blanket by making a ripple baby blankie to match!  It's slower going than I would usually like, I believe due to the 4 ply yarn, the 3mm hook and crocheting into the back loop, which I dont engage in very often. Purty though!!


Progress shot taken in terrible lighting to the left, beautiful daylight photo of my magnificent stitching to the right.

Sooo.. thats the crochet.  Now I need to confess that I've jumped onto the bandwagon... the Hunger Games bandwagon.  (Party because Gingerhaze makes great comics about it and I wanted to be in on the joke.)  I haven't seen the movie yet, but I just haven't been able to avoid the hype, so I started the first audiobook this morning.  It's interesting enough, but it annoys me that there is so much hype when there is existing, very wonderful, stories about this same premise out there (Battle Royal?  The Long Walk?).

So, linking up with WIP Wednesday at Tami's Amis, Ambassador Crochet, Yarn Along with Ginny and Frontier Dreams.

***CATURDAY PLUG***

I'm trying to start a *thing*.  I don't really know the rules around these things, but because I love The Kitten so much, I always want to share her awesomeness with those around me!  So, every Saturday will be Caturday at My Grandmotherly Ways.  Every Caturday I will post a picture of The Kitten, and maybe some other feline related stuff.  I will add a widget which will allow you to link up with me, so you too may participate in Caturday and show us your furbabies!! Hope to see you back here on Sat.... er... Caturday!!

FO: Dahlia the third and pins

I completed my THIRD Dahlia and gave it to its most deserving recipient, my Crochet Biatch, R.  Only one week late for her birthday.  I think she liked it!  She peeled off her scarf and two cardigans she was wearing to keep herself warm from the chilly office aircon.  Even though this is not a shawl for warmth, more for decoration!!

Here are some before and after pictures.  I just love the transformation from bunched up to lacey and drapey that blocking does to this shawl.    


Including the obligatory 'photo including feet' which is just so fashionable in blog land.

  Oh, you'd like some stats?

Pattern:  Dahlia Shawl (duh)
Measurements: Blcoked to the recommended 70" x 35"
Yarn:  Bendigo Woollen Mills Classic 2ply cone.  Great yarn, I will be using more of this.  Just so economical and wonderful results!  It turned our really lovely and soft.  I only used 140g of the 200g cone.

And finally, modelled by the lovely Crochet Biatch R herself!!

Blocking is great isn't it?  Although this blocking this shawl is always a pinning marathon.  I used 226 pins for this sucker!  (Yes, I have a thing with counting...)  On top of that, I couldn't find my tin of pins, you know the one, with the pictures of pins on the tin?  So I had to go to TWO different supermarkets to find some more.  Seriously, first world problems. 

And to make matters worse one of the heads of the pins fell off while I was madly pinning and I it stabbed me! And I had a couple of anomolies.  Meet Blunt Pin and Two Head Pin.  I was trying to use Blunt Pin and getting increasingly frustrated until I actually looked at it and realised it was blunt.  Gah!

Yes, I really did take close up pictures of pins.  I thought you'd be interested. 

via

So, with number three finished I am putting my foot down and instituting a "No moar dahlias" rule! Onward and upward to different things!!

Maybe just one more..

via

Go to Tami's Amis for more lurvely FOs.  Now!

Also linking with Creative Friday at Natural Suburbia :D

WIP(s). Taking Stock

Holey Moley I have a lot of WIPs.  A LOT.  I think I lamented this fact a while back, but again, the amount of little project bags dotting my living space has made me feel anxious.

So today I wanted to air them out, and hopefully full disclosure will set my mind at ease!   I warn you that you might actually be bored to tears by this, and I'm sure a lot of you will be all 'TL;DR' but whatevs!  This is mah blog and I'll do what ah wahnt!!

Imma start with the newbies.

1.  Blissful Flowers Shawl.  Making this for my crochet biatch, Ang for her birthday in May.  Her choice of pattern and colour (the colour is very difficult to photograph, its a lot nicer in real life).  Such a clever construction!  A way to make a billion motifs without having to cut the yarn!  Genious!  I am enjoying the challenge of a new pattern.  The pattern is from Kristin Omdahl's  Seamless Crochet.

Brought to you by my super exclusive and very fashionable Pandora vinyl tote!

2.  Baby set.  Another first, my first time working a Japanese pattern.  At first I was like waaahhhhhhh??  I'm usually quite good with diagrams, but the back of the bonnet had me stumped.  For a day.  Then I was all, whatevs, I got skillz, Imma do this!  And I did.  

Brought to you by my awesome Dark Days Down Under tour tote I picked up at the book signing!

3.  Neat Ripple Scarf.  Just grabbed a left over skein of King Cole to try this Lucy pattern out. I'm planning a ripple blanket (pfft after I get through my current WIPs) and seeing which ripples turn me on.  Though I love Lucy, this pattern just wasn't pressing my buttons, so I think i will opt for the ripplier Ripples of Happiness.  Happiness > Neatness anyway, right?

Bow down before my blurry photography prowess!!

4. Amigurumi BTTF Delorean.  Seriously, no joke.  Freestylin' this for my man.  I got so excited he actually asked me to crochet him something, I thought, woooo fo' sure!  I made the bonnet and the windscreen, then run out of puff because I couldn't work out how to make a slope.  Watch this space though! 

Brought to you by my spiff Yarn Bucket!

To clarify, this is a Delorean from the Back to the Future Animated Series. Yes, there was an animated series! 

What up Marty? (via)

And some other stuffs you may have seen before.

5. Hitchhiker.  Nothing new here.  Move along.  

wait wait WAIT! I keep this project in one of my home made GRAB BAGS.  Yerr I made these myself.  Pattern here.  If I can make this, being a spaztasitc sewer, so can you!

6. Gauzy Gathers Scarf.  Haven't actually touched this is aaaagggeesss.  Such a shame because it will be such a cute scarf.  I did a few rows when I got my new bamboo needles, and the yarn likes the bamboo much more than ickle plastic, but it's so fiddly I moved onto different garterlicious knitting projects and left this one to hiberate.  Sweet dreams little scarf.

Brought to you courtesy of this lovely plastastic flower tote!

7. Stepping Stones Cardigan.  This is a FAIL, with a capital F.  I can think of other 'F' words I'd like to use in relation to this cardigan too.  It's not that bad I suppose, but just so FFfffffrustrating that I spent SO LONG on it only to discover it doesn't really fit.  I am just leaving this one alone in it's bag so it can have a think about what it has done.

Presented to you inside a lovely pink foldable flower tote!

8. Aran Toggle Wrap.  This was supposed to be a gift for mum, for her birthday in SEPTEMBER LAST YEAR.  Oh I am a terrible daughter.  Butbutbut there's only so much green mock seed stitch a girl can take! 

Shamelessly presented in a Glassons shopping bag, which is slowly growing too small for this behemoth of a project!

9. Pink Bear.  I made this during some lessons I was giving to my crochet biatches.  Crochet biatch R chose the pattern, but I don't think any of us finished it!  Mine just looks weird, like a cow's udder, so I am not feeling very enthused to keep going.

Again, courtesy of a home-made grab bag!!

10. TARDIS. Oh the TARDIS.  This is one of the first things I ever started making when I taught myself to crochet.  But then I got distracted by all the pretty pattens.  A running joke in my family is someone asking me 'so how's the Tardis going' and then me punching them in the face.  Never fear, my Tardis is going to be epic when it's finished.  I will have a wooden box made for the inside, and the top will come off as a lid and I will put things in the box! 

TARDIS lives in a shoe box.  Sowwy TARDIS.

11. Summer Garden Granny Square afghan.  Another project started early on in my crochet career, when I was dazzled by brightly coloured grannies and had no notion of the agony that is weaving in ends.  I now have a deal with my mother, She gets this as a gift if she weaves in the ends!  Fair enough right?

Kept in a rather fetching The Age shopping bag, available annually with your copy of The Age (probably the Sunday edition)

So, all my WIPs in their respective project bags lie in wait in a tub in my lounge room, next to a much lovelier looking tub filled with recently acquired yarn that will one day become a ripple blanket.  If and only if I can make some headway with my current projects.  But then again, there's no crochet police so maybe I will just start it anyways...

Linking with WIP Wednesday at Tami's Amis.. go go go!

ETA:  Linking with Ambassador Crochet too - why not!!

WIP: concerning crochet and knitting

A couple of new things to show you today.

In crochet, I am making my third Dahlia Shawl (see one and two).  This time for the birthday one of my crochet biatches (who I will tell you about another time). 

Great pattern.  I've not completely memorised it, but the bulk of it is the same, with different bits in the middle and at the ends.  I've made myself a little cheat sheet chart so I can easily refer to where I am, so I don't need to think very much.  My first time using 2ply wool, so I am looking forward to seeing this block up.

Finally found a pattern that inspired me enough to crack open the Zauberball I acquired a while back.  I do love me a bit of garter.  Gartergartergarter.  I made some good progress with this hithhiker at first, but progress has slowed when the rows got longer and other projects were beckoning.  But it's pretty eh?

If you're an avid reader of my blog (and I'm sure you are) you might remember the great CITY WATCH AUDIO BOOK CHALLENGE!  The last time I checked in at Yarn Along I was onto book 3 of 8.  I've now read 7/8, and have decided to save number 8 a little while longer, seeing as I just read it a little while ago. 

Super short reviews:

• Feet of Clay  - Loved it the second time around.  I found it wasn't particularly memorable, but there were some good Vetinary and Vimes exchanges which made me laugh.
• Jingo - Very humourous (and poss topical atm) look at racism. Vimes gets his big promotion in Jingo - one of the things I love about Vimes is his utter disdain at being part of this aristocracy. 
• The Fifth Elephant - Another great story, I love it when Vimes gets caught up in politics.
• Night Watch - Quite excellent.  Vimes transported back in time to become mentor to a young version of himself.  Wonderful. Almost love this one as much as Guards Guards.  Almost.
• Thud! - So great, I especially loved Vimes' sentiment around being a father, and his evaluation of what's important.  I also read Where's My Cow.  Also love the "Gooseberry".

In between, for a little break, I read Going Postal and Making Money.  Both are really fantastic books, fast paced and very funny.  I'm becoming a bigger Vetinari fan too.  And Moist is super likeable.  I picked up the screen adaptation of Going Postal which I think is the best representation of Pratchett on screen yet.  Ankh Morpork was portrayed perfectly! 


via

Although I've already read all the Discworld books, I just cant get enough of Pratchett right now, so I'm going to re-read all of them by listening to all of the Pratchett audiobooks.  I've now started the Death books.  Mort is brilliant so far (duh), really love it!  Death going fly-fishing, fiction doesn't get better than that!
So, yeah,  WIPs at Tami's Amis and Yarn Along with Ginny!

FO! Gettin' knitty with it

Well well well... it has been a while.

Blog land has taken a back seat for me of late.  As have my little crafty crafts.  I've been lacking motivation a bit, which makes me sad.  Anyway, boohoo, lets move on!

I finally got around to weaving in the ends and blocking my Different Lines.  Mind you, I got the urge to do it on a 33c degree day!  Nice one Tanya, very clever. 

And how annoying is it to weave in ends on knitting?  I did a very poor job of it, hopefully it doesn't unravel.  Methinks I have to make learn russian joins. 

Unblocked measured 102cm (BO edge) x 42cm (short edge) x 127 cm (curvy edge)
Blocked it measures 124cm (BO edge) x 52cm (short edge) x 161cm (curvy edge)


L to R: on the blocker; arty close up shot, the shape after blocking.

I used 8ply, rather than the 4ply as called for in the pattern.  Next time I'd make this as per recommended.  It came out quite small, so I stretched it to within an inch of its life to get the measurements somewhere near those stated for the finished item in the pattern. 
It's certainly a weird shape, but I did a bit of experimenting and found a way to wear it that is comfortable and seems to sit ok.  The triangle sits at the front.


Still can't bring myself to show my face here.  Ugh.

And with the serious business out of the way, here is a gratutious picture of The Kitten.  In my house, about once a day you'll here me say 'Quick, she's being cute!  Where's the camera?'


Yes, I am gorgeous

Of course, linking to Tami's Amis.

FO! 3036

Wow.  It's over.  What a marathon.  Final bead count.... drum roll please.....
3036!!!

Seriously, I did a double take after I added it all up...

My very technical 'back of an envelope' method of calculating.

The remaining beads at the bottom.

 Stats: Ravelled here.

Yarn:  Circulo Yarns - Clea, which I won in a blog comp over at Punto Reves.  Thank you Natalia!!

Measurement:
Unblocked measured 143cm (~56") x 62cm (~24") (130cm (~51") x 52cm (~20") before the edging)

Wet blocked to ~178cm (70") x ~89cm (35") as instructed in the pattern.

I blocked this by soaking for about an hour first in warm water with a bit of detergent, then rinsing well in warm water, rolling up in a towel to absorb the extra water and finally stretching the hell out of it and pinning it to some cardboard covered with towels.

Many beads gave their lives in the blocking of this shawl.

Before blocking, scrooched up.

Last time I demonstrated my blocking prowess, a couple of eagle eyed commenters spied my ninja turtle towel I use for blocking, despite the fact that it was wrong side up.  Here it is in all its glory!  

The Kitten approves of this highly valuable retro artefact.

Other fun facts:
This took me 62 days to make, most of it done during my commute to and from work.  That's about 15m (~ 50') and about 50 beads a day!!  Row 7 of the border was probably the most painful, I added a beat to every sc, dc and tr. 

"Design Feature"  (read: mistake....)

I'm pretty annoyed at myself as I made a similar mistake that I did last time.  The spine was straight thist ime, but for some reason, when it came time to make the border, I didn't have the right amount of shells and 5-ch spaces.  The edging is made up of a large motif and a small motif, and because the number of pattern repeats wasn't right, I had to fudge it to get the motifs to work.  It's not noticeable, just annoying.  There was no way I was going to frog and re-do those beads because if it!

Anyways, I love my shawl, and I think I'm addicted to crocheting lace (just trying to settle on a pattern for the leftover yarn from the wedding shawl... leaning towards the South Bay Shawlette)

And now onto the pretty pictures!

Before and after!

Trying to casually look at the river while my sister takes photos, hoping no one from work also on their lunch break sees me and judges my impromptu photo shoot.

Thanks for stopping by.  Check out more FOs at Tami's Amis!