I decided to do this one for several reasons. First off, I looked through her other mystery shawls and they were gorgeous! Second, ... Well, there is no second. I love lace shawls and that's what she mainly does. I have enough projects in my queue and favorites list to choke a small horse, but since when will that stop a crafter from starting something new? Okay, it helped that it was a free pattern. I noticed that some of her other mysteries aren't free. Of course, the final projects all appear to be worth the $6 she charges to join up.
The stats on this shawl that we were given when it started was that it would be a half-hexagon, take around 1200 yards of lace weight yarn, use size 4 or 5 needles, and beads were optional. Not much to go on at the beginning, huh?
I elected to order Jaggerspun Zephyr yarn. It's a lace weight, 50% wool 50% silk yarn that's so soft and silky. It's the first time I've ever used it, so I wasn't sure what to expect. All I know is that the pictures on WEBS can't even do these yarns justice. Apparently, when they're photographed, the silk picks up the flash and lightens the color to some extent. I chose to use Claret, which appears almost pink on their website. In reality, it's a rich cranberry color. I love it!
I am using US4 circular needles with a 32" cable, which has me a little worried. We're adding 6 stitches every other row and it's getting big, fast. I might end up having to order needles with a longer cable. lol That's okay though. I love these large lace shawls and I'm sure I'd get plenty of use out of them.
Oh! I also decided to put beads in my knitting for the first time. Unfortunately, I live in an area where I can't get the correct size beads easily. The nearest bead shop is about an hour away and I don't know if it's even worth the drive. I have Evenstar on my list and it will take up to 3,000 beads. I might take the trip down one day and see what they have. For this mystery, I learned that size 11/0 seed beads do fit on lace weight yarn. Imagine that. Unfortunately, you can't use the easier method of using a crochet hook to put the beads on the stitches. I'm having to use nylon beading thread to pull it off. It takes more time, but I'm liking the look so far.
The second clue posted Saturday. I had a rather slow start as I seemed to have lost my knitting mojo this weekend. Starting Thursday night, I've had nothing but problems with anything I'm knitting. That continued up through Saturday evening. I made decent progress on it last night, so I'm hoping everything's okay again.
I'm hoping to run to Hobby Lobby today to look for thin beading wire. I think that might make it easier to get the beads on the stitches.
As I toodle along through this shawl, there are 5 clues, I will probably blog about my progress. Hopefully, that will clear up all of my notes in Ravelry. :-D I'm going to use the tag AMS2011. Look for a list of them over to the right. That way, you can read all posts relating directly to this shawl, even if I switch mid-project.
I will conclude this post with a picture of the finished shawl at the end of clue 1.
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