FO: Timey-Wimey shawl
Finished the Medusa Cascade, a little shoulder-shawl for days when the AC is too enthusiastic in its cooling duties. This is my first knitting with beads in, I used a 1.3mm crochet hook and some Earthfaire 6/0 seed beads. I tried to put them in randomly, which is difficult because asymmetry makes me twitch. I compromised by mirroring the two side triangles, going free-form in the middle one, then fell firmly off the asymmetry wagon at the ruffles.
Pattern: Medusa Cascade shawl by Tabitha's Heart (Ravelry link)
Yarn: Malabrigo Sock in Violeta Africana
Needles: US6 circular
Duration: 14th June to 28th June
Ravelry project: Timey-Wimey shawl
The yarn was horrible to wind, and I don't intend to buy it again, something I told Malabrigo via their contact form. They sent me a replacement skein, already wound, and a second skein labeled "Test Yarn" that's a lighter colour and a shade thicker. So, kudos for the customer service, thank you for the yarn, but I'm still not buying it again. Though I do plan to use the mysterious Test Yarn for something once I've measured the yardage.
I modified the pattern to have a 3st garter edging instead of 1st, and skipped the garter stitch stripes. You go from 250 stitches to 700 in a mere 16 rows to get those ruffles, which is hard going. I put in a bead at the top of each ruffle increase point, and two more beads in each ruffle further down. I like the absence of a triangle point on this shawl, and the use of KFB KFB instead of YO K1 YO for the main increase lines.
Casting off 703 stitches took forever. Got halfway through on Sunday, finished on Monday. The shawl is a lot smaller than I expected, and needed serious blocking. I have a surprising amount of yarn leftover.
The next project is a Little Leaves shawl (Ravelry link) using Miss Babs Yet yarn. You start at the bottom edge, so the cast-on has to be stretchy enough to accomodate blocking out the points. I used this crochet chain cast-on by Scarlet Zebra, and it takes a long time to do 331 stitches. It takes even longer to cast on 381 stitches, curse your absent-mindedness and rip out the extra fifty... I hope to be actually knitting this thing soon.