Some close ups of it whilst blocking, you can see the pattern more clearly here
There were a couple of places as I knitted where I made a small mistake and missed a yarn over so I had to fiddle around with the decreases and bodge it a little so it would still line up properly. I had stitch markers separating every lace repeat so it was easy to spot quickly when I had messed up a stitch
I made the picots slightly smaller than called for in the pattern (cast on 2, cast off 4 rather than cast on 3, cast off 5)
Now for some shots of it in action, I was feeling a bit camera shy so I got my pretty big girl to model it for
me instead :-)
She was swinging round some helium balloons we had left over from the birthday party. She's such a poser lol
I like how subtle the beads are. I was hoping for a sparkly silver colour but couldn't find any in the size I wanted but actually these work quite well instead. I can always get some silver ones next time...
As you can see I did garter stitch for the top of the shawl. I think the stockinette stitch would perhaps have looked nicer but the texture is interesting
I really love how the beads accentuate the design, I definitely want to knit more patterns by this designer (rav link here)
So all in all I'm really pleased with this. I've had a fear of lace for a while now and I'm glad I finally challenged myself and gave it a go. I'm looking forward to knitting something like this again :-) Huge thanks goes to Crafty Clare for once again virtually holding my hand and encouraging me. I can't wait to see her finished shawl too :-)
That is beautiful, the beading is great and the whole thing looks lovely.
ReplyDeletethank you, I'm really pleased with it :-)
DeleteIts gorgeous! Congrats on finishing such a beautiful project. I haven't attempted anything like this, too scared!
ReplyDeletethank you :-) I'm sure you'd have no problem, the pattern is pretty simple, you just have to concentrate while you're doing the YO's and decreases to make sure you have the right number of stitches. I put a stitch marker between each lace repeat to make it easier.
DeleteOh this is soooo pretty! I am in awe that you managed to accomplish this surrounded by small children :) Well done - I haven't tried beading.....yet!
ReplyDeletethank you! To be fair I only knitted when they napped or in the evenings when they were asleep, there was no way I could have knitted it with them around asking questions every five minutes or trying to eat the beads :-S
DeleteThe beading was really easy. I was a bit concerned when I started that I'd end up dropping stitches or something but I got the hang of it really quickly. I used a tiny crochet hook to pull the stitch through the centre of the bead and that seemed to work the best for me :-)
Wow! I love it sooo much, it's gorgeous and looks wonderful! Ez seems to love it too, you should probably make her one ;)
ReplyDelete