Last year I visited the Sheep Shop in Cambridge and came away with 2 skeins of the most gorgeous Lotus Tibetan Cloud 100% yak laceweight yarn. It’s sooo soft and dreamy I just couldn’t resist!
I knew right away that it wanted to be a pretty little shawl and thought I would have another go at designing a pattern. I decided to make a thin crescent shape shawl, one that increases 4 sts at the beginning and end of each right side row and 2 sts every wrong side row. After looking through some stitch pattern books I was drawn to a diamond design shape ‘Starlight Lace’ from the Barbara Walker – Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns book.
So armed with charting software, notebook and pen I started to put the pattern together and knit the shawl as I went along, writing everything down as I did it…well I say everything… I kind of wrote things down on various notebooks, on my phone, on scraps of paper and on the computer pattern too and I even remember on a couple of occasions thinking ‘I don’t need to write that down because I’ll remember that’. Of course you will Jem! What was I thinking….and to make matters worse I finished the shawl and then decided to wait another 6 months before attempting to write the pattern up
I picked it up again a couple of weeks ago, after searching high and low for a missing notebook and swatches…I couldn’t put it off any longer or it would never get done!
And it wasn’t that bad once I got back into it, the bits of scribble I had started to make sense and I was eventually able to piece the pattern back together. I did have to cast on quite a few swatches though mainly to keep track of the edge stitches as the stitch count varies on some rows.
But I think I cracked it. It’s now gone for tech editing so fingers crossed it’s all ok….
And here’s a little peek at the final design. Next step is to get some decent photo’s 🙂
I’m off to buy some more notebooks tomorrow 😉
Happy knitting! x
that happens.. Now I’m always with a tiny notebook that I carry in my current project bag…. Hope your patterns turns fine 🙂
Thank you. That’s a great idea, I’m definitely going to do that in future!
Ah well, lesson learned!! 🙂 It’s a beautiful shawl Jem!!
Thank you! Yep, from now on I will be writing EVERYTHING down 🙂
Beautiful shawl! Otherwise, I feel your pain on the not taking enough notes side 😉
Thank you! It was a very time consuming lesson to learn!
Ooooh, the finished shawl looks amazing – do I spy sparkly beads in there? Writing everything down seems like a pain at the time, but it’s worth it when you go back to repeat the project… and now you have an excuse to go notebook shopping too 😀
Yes you do spy sparkly beads 🙂 Yep I shopped and I have shiny new notebooks ready for lots of scribbles!
Yay! Maybe you’ll let us have a nosey through them in a future post 😉
Oh yes that’s a good idea, stationery is my second biggest weakness, after yarn of course!
That’s gorgeous!! I’m so glad you did the work to figure it all out.
Thank you, it was a pain but hopefully it was worth it 🙂
What a beautiful shawl …as for not writing EVERY little thing down ~ guilty as charged, what is worse when I do write it all down I write it in some sort of code I have no way of deciphering !!!!!!!
Thank you 🙂 Oh yes I do that too – I always think I’ll remember what it means but I rarely do!
It’s very pretty x
Thank you 🙂
Gorgeous work!
Thank you 🙂
So very pretty! Beautiful job 😃
Thank you 🙂
Beautiful work! If you need to take photographs it might be an idea to purchase some white foam board. the great thing about it is that you can pin knitting and fabric on the board so that you can photograph it, and the white background can be a neutral backdrop.
Thank you. That’s a great idea! It always seems like such a daunting task to take the final photo’s.
I’m also guilty for not taking notes.
And when I do, I mix English and Greek terminology which doesn’t make sense in the end. It’s chaotic!
Your shawl is so so beautiful! I could feel its softness!
Good luck writing down the pattern 🙂
Oh my goodness I can imagine that would get very confusing! Thank you, it really is super soft, I had never made anything in yak before but I’ll definitely be using it again 🙂
Oh boy do I identify with this. I’m so good at scribbling notes on scraps of paper and losing them or thinking I’ll remember what I did, when I obviously won’t. Yep, note books in every room are good 🙂 Your shawl is beautiful – glad you finally got the pattern written up 🙂
Thank you 🙂 I am now fully stocked up on notebooks with one in every project bag!
Good for you. Adding notebooks to my shopping list now!
I have nominated you for the ‘Bloggers Recognition Award’ x
That’s so lovely of you – thank you very much! 🙂
You are most welcome 🙂
I just picked up a swatch that I did several months ago. I had pretty complete notes EXCEPT I failed to write down what size needle I used! 😛
Oh no!….I feel your pain