Very Late Cast On and Early Cast Off

Hello, and happy Easter all!  I hope everyone got something awesome from the 'Easter Bunny', be it yarn, or chocolate (I got both, so I'm quite content!)

Anyway,  I finally bothered to cast on for my Lace Band Bracelet.  It`s an entry into yet another of The Yarn Attic`s KALs.  But with a deadline of April 30th, I may have left this a little tighter then I would like.

That being said, I`m amazed at how far a skein of Malabrigo Sock goes!  I got my Evening Star Cowl, my Stella By Starlight Headband, and now the Lace Band Bracelet, out of it, with still more yarn left in the ball.   It`s actually really impressive.

What's even more impressive is how my Ethereal Shawl turned out.  With a cast off of 500 + stitches, it was rather daunting.

This is it before blocking:

And this is it after blocking (and later in the day). 

It didn't even really fit spread out on the couch after I'd blocked it.   I'm glad it's a symsetrical pattern, since I had to fold it in half to get it to fit on my blocking mats!  Note to self, I need more of the mats!

But I got it done with over two weeks to spare before the deadline.  I'm quite proud of myself for that!

More Very Long Rows

I've come to a conclusion about projects with 400 or more stitches on the needles.

On the one hand, they usually turn out awesome.

On the other hand, when my method of doing chores is 'knit one row, do a chore', it means that I get a lot less done around the house!

Such has been the case with my Ethereal Shawl, but it is still coming along.  I'm onto the last chart of the pattern; and while each row takes about half-an-hour, I can see that the result is going to be stunning.

The current picture doesn't do it justice at all.

For one thing, this picture is old and I've come a lot further.  For another, the lace is all scrunched up and won't show the pattern until it's blocked. 

I'm actually really excited about the blocking process.  I have my blocking mats, and I bought some rust-proof t-pins from EatSleepKnit a while ago, so I should be good for blocking my first lace-weight shawl. I actually don't want it to grow a lot, so I'm probably not going to stretch it out a lot.  

It'll be an adventure!

Laceweight is hard. . .

It is.  It's hard to work with, even if it is beautiful.

How do I know this?  Well, the Yarn Attic is running a KAL for the months of March and April (sign up and details are here, for the curious)

It's for shawl/shawlette knitting, and the only other requirement is that you use Malabrigo yarn.

So, I'm finally getting some use out of the Malabrigo Silkpaca I bought last year at the Toronto Knitter's Frolic!

Even if it is light-weight and very fiddly, it's still very pretty, and the texture is -wonderful-.

I'm hoping it will work up well in an Ethereal Shawl, and so far, it does quite well.