WIP: A first

I was asked not too long ago to make a shawl for a friend's wedding. I said sure and she sent me 4 or 5 links to ones she liked. I picked one that I liked the most, bought the yarn (Madeline Tosh Sock in Smokey Orchid) and went about my business. The pattern was in German. I don't speak German. I got some help translating but seeing as patterns can be hard enough in your native language and it was my first time ever doing a shawl (and lace to this extent) I opted for a second pattern.

It was a very pretty pattern but was porrly written. There were a total of 7 stitches uncharted (I can handle edge stitches not charted but center ones, even if they move and shift position, should be) and the directions were somewhat vauge. It wasn't a beginner pattern and really only because of the lack of details. It would be easy to make it more user friendly. Oh well. THat's neither here nor there.

I started a 3rd pattern last night. After severeal, probably 6 or 7 in all honesty, I got the pattern and yarn working together in a way that made me happy. I plugged through the first chart repeat (37 rows) despite blurry eyes (though I shouldn't have) and am quite happy that I ended up with this pattern. It looks much better in person than photograph I think. I made 2 mistakes and am one stitch short BUT (and this is a huge but) it's all in the last 2 rows so it is easily fixable. When I noticed my whoops! my first thought was about using a lifeline. I think it's simple enough I won't need one but I might put one in just in case. Given the luck I've seemed to have so far it might be a good idea. You know, don't tempt the fates. Hopefully I can finish this in a speedy fashion. You gain 80ish stitches each repeat so the others will take me longer obviously but it's a nice, simple pattern that doesn't require a lot of thinking.