WIP :: Peacock Feathers Shawl ::

Peacock Feathers Shawl – Row 121 Finished

A – now kind of rare – round through my fiber related blog bookmarks turned up Kim from The Giving Flower had finished her Peacock Feathers Shawl just a few days ago. It turned out beautiful and is really a sight. Check it out! Seriously! We both loved the pattern so much and talked about having a knitalong. She was so kind to bring me the pattern and original yarn from a trip to the U.S. last Summer. Well, my baby being born last August got in between me and this wonderful shawl. I did cast on November 2007 but progress was slow. I just couldn’t get a grip on the pattern, kept loosing my place, couldn’t envision the whole pattern at all like I usually am able to with lace knitting. Maybe it had something to do with nursing the baby. Anyway, the shawl wandered deep down into the UFO pile. Seeing Kim’s wonderdul shawl this week got me motivated to dig it out again and try my luck a second time.

After just a couple of rows I got totally fed up with the huge charts. Again, they did not let me see the whole picture. I could not get a grip on the pattern. Incorporating the pattern into the growing triangular shape is a bit trickier on this one than on other patterns but it surely is not rocket science. So what was my problem?! I figured the problem to lie within the charts. They where precise, sure, very clear but also very large spanning the width of an entire A3 page. I felt like back in school when I couldn’t see the wood for the trees, meaning I could not learn details without having them in the big picture. Copying the charts and scaling them down to 71% seemed to resolve my problem. Yay! They actually made sense now. Knitting flows much easier now and I can actually see myself finishing this shawl sometime this year.

The Addi needles are a relatively sharp example of their breed for once but are still only barely workable for lace. I just ordered a pair of Addi Lace needles just to help me staying in the knitting mood. And to be on the safe side I threw in a pair of Harmony Wood Interchangeables, too. Can’t be too careful now, can’t we 😉

Pattern: Peacock Feathers Shawl by Dorothy Siemens of Fiddlesticks Knitting
Yarn: JaggerSpun Zephyr Wool-Silk 2/18 Lace Weight Yarn, color chanel
Needles: 80 cm Addi Turbo circulars 3.5 mm although I ordered a pair of Addi Lace Knitting Circs in the same size for their superior tips

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