Gail

I cast on for Gail (aka Nightsongs) and free lace shawl pattern I found on Ravelry. I must say that it must be one of the most gorgeous patterns I have ever seen. It reminds me of peacock feathers, you know, the kind peacocks leave around the zoo and that are sold in zoo gift shops. I chose my Handmaiden Mini Maiden in the colorway Vintage because I love the colors in the skein and it reminds me of the shimmering colors you see in a peacock feather.

I am hosting the first Lace KAL in my knitting group. I wanted to help the people that think lace is hard to do. Admittedly, some of the patterns are hard; the many yarnovers are easy to lose and reading charts can be a challenge. I will also add that I had to start Gail 4 times yesterday...yes 4! I kept dropping the yarn overs (or thought I did) and the 3rd and 4th times I had to rip everything out, I still did not put in a lifeline (who knew I needed one so early??), and I was reading the wrong row on the doggone chart. Yeah, that'll mess you up...I am normally an anal counter, but like I mentioned, who knew I would run into problems so early in the game.

As you can imagine, I put in a lifeline right before my problem row on my 4th attempt. I had to focus on what I was doing around the middle of the chart, but then it got easier. I finished one full pattern and now ready to do the repeats. I am so grateful that Dorene Giordano (designer for Gail) allowed Jane Araujoto share the chart that she rewrote to make it easier to understand how the repeats were knit. While the first pattern is straightforward,it may have been frustrating to figure out how to knit the pattern repeats in the subsequent rows (looking at the reworked chart).

As with all of my projects, I am anxious for some time today to continue working on it. Probably won't be until tonight. Hopefully, my son will tak e a nap so I can work on it some more...I hope our new puppy takes naps...