I chose my pattern and bought some beads for the project which are Size 6 Toho round seed beads in shade 1076 Magenta lined grey, which basically means that the glass is a smokey grey as opposed to regular clear glass. I am using a size 3.25mm circular knitting needle and started the project on 22nd March 2011.
The design for this shawl has been re-written in modern knitting terms from a Victorian pattern and is what is known as "true lace", which means that every single row is complex lace stitches as opposed to one row of lace on the right side and one row purl. Having issues with working from the charts for this pattern, what with that and family life I finally managed to complete the first diamond border by mid June 2011. I didn't touch this shawl again until mid-September and it wasn't until I redrew the charts out myself, removing the silly and confusing colour coding that meant different things on right side and wrong side rows that was used on the originals did I start to make progress. I was adding beads individually over the stitches as I knit them in the centre of the diamonds and between the two rose leaves.
Oh my, this project was taking forever to actually complete as it was once again sat waiting for me to pick it up again for about 6 months. It was a combination of "I can't face it" mixed in with "I have all these other things to finish" and plenty of family life not giving me time or the peace and quiet to concentrate on this complicated design. When I finally finished the knitting on 6th March 2013, this project had taken just shy of 2 years from start to finish and it was quite out of shape. I used a total of 248 beads on this shawl, which gave it a little bit of much needed weight as it so light and floaty.
Of course, this shawl needed to be soaked and blocked to show it off to its full potential, with little peaks along the diamond border at each end..
It is absolutely beautiful and lovely drape and is so lightweight with just a hit of bling from the beads.
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