Madli's Shawl

So, my latest major project has been "Madli's Shawl" from Nancy Bush's "Knitted Lace of Estonia". I have currently completed the bottom lace border and 19 of the 31 pattern repeats for the center. The center pattern consists of a traditional hagakiri with the addition of little nupps, making it appear almost like seaweed-- you know, the sprawling kind with little bubbles in them that would wash ashore back when I lived in south Florida. Anyway, each pattern repeat is only 12 rows...which is making it a little tedious to knit. I really prefer shawls where the stitch patterns sort of change and mutate into new stitch patterns, ala Elizabeth Freeman's "Aeolian Shawl". On the plus side is that I got the hang of the pattern very quickly, so now I really don't have to look at the chart while knitting.

I'm knitting it up using yarn from my stash. It's a lace weight yarn called "Alpaca Cloud" by Knit Picks, which I think has been since discontinued. The colour is a warm red called "Tango" with the occasional yellow or dark blue fiber sprinkled throughout the yarn. It's a shame that it's no longer sold, because so far it's been a pretty good knit. It's slightly more energized that I'd like it to be, so it does occasionally twist up on itself, but what the hey, the shawl's gonna get blocked once I'm done. Also, I haven't encountered any bumps or knots, which is great. Knots in yarn fill me with rage...even though I'm more than capable of just cutting out the knot and grafting the two ends back together. I only have two skeins of this particular colour, but I think 880 yarns should be more than enough to finish things up. I'm over halfway through knitting and I just grafted on the next ball of yarn. If I ever knit this pattern again, I think I'll do it in a nice yellowy green. Like seaweed :D

Here's a pic of it exactly at the halfway mark:


Can't wait 'till I'm done with this center pattern! Only 12 more repeats to go...if tomorrow's a slow day at work I may make some good headway on this baby.
-Cat