andrea's shawl

The Vital Statistics
Pattern: Andrea's Shawl by Kirsten Kapur of Through the Loops
Size: Large.
Yarn: Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool in shade 50 'Sandstone' (1.6 skeins) and 24 'Claret' (0.6 skeins).
Needles: 4.5mm.
Start to finish: 25 January to 10 February 2012. But then it took me a month to get around to blocking it ...
Stash/recycle content: Yes! I've had this in the cupboard for ages.

Comments: I have wanted to knit this for a long time, ever since it was released I think. What was holding me back was its triangular shape which I'm not so keen on. I ended up making modifications to achieve a shallower triangle:

- only worked the first three centred double decreases, and then worked ssk and k2tog either side of a central stitch on every third row
- worked ssk and k3tog every other row for the edge decreases (until I chickened out after 21 stripes and then worked regular edge decreases).

I did end up with a rather odd, diamond-shaped shawl but that blocked out well. As did all of those sweet little points on the lace edging - soooo many pins.

Verdict: It's big enough! This is a common complaint I noticed on ravelry about this shawl, that it's not large enough. So I can confirm, the largest size in dk-weight yarn is large enough. I really liked knitting with this yarn. The finished shawl has a lot of drape, kind of making the triangular shawl issue a non-issue. I even received a compliment from the hipster guy behind the counter at Molly Moon's, telling me that he really liked the 'doily edging' (and that he had crocheted the beanie that he was wearing).