Finished Aeolian shawl!

It is finished! I finished it, in fact, the very night before meeting up with my knitting buddies, for the first time in three months. My timing is impeccable.

Here's the full progression of the shawl:


Hand-dyed silk roving from Enchanted Knoll Farm, 2 ounces. I spun it up into laceweight singles on my drop spindle.

Out of the two ounces I got 637 yards of singles yarn. Not all of that yarn went into the shawl; some was too weak to work with and some went towards swatching.

I was very happy with the swatch. The silk behaved differently post-blocking - more drapey and crisp, and not as puffy. I loved it, so the project began flying off my needles.

I finished the first section of the shawl in one day flat. Even though it's a huge shawl, it was a relatively quick knit.

I spun up a little extra yarn after I found that I would be running out. I dyed a small length of tussah silk roving teal and spun it up over the course of about three days. I used every bit of that new yarn, and managed to complete my shawl.

Here it is blocking. It turned out approximately huge, way larger than I expected. It is roughly triangular with very long 'wings'. I find it easiest to wear with the ends tied behind my back, wearing it like a shrug.

I modified the pattern quite a bit from how it was written. Here is the full list of my modifications:

• I started the pattern according to the instructions for the shawlette, but worked 6 repeats of the Yucca chart.
  
• I then worked the Transition chart, Agave chart once, and the Final Agave chart.
  
• I did not use beads for most of the shawl. However, I did use size 8 Japanese seed beads for the Edge Setup Chart and the first row of the Edging Chart.
  
• I also continued to bead the center stitch for as long as the pattern directed.
  
• On row 34 of the Edging chart, I switched from my original yarn to the tussah silk.

The end result, on size 4 needles with lace/fingering weight yarn, turned out nearly the size of a full-sized shawl. I probably used between 650 and 700 yards of yarn. It took me a little over two months.
Here is the Ravelry project page.

~Joyuna