Thursday, July 14, 2011

Beaded Vernal Equinox shawl

Some knitting projects are addictive. Really, really addictive! This is the Vernal Equinox shawl, knit in light blue DROPS Lace and beaded with silver-lined 6/0 clear seed beads. It was supposed to be a just-in-case knitting project, that I could bring when I couldn't work on other things. Haha... Famous last words. Once I started it was difficult to put it down, and when I started beading it was simply impossible! "Just one more row before bed" is a common statement, but when the rows are close to 500 stitches the hours are quickly lost. ;)
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I've done a few triangular and rectangular shawls, but this is the first time doing a semi-circle. Not sure if this qualifies as a half-pi? It was a strain to block, believe me! Getting all the distances and angles right took a lot more work than simply stretching out straight edges. Lacking blocking wires, I strung a strong cotton crochet thread through the stitches along the diameter line and pulled it tight to make a straight line, and it worked really well! It took 280 pins to block out the scalloped edge - every last pin I had and I still had to resort to safety pins and sewing needles for the last points. Post-blocking radius is ca 92 cm.
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After a bit of internal debate, I decided to bead the shawl although it wasn't designed for beading. I was afraid the beads would weigh the delicate shawl down too much, but even though there are 320 beads I estimate their weight to be no more than 5 grams. In comparison, the total yarn weight is pretty exactly 100 grams. I wanted a subtle effect, and subtle is what I got! Almost too subtle maybe? I don't think it would have hurt to add even more. A girl loves her glitter, right?
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When looked at from the front, you can hardly see the beads. They are strategically placed along the two dominant vertical lines in the pattern in the three last clues.
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But when the light hits the beads just right, the whole thing sparkles! It's very tricky to capture on camera. I've yet to try out the effect in a party setting, so I don't know exactly how strong the effect will be in real life. We'll see!
Details are also on my Ravelry page.

2 comments:

  1. woowh that looks great I have only just started mine.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Truly a work of art it takes my breath away, beautiful work, this is the reason I want to learn to knit.

    ReplyDelete

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