Just the Facts , Ma'am

And done...  Fact.  There are 2 stitches left on the needles and these are left to begin the pickup round.

Late in the game I realized I did one thing wrong.  It asks you to knit through the back loop of the increased stitch in each row and I forgot.  It's not a deal breaker, but I am a little miffed at myself.  I should have read more carefully.   It's consistent though and will be fine.

 

I am thinking about blocking this before I pick up the edge stitches.  I am just a little worried about making sure the tension on the edge stitches and pickup is even all around.  On the lovely green shawl I gave Olga's grandmother, the stitch count was right, but it blocked much larger one way than the other.  I want to do better on this one.  It helps that this one is a garter stitch center, but still.

The lace border is a variation on a feather and fan pattern.  I love how this works up.  It is pretty intuitive and once everything is set up, the lace is quickly memorised and moves along nicely.  It isn't something you can go to sleep and knit.  You have to pay attention that centers of peaks and valley remain the same, and that you don't miss yarn overs, but it's one of my favourite patterns to knit.

Plus, this is the part where the colours start to change.  The pattern goes from dark colours to light in the center, and I think I am going to stick with that.  I am debating making each colour section a few rows longer, but we shall see how much yarn is used up after a couple of rounds.

I met my yarn goal for the center.  I have about a third of the second ball of yarn left and that is about where I wanted to be.  This center colour is also used on the edging and  with this amount of yarn left over, if the shawl is not to the size I want, I have lots left to choose a different wider edging. There are lots of pretty Shetland type edgings in my library.

So onward.  I'm so looking forward to getting the lace under way.