Fragile Heart by BooKnits

This shawl is called Fragile Heart and is by BooKnits.  It looks much more complicated than it really is since its got quite an easy to memorise pattern and every wrong side row is purl which gives a nice rest between pattern rows. 

Its also got a lot of beads, though sadly the beads that I chose disappear into the yarn rather more than I had expected them to so they are only really visible when the light hits them fully.

I didn't quite follow the pattern.  Its supposed to have a much larger stocking stitch portion.  However, I wanted a very lacy shawl so I only knit until I had enough to form a nice base, then changed to the lace pattern.  How to work this out is explained in the pattern (I'm not so clever that I could work off pattern) so was easy enough to achieve. 

The yarn is pure cashmere laceweight from Colourmart.  It was one of their scrap sets, I had two part cones of grey, slightly differing shades, and two part cones of black.  The black went to a new home last year and this shawl didn't take the whole of the cone I was using.  The yarn comes oiled for manufacturing and you have to wash it, either before, or once knitted, using very hot water and washing up liquid.  I knit straight from the cone, having already got into a mess with a  previous cone when I tried to wind it into a ball.  I didn't do the whole weighing and measuring thing, but the wingspan must be about 1.5metres to judge from the board I blocked it on.  Its not as deep as I thought it would be though.  Here it is blocking this morning. 

The picot edging took three hours to do.  Its a very lovely edge and very simple to do (cast on three, cast off five) but there were a lot of stitches on by that point.

Mum made the same shawl and finished hers last week.  She blocked hers less aggressively, and didn't pull out points, choosing to have hers just a smooth crescent.  Which also looks lovely.  You can block it even more aggressively and have really, really long points, but cashmere is quite soft and I didn't want to snap it. 

Very pleased with this.  Its sooooo warm and soft around my neck.  I have it on now.  The bottom photo was taken with flash which is why its gone a funny colour.  The colour in the shot on Twiggy is closest to its real colour, a fabulous soft, very slightly marled grey.  The colour of a ring necked dove I suppose. 

I have another BooKnits pattern in my stash and I think I may have a go at that one in the next few months.  However, next on the list is the Monkey a Month for February. I'm rather late starting it and its a short month, so I'd better go and get that cast on now.